[MD] [LS:9743] The social level.

[ARLO JAMES BENSINGER JR]

[JC]
It's pretty quiet on L.S.  I agree.  Quiet except for the ravings of Tim and Bo, and they are loony. Maybe I'm loony too.  Pirsig certainly went all loony, and I don't know how any person living in this loony world can help it but go loony on occasion.

[Arlo]
This is one point I will comment on. I have nothing but love for "loony". Every person I have the privilege of calling "friend" is eccentric or 'strange' in some way. "Normalcy" is nothing more than a coercive hammer of 'power' (in the Foucaultian meaning). My advocacy for educational reform is largely constructed on this opposition to cultural conformity. I have a "Weirdo. Mosher. Freak." poster on my wall. 

That said, John, you have to be able to differentiate between "loony" and "delusional psychotic". Van Gogh was 'loony', but that does not make every inmate of every asylum a highly-creative post-impressionist painter. If you confuse incoherence with genius, you'll simple support the delusional's confusion of criticism with genius. This, as DMB pointed out, sadly symptomatic of many who read Pirsig, mistake their own delusions as evidence that they, too, like Phaedrus are misunderstood geniuses. If I had a dime for every self-proclaimed saviour-savant sent to the MD to rescue Pirsig from the evil, damnable 'intellectuals', I'd have enough to buy... well at least a round of beers for me and my loony friends.

[JC]
Tim and Bo both,, are as enamored of ideas and philosophy as anybody on this list..maybe more.

[Arlo]
When I was doing undergraduate work in clinical psychology, I did some observations at the local psych ward. I remember there was a patient there who was absolutely enamored with art, and would paint the walls with his feces. If you need someone to paint your house, I can see if he's still available.

The point is, don't confuse someone enamored exclusively with his own shit as being a good artist.