Dear LS'ers
Our topic centres on what it means for a real life person to obtain both static and dynamic
quality at the same time.
Rocky experiences his life as a long list of social 'shoulds', leaving him with no time to reflect,
or explore new ideas or experiences, hence leaving him with little vitality, energy or
enthusiasm. What I am pondering is whether the MOQ really has anything to offer Rocky, in
his immediate low quality environment.
It's a metaphysics, right, and metaphysics is not therapy. Why should the MOQ help Rocky?
Perhaps, though, reading Pirsig will sharpen the contrast between the strongly static element
in Rocky's life, and the dynamism of the experience of quality that underlies all life (according
to Pirsig), and maybe if that contrast becomes acute enough Rocky will find the ways he
needs to change to experience more of that dynamism. Perhaps.
Put briefly, a metaphysics is about 'what', and what Rocky seems to be searching for is a
'how'. How to help his son NOT end up like him, and, implicitly, how to change his own life.
He wants a crowbar, a tool for change.
I get a sense that some of us have a rather messianic view of the MOQ. If only enough
people 'believe' the world will be a better place. I just don't accept that, and Rocky's dilemma
only sharpens my discomfort with this view.
David writes "What does it mean...?" It's a good question, and I voted for it. I had already
constructed a rather detailed argument about attention being unitary and discrimination being
binary, based on deep structures in the brain, and so on. Then along comes Rocky, and it all
seems rather trite to me. As an intellectual I have a strong drive to make sense of the world,
and "What does it mean?" fits comfortably with that. But David also speaks of "real life
people", and Rocky writes, prepared to share his reality, and sort of blows intellectualizing
out of the water for me.
I'm not sure that I am helping with this topic, so I'll stop here. I do know that this has been the
most difficult post to write, and I send it with reluctance, and with great respect.
John B
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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