LS The Showdown

From: Cntryforce@aol.com
Date: Fri Sep 03 1999 - 00:19:11 BST


"Seen in the light of the MOQ, what is it that is described in the last part
of ZMM (the Greeks)? Is it the emergence of SOM, the coming of age of the
intellectual level, or...?"

I am by no means a scholar on the subject of the MOQ, I haven't read either
ZMM or Lila enough times to consider myself one, but I do believe in Quality
and I will let Quality guide the writing of this post.

I believe the last part of ZMM contains one of the most historically
important showdowns in the history of American Literature, and indeed one of
the most historically important showdowns in the history of man. That may
sound absurdly exaggerated, but my Quality Intuition seems to tell me
otherwise. There may be a few people who agree with me, but it's really sad
that the majority of humans will probably not realize the significance of
this showdown for many years.

One of Pirsig's greatest gifts IMO is his ability to move around *huge*
chunks of preexisting thought patterns; patterns that are so enormous and
that we are so dependent on, that we usually don't even realize they exist.
Patterns of thought that we are generally blind to. Pirsig can shed light on
these patterns like no other. Quite often, he sheds his light on mountains of
thought so enormous and daunting, only a certified madman would attempt to
climb. But somebody has to climb these mountains, these towering man-made
mountains of oppressive patterns of thought created by the Ancient Greeks,
somebody has to climb to the top and see the view from above, an absolutely
wondrous and soul-soaring view that very few people are even aware exists.

The showdown at the end of ZMM was, in a way, a rematch. I remember the ad
campaign for the movie "Jurassic Park", which said something like, "An
Adventure 65 million years in the making." It was a slick tagline. I think if
there's ever a movie version of ZMM, the tagline could very well read: "An
Adventure thousands of years in the making" and that would be accurate. And
what an adventure it was! Am I the only person who felt an overwhelming sense
of awe when the implications of ZMM started to sink in? I know there's a lot
of philosophy majors out there, or as Pirsig refers to many of them
"Philosophologists", who couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. To
these people, I suggest reading ZMM a few more times, and with more of an
open mind. There are aspects of life that can't be learned in today's
classroom.
    Not only was ZMM an adventure thousands of years in the making, it was a
*rematch* thousands of years in the making...
    The last part of ZMM deals with Robert Pirsig's experience at the
University of Chicago. At that point in his life, he had become utterly
obsessed with his notions of Quality. In fact, he was *dangerously* obsessed.
I can personally relate to his descent into insanity; there he was, one man
against the world, a world unknowingly brainwashed by the Greeks. He was on
to something huge. He was on to the Mother of All Conspiracy Theories; The
Conspiracy Theory to END all conspiracy theories. And we all know what
society has taught us to think of conspiracy theories, and those who
unfortunate fools who dwell on them. We call those people crazy, and in the
end that was what they called Robert Pirsig. While Pirsig today claims that
Phaedrus is who he is again, that he triumphed over the cowardly narrator at
the end of ZMM, the narrator who in fact admits to "feigning 20th century
lunacy" just like everybody else, I tend to doubt that the Phaedrus he was at
the University of Chicago that fateful summer will ever *completely* return,
as no man can ever really be the same after such a traumatic experience. But
that's just my opinion.
    Getting back to the point, I said that the showdown at the end of ZMM was
a rematch thousands of years in the making, and here's why. The first fight,
thousands of years ago, was held in Ancient Greece. A monumental battle was
being fought there for the future mind of man, and the importance of this
battle and who won cannot be overstated enough. The Sophists were the
teachers of arete, which is commonly translated as virute but in fact means
"excellence". In other words, "Quality." To keep this post from running too
long, I will oversimplify things. Socrates and Plato were fighting for
"Truth" which they held above all else, including "Good" (Quality). They
fought with everything they had, and in the end, they won. Truth won, and
Good lost. It doesn't matter if something is Good if it's not True. The
method they used to destroy the dominance of Good was a cowardly, evil medium
know as Dialectic. The Sophists, the teachers of arete, had used Rhetoric to
teach Quality. Socrates and Plato used Dialectic to cut Rhetoric to pieces,
and as a result cut *Quality* to pieces. Truth won....overwhelming mountains
of knowledge arose, and overwhelming mountains of goodness crumbled with the
bones of the Sophists. Moutains of "truth" and "knowledge" so huge that they
nearly blocked from view the importance of "good." To this day, sadly, these
mountains of Truth are still blocking the view of Quality for far too many
souls.
    And sadly, to this day, Dialectic is still entrenced in far too many of
us. That little voice that shouts "It's not *true*! It's not *true*!" That
little voice that we still regard as the most important voice...the voice of
truth. Even when truth isn't any good.
    Pirsig has given us an important gift, the MOQ, to rebuild the mountains
of Good and Quality. Truth has its place, of course. To ignore Truth would
not be wise, but to think Truth reigns above all else is to be profoundly
wrong. To place Quality below Truth is to lead an empty life. While I haven't
been a part of this group very long, I seem to find more Dialectic posts than
Rhetoric. I may wrong, but I see too many Aristotlian posts, people trying to
give a name to everything, people trying to cut things apart with Dialectic.
Don't forget what Pirsig has to say about Dialectic. He has some very high
Quality reasons for saying it.
    Pirsig becomes a living Sophist at the end of VMM, and Good finally gets
a second shot at the title against Truth, after thousands of years. The arena
was the University of Chicago. No one expected Good to come out of
retirement, least of all the old shepherds of Truth at the University of
Chicago. But Good came back, and trashed Truth. I was literally cheering like
a spectator at a boxing match as I read the showdown between Pirsig and the
Professor at the end of ZMM, the showdown at the huge table with the crack
running down the middle (a wonderful, moving analogy of SOM).
    Of course, no one knew what a huge victory this was, because no one knew
what a huge villain Truth was, and Pirsig ended up committed. But some people
know. And some people are very thankful that Good came out of retirement. I
know I am.

MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org



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