From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 03 2005 - 16:02:33 BST
Hi Bo,
> > [Arlo]
> > I'm confused. Describing oneself as a Muslim is a focus on the social,
> > but describing oneself as an American is a focus on the intellectual?
> > How is focusing on national identity *not* social?
[Bo]
> Religion (of the Semitic kind I must stress) is the chief social
> denominator (according to Pirsig) while USA or any other
> Western country is chiefly intellect-orientated. Again nothing to
> do with intelligence.
[Arlo]
The folks who call the US of A a "christian nation" may disagree with you. So
would the politicians and justicies who demand that the Occidental "10
Commandments" undergird our judicial system and should be represented at
courthouses. And likely so would the people who cry heresy whenever anyone
challenges the "one nation under God" catch-phrase.
Even Platt has argued that Judeo-Christian "morals" be upheld by law in this
country... of course, to be fair, only a very selective few (e.g., to ban gays
from marrying, but not to feed the hungry or shelter the homeless).
Let me ask you this, according to Pirsig, much (if not most) of our "freedoms"
come from Indian culture, not European culture. Would you say then that someone
who self-describes as a Sioux, or Lenape, would also be "intellect-oriented"?
And, I'm also curious where you would place Japan and Mexico on your scale. Do
they align with what you call "the West"?
Arlo
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Aug 03 2005 - 16:34:42 BST