From: gav (gav_gc@yahoo.com.au)
Date: Tue Jun 22 2004 - 10:18:07 BST
hey mark,
my essay 'student life and other contradictions' was
inspired by a situationist pamphlet released in the
late 60s called 'a warning to students of all ages'.
raoul vaneigem's 'the revolution of everyday life' and
guy debord's 'the society of the spectacle' are the
most famous situationist books and both are free
online. vaneigem, the ardent, poetic yang to debord's
more detached and analytic yin.
the bureau of public secrets (online) and ken knabb's
stuff in general is also very good and gives an
american perspective on the sits and related stuff.
a further mark of the value of the sits is that no-one
in the philosophy staff at the uni of queensland
(where i studied) really understood them. none of them
understood pirsig either of course.
bertolucci flick is called 'the dreamers' and is about
a young american in paris in may 68. it is showing
here in brisbane at an arthouse cinema.
re: superiority, perceived or otherwise, of humanity
over other life: cats kill for fun too.
pirsig does extol vegetarianism over meat eating, but
there is a lack of a feeling of kinship, of compassion
towards other life in his work, which is a cornerstone
of therevada buddhism, for instance.
questions of relative superiority/inferioity twixt
animal and plant life are probably moot anyway. as
they say it takes two to tango, that is if we are
superior then the rest of gaia's panoply must
acknowledge their concomitant inferiority, which is
absurd. i don't believe that (wild) animals or plants
would see us as their masters, but....
....i talked with a friend of a friend who 'went bush'
near byron bay (very popular place with tourists -
very beautiful and socially evolved; the city council
has a green majority) in new south wales, eschewing
regular contact with other people, save his girlfriend
who ran off with him. they lived frugally in a shack,
growing most of their own stuff, many miles from the
nearest town (bit waldenish i guess). he said that
after a while animals of all varieties would play
within view of he and his girlfriend as if they found
security in the presence of humans. he said that
animals that would usually be enemies 'behaved' when
under the benevolent dominion of peaceful humans.
echoes of zarathustra....
evidence perhaps of man's potential as *custodian* of
nature, rather than its enemy. 'custodian' not really
implying superiority nor inferiority; closer to a
fatherly love.
--- Mark Steven Heyman
<markheyman@infoproconsulting.com> wrote: > Hi gav,
>
> Thanks for the tip about the sits. I'f like to find
> out more about
> them. Any leads, other than the Bertolucci flick?
>
> Also, your comment about humans thinking they are
> superior to all
> other living beings (in the COSMOTHEISM thread) is
> well taken. I
> think my one main disagreement with Pirsig is that
> he seems to insist
> that other sentients are lower in the moral
> hierarchy. What saves
> the MOQ for me here is that we aren't justified in
> destroying
> "lesser" beings, unless they are a genuine threat.
> That's on the
> right track, at least.
>
> I think it can be argued that, in some respects, we
> aren't even
> morally equal to other animals. For example, we are
> the only animals
> I know of that will kill for fun, for entertainment,
> or just to put a
> few more bucks in the old bank account.
>
> Anyway, I talked about this, a little, in last
> month's thread
> entitled "Morality of Deadly Force."
>
> Best,
> Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
> --
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>
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