LS MOQ and Biotics.


clark (clark@netsites.net)
Thu, 18 Dec 1997 05:08:15 +0100


Dave and Lila Squad,
  P 157, Lila. "So what Phaedrus was saying was that not just life, but
everything, is an ethical activity. It is nothing else. When inorganic
patterns of reality create life the Metaphysics of Quality postulates that
they've done so because it's "better" and that this definition of
"betterness"--this beginning response to Dynamic Quality--is an elementary
unit of ethics upon which all right and wrong can be based."
  Nothing wrong with this. If we understood this and based our actions and
thinking on this statement we would, as you say, have a better and freer
world. If we look at the people of the Earth and the things that we now
consider to have Quality and Value, then I think, from the viewpoint of the
Earth, the Earth would be better off without us. An Earth based on economic
progress and unthinking population growth is, it seems to me, headed toward
a catastrophic collapse at some point in the future. There must be some
absolute limit to the number of people that the Earth can sustain in a
condition of reasonable health and comfort. I have seen estimates of that
figure but I can't remember where or what the figure was at the moment. It
seems I was a little hard on Pirsig. I couldn't remember, and still can't,
that he said anything about the sustainability of the biosphere, but he did
point the way even though most of us still haven't grasped the idea.
  I received the following in an E-mail from my daughter two or three
months ago. I don't know who wrote it or how long ago it was compiled, but
I think it may be of interest to the Squad.
     IF WE COULD SHRINK THE EARTH'S POPULATION TO A VILLAGE OF PRECISELY
100 PEOPLE. WITH ALL EXISTING HUMAN RATIOS REMAINING THE SAME, IT WOULD
LOOK LIKE THIS!
  There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere
(North and South) and 8 Africans.

  51 would be female, 49 would be male.

  70 would be non-white, 30 white.

  70 would be non-Christian, 30 Christian.

  50% of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people
and all 6 would be citizens of the United States.

  80 would live in substandard housing.

  70 would be unable to read.

  50 would suffer from malnutrition.

  1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth.

  Only 1 would have a college education.

  No one would own a computer.

  When one considers our world from such an incredibly compressed
perspective, the need for both tolerance and understanding becomes
glaringly apparent.

  If the Metaphysics of Quality can do anything to redress these
inequalities then that should be one of its prominent concerns. I consider
this to be the proper concern of all of us. Concern for the viability of
the Earth would be one of the important places to start. Pirsig has pointed
the way. To Gaia or not to Gaia is relatively unimportant.
  This seems to me to be a good thread for the Squad. Ken Clark

  

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