Platt, Elliot and y'all:
Platt said:
It's that little word "control" that conjures up the KGB and Gestapo.
Pirsig is on shaky ground using "control" in a political context. He
captures his own position better when he uses "guide" instead.
Elliot said:
in this sense, "Socialsm" as an "intellectually run social order". I
suspect the author of such a quote expects an intellectually run social
system to be some sort of philosopher king society, where good old
intellectual values are supported (and imposed) by a ruler or ruling class
(wether political, economic or just repected celebrities). This definition
of intellect entails that intellect is found in college professors and
possible philosopher kings, less in middle class suburbanites and not at all
in getto children and heroine junkies.
DMB says:
This automatic assumption that intellectually controlled societies are
repressive and authoritarian flies in the face of the other things Pirsig
says about intellectual values. Namely, that they begin with and are
protected by freedoms, rights, and democracy. He says quite explicitly that
war, exploitation and genocide are the antics of the social level giants.
I've tried to dispell this authoritarian misconception in at least two major
ways: the politcal ideology test that puts the libertarian/authoritarian
spectrum on a seperate axis. There its easy to see that, at the very least,
socialism isn't necessarily authoritarian, even if it can be so. The other
is to point out that what often actually happens is that revolutions fail
and the culture reverts back to the social level and so it remains an
intellectually guided society only nominally, which is to say, not at all.
But all of this is apparently invisible to you. This is understandable from
those who get their political views from TV, talk radio and other low-grade
fountains of propaganda, but we're doing metaphysics here. I don't really
see that in your posts.
Maybe I expect too much. I don't know. But it seems that too many posts on
this topic are far more defensive than they are responsive. I picture you
with a finger in each ear while you sing "la la la" at the top your lungs
out of fear that some idea might actully get through.
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