All,
Part 4- Down to Earth Sustainablity.
A final word on "global warming" and the Kyoto Protocol before returning
to more "down to earth" issues. First what has happened in the
radification process was not only predictable it was good. Good in that
it further raised the level of awareness that all of Earth's life
systems are interconnected and dependent one to another. Good in that by
failing it keeps the trading of the most basic gases of life out of the
hands of
corrupt and corruptable people in both the public and private sectors.
If you think energy trading scandals, ala Enron, were beyond
comprehension at least electricity flowing along wires is to some degree
measurable. Just think what would happen if governments started trading
as a commodity the gases that many living things must expel just to
survive. Oh for a patent on the fart meter. To say nothing of the
fashion statement Calvin Klein could make with one.
In think philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), in Building,
Dwelling,Thinking, puts the sustainable issue an appropriate MoQ light
when he discusses what it means to "dwell".
"To dwell, to be set at peace, means to remain at peace within the free,
the preserve, the free sphere that safeguards each thing in its nature.
The fundamental character of dwelling is this sparing and preserving. It
pervades dwelling in its whole range. That range reveals itself to us as
soon as we reflect that human being consists in dwelling and , indeed,
dwelling in the sense of the stay of mortals on the earth."
"But 'on the earth' already means 'under the sky'. Both of these also
means 'remaining before the divinities' and include a 'belonging to
men's being with one another'. By a primal oneness the four-earth and
sky, divinities and mortals- belong together in one."
"Earth is the serving bearer, blossoming and fruiting, spreading out in
rock and water, rising up into plant and animal. When we say earth, we
are already thinking of the other three along with it, but we give no
thought to the simple oneness of the four."
Dwelling is freedom, "a freedom from....& a freedom to", rooted in the
sparing and preserving of "each thing in its nature." And the most
basic freedom is the freedom to value. As in B values precondition A.
Guess I've "dwelled" on this overlong.
3WD
Wilber while criticizing the excesses, such extending relativity to
nihilism, of Post-Modern philosophers still lauds their work as
essential to crafting a way to re-integrate splits introduced in Western
Philosopy. Pirsig while discussing the Romantic/Classic, Static/Dynamic,
Subject/Object splits hints at this when he says that just because a
split is a good way to separate things does not necessary make it a good
way to put them back together.
Matt the Enraged in another thread put it this way:
> Kant was the first great Professional Philosopher, finally living Plato's
> dream. He set the intellectual world into seperate spheres (Art, Science,
> and Morality) and set Philosophy as their adjudicator.
> Pirsig initially, in ZMM, dissolves the Kantian value spheres.
> That's where Quality comes in. But then, in Lila, Pirsig, overcome by "Cartesian
> Anxiety" (the inexplicable fear one experiences if your a foundationalist
> without a foundation), erects a new hierarchy that, once again, enthrones
> Philosophy. Science and Art and Morality are all connected now, but they
> still must be adjudicated between. And the Philosophical interpretation of
> the MoQ is what does the adjudication.
While I might quibble with Matt on the details of his conclusion it
clear that Pirsig seeks to "dissolve the Kantian value spheres" and find
a way re-integrate them into a workable whole.
While we all have found our own "little holes" in Pirsig's schema it
does not take away from the correct insight that this is a necessary
next step.
Where the hell am I?
Oh yeah, I'm trying to account for the environmental "blues" that
American or Western values are perpetrating on the Earth.
First there appears to be a the shift happening in base of philosophy
from the inorganic, physical, Descartes, Cartesian mechanical model up
to the next higher level. A biological model. Some of the qualities that
biological models introduce are cycles, interconnectedness, and a more
direct or accessible concept to the speed of change.
I'll try to evaluate the Part 3 question based on my direct experience
in the construction industry.
I have to lay a little ground work.
Most North American housing is unique in the world. A majority of it
from the first settlements was built from wood. Most homes built since
the start of the 20th century use variations and improvements of a
technique called "stick frame construction" developed in Chicago in the
late 1800's.
Some of it was already done in my two "hippie" posts ( Refer to: MD Re: Scientific
testing of the MOQ Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2002 13:53:10 -0500 & 17:38:28
-0500). As my young brothers and sisters, now known as boomers, moved
into college in the spring of 1963, the hippie movement was gathering momentum
growing from roots in the beat 50's. As they showed up on campus,
along with the love, peace, happiness songs of the "hippies" they were
listening and singing songs mourning the Kennedy assasinations,
civil rights marches and war protest anthems of countless folk singers.
Read any account of the 60's and it will usually start with something
like this:
"The 1960s were a unique time in American history, especially in terms
of student activism. The '60s presented a time of action that is yet
unparalleled. Today, there are still student activists raising their
voices to fight the ills of society and the world, but they are
dispersed over many causes". (Thirty years of activism at Kent State-frictionmag.org)
Along with music and pot, the hippie movement contributed a whole grab
bag of "back to the land" issues which loosely fit under the heading
"egalitarian" to this activist
student cohort of boomers. So that by the time I returned to college in
June of 1970 student activism in the late 60's had already had a
profound effect on both the manner and content of
> http://www.buyandhold.com/bh/en/education/history/2002/arab.html
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