LITHIEN and everyone interested in the evil debate,
It was a recent hurricane that made the trip down the Hudson all the
easier for Lila and the author. He uses the image of a hurricane as a
way to dipict the appearance of Dynamic Quality. Remember the bored
tourist who was left with the story of a lifetime? This seems to suggest
that Pirsig is making a case that destruction is a good, but notice how
both cases are anti-static. One is literal movement down the river in a
boat and the other is movement out of ordinary daily routines. There is
always a very great danger that someone like Hitler will cross the line
and decide for everybody what needs destroying.
As far as the evil that men do, its nearly always the result of sickness
and ignorance. I've spent alot of time trying to understand Hitler. I
was a History major and did my undergraduate thesis on him. It's always
more complicated than we'd like, but essential people are evil becuase
that can't or won't see the truth. Did you see my last post where "sin"
is redefined as a misunderstanding or misconception?
In Hitler's case, a man who claimed to be the very embodiment of the
German national spirit, maybe we could say he confused the social level
values for intellectual values. His misunderstanding resulted in the
deaths of millions. He has been posthumously psychoanalyzed every way
you can imagine, and then some. But the bottom line is, he was one sick
puppy. Maybe he was able to achieve power because the social values he
held were recognized by the German people on a very deep level. They
weren't evil values until Hitler tried to use them in the place where
the intellect belongs. Notice what the Third Riech is so infamous for.
Burning books, killing intellectuals and often people who simply looked
smart and wore glasse. The NAZIs were anti-communist and anti-semetic,
because, at least in part, commies and jews are seen as intellectuals.
(NAZI = not-see.) They glorified war and militarized civilain life. They
were big on family values and love of country. It's easy to see the
social values that he represented because they're still with us. Yikes!
Oddly enough, I see the current impeachment trial of Clinton in this
light. It seems to me that Watergate and Whitewater are very much alike.
In both cases you have paranoid, conservative Republicans abusing the
power of government to destroy their political enemies. Like Hilter,
American right wingers are anti-communist, anti-intellectual, anti-gay,
militaristic, family values, etc. They see Clinton as the embodiment of
the nation, but they think its an embodiment of America in the 60's,
which they hate with a passion. They way they talk about moral
leadership and the Presidency, you'd think they were expecting an
American Furer. You know, it the the other side of the "character"
issue. A murderous demagoge is on the other side of that coin.
It interesting that Jeffrey Dhamer said he ate his victims because, "I
wanted them to be a part of me." Think of that comment in the light of
Maggies post on the cognitive stages in our evolution and the primary
culture where the dead are eaten by friends and relatives as an act of
honor. Maybe Jeffrey's evil was the result of some kind of confusion of
an earlier form of consciousness with his normal modern existence. I
think the idea is that we all recapitulate the evoltion of consciouness
in our own cognitive development. Sometimes the natural unfolding of the
mind is interrupted by sickness or trauma and the person gets stuck
there. It seems a lot of mental illness includes regression or arrest in
this way.
Remember how Lila's break with sanity was demonstated by her regression
to a former time in her life? She clung to the doll like a life
preserver, believing it was her un-dead baby. She was denied the
possibility of expressing her social level values when her baby and
husband died. This doesn't fit the sin as misconception idea, but she
was kind of an ignoramous. Instead, the true evil in Lila, if one can
even say that about her, comes from failing to honor the social and
intellectual values within herself. It seems any case of evil in the
classic sense can be expressed in MOQ terms as a certain kind of a
violation of the five moral codes.
I only have some foggy ideas at this point, but I'd be happy to do a
little homework if anybody is interested. It doesn't have to be a whole
new thread. Anyway, I was strangely riveted to the scene in Lila where
the author conducts a ritual to put Lila's doll to rest, a sort of
ceremonial funeral for Lila's lost family. The ritual itself fascinates
me, although I'm not sure what it means.. But even more that is
something Pirsig said about the greats like Ghandi and MLK absorbed bad
karma, rather than pass it on to others. The ritual he conducted was
supposed to have unburdened Lila. He bore her sins? I think he was
hinting at the savior motif, although I don't recall any reference to
Christ. Of course, in ZAMM his son's name is Chistopher, which means
"Christ-bearer". I saw a review of ZAMM that was published in a
theological magazine and discussed the trinity! ( I presume the father,
son and holy ghost were the narrator, Chris and Phaedrus, respectively.)
Lithien? Anyone? Or is the whole topic too churchy and creepy?
David
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