From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Mon Mar 28 2005 - 14:32:54 BST
Erin:
> Platt, I don't know what makes a city dynamic, just like I don't know
> exactly what makes a place degenerate. It seems complex so when you point
> to capitalism and say see how dynamic it makes this country and then point
> to rock-n-roll to say see how degenerate it makes this country but where
> would rock-n-roll be without capitalism it gets so confusing. In one way
> you are saying America is an improvement and in the other you are saying
> America is degenerate.
Good question. If you look again at Chapter 17 of Lila you'll find the
answer. There Pirsig points out that capitalism is a Dynamic institution
in that it allows people maximum freedom to produce and exchange goods and
services by "preventing static economic patterns for setting in and
stagnating economic growth." But with the Dynamic freedom of capitalism
comes the freedom to be bad as well as good. That's the downside that
those who of us who hold freedom to be the highest good are perfectly
willing to accept. But that doesn't mean we should remain silent about
what is bad or stand idly by while the forces that threaten liberty and
the social fabric expand. (See Chap. 24). To the extent that rock
sanctions unbridled sex and incites the overthrow of existing social
protections of freedom (such as capitalism), it is a form of degeneracy.
Pirsig says that "A society that tolerates all forms of degeneracy
degenerates" but.rightly cautions that "The mechanisms by which a balanced
society grows and does not degenerate are difficult, if not impossible, to
define." It may well be that America and indeed the rest of world has not
matured sufficiently to be free while avoiding being enslaved by biology's
siren call. From today's postmodern intellectuals who preach relativism
we're not getting any help. When everything is tolerated, indifference to
degeneration is the inevitable result. What happens then is described by
Pirsig in Chap. 24:
"It was like watching the spider waiting while the wasp gets ready to
attack it. The spider can leave any time to save its life but it doesn't
do so. It just waits there, paralyzed by some internal pattern of
responses that make it unable to recognize its own danger. The wasp plants
its eggs in the spiders body and the spider lives on while the wasp larvae
slowly eat it and destroy it."
Platt
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