From: Ant McWatt (antmcwatt@hotmail.co.uk)
Date: Thu May 26 2005 - 17:26:22 BST
Platt,
I've read Keith Thompson’s article in full and also had a glance of his
website. And the question that springs to mind after reading all his
clichés about various liberal opinions and writers (such as Noam Chomsky and
Gore Vidal) is “And so what?”
The great thing about holding an MOQ perspective on political issues is that
you can examine them with a better framework than those held by either the
Left or the Right. As Pirsig indicated in chapter 17 of LILA, the MOQ
allows you to consider the intellectual quality of an opinion outside these
traditional pigeon holes. The problem that Thompson will find for himself
(unless he’s read LILA) is that he’ll have only the Right to move towards
and, as most people who understand the MOQ realise, the Right and its
retrogressive beliefs are of lower intellectual quality than “post-modern
liberalism” (as Thompson terms it). Moreover, I notice on Thompson’s
website that the title of one of his recent books is “Angels and Aliens”
which is not a good indication of his present intellectual credibility!
As far as the Iraqi election is concerned, I think Thompson (as with your
good self) needs to look more closely of how exactly the elections were run
in January (e.g. insufficient external monitoring to ensure that they were
genuinely free and democratic), the present situation on the ground in Iraq
(which is deteriorating) and the fundamental reason for why the
Anglo-American armed forces are there i.e. Iraq’s large oil reserves.
So, the question that springs to mind then is when are you leaving the
Right-wing strand of SOM political philosophy and joining the MOQ political
point of view?
You see I tend to get a bit sick every time I take a ride on that carousel
you operate backwards and it also makes the young children (such as Baby
Jesus) upset as their ponies (and donkeys) in real life don’t walk
backwards. I’ve better things to do than explain away the contrary
operation of “Holden’s Carousel of Faux Philosophy and Fairytales” to
mystified parents and the occasional angry visitor. For instance, I
received a written complaint from an obviously irate Mr Glendinning esq. of
Reading, Berkshire just yesterday and I have it on good word that he’s even
ripped up his pass for your carousel. This doesn’t bode well for the future
custom of the whole fair!
Yours sincerely,
Dr Phlogiston-McWatt.
Assistant Manager.
Professor Pirsig's Wild West Chautauqua & Travelling Fair.
For further opportunities for self-improvement, come and see the splendid
attractions
at www.anthonymcwatt.co.uk !
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