Roger, all
Comments:
1) Agree
2) Of course I would like to see "mystical peyote experience" changed to "peyote experience" for
reasons previously stated, but understand some think this word is crucial to the MoQ. I just think
the historical baggage it carries makes it a poor subtitute for Dynamic Quality.
3) His initial peyote illumination was that Indians [where] " originators", [ of many ] American
values, especially the value of Freedom.
4) Agree
Since I blathered away on the Indian issue maybe I should clarify where I stand "on whether we
concur with Pirsig's allegation about American values being derived from Indians." I sometimes think
Pirsig should have reprinted he forward to ZaMM in Lila especially the part that says,
"although much has been changed for rhetorical purposes" He was surely aware that the view that
all Indians are fiercely independent, nomadic warriors of the Plains type, while dominant in both
America and the world, is a myth. But for the rhetorical purpose of making his point that Indians
contributed to the development of the American values the myth is more powerful and persuasive than
the convoluted pattern of events that actually went into their formation. So in the large, I agree
with Pirsig it just that it in not as simplistic as he presents it.
3WD
PS: Marco: You're points are well taken. As you see by this post and my suggestion for next month's
topic "freedom" (What is it? How does one get it? etc) if it is central to the MoQ, deserves a much
greater investigation.
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:03:20 BST