Hi focs: Thanks to 3D, this post includes a bunch of quotes from different
places throughout Lila. They are presented here in the same order that they
appear in the book, which is pretty nice. The first one is this month's
focus.
> "That was the topic that would drive home this whole understanding of
> Indians. Of all the topics on Indians covered FREEDOM was more important.
> And as Phaedrus' studies got deeper and deeper he saw that it was to this
> conflict between European and Indian values, between FREEDOM and order,
> that his study should be directed."
Please notice how the next quote uses the same words, freedom and
order, to describe DQ and sQ instead of Indian and European values. I point
this out to underscore the idea that Pirsig is talking about more than just
two sets of social values. Its more than JUST political. I think the idea is
that the conflict between Indian and European social values concretely
demonstrate the MOQ's larger themes. It works on the scale of individuals
too. The themes of freedom and order are demonstrated on that scale in the
case of the Brujo in Zuni, in the question of Lila's quality and her sanity
and in Pirsig's peyote experience too. Anyway, when we talk about freedom
and order, we're talking about DQ and static patterns. Check it out...
> Although Dynamic quality, the Quality of FREEDOM, creates this world in
> which we live, these patterns of static quality, the quality of order,
> preserve out world. Neither static or Dynamic Quality can survive without
> the other." Lila-pp 121
>
Clearly, Pirsig's freedom does not imply the destruction of static
patterns, rather it is the creative force behind the whole world. So why
shouldn't we be able to see this principle at work in nations and in
persons? Everything, not just life, is in on the same migration toward
greater freedom. Its just that we are no exception. DQ operates on every
level. In terms of political liberty....
> "FREEDOMS that save the saviors also save the degenerates..." pg. 224
>
No kidding. Seems like everytime I hear someone invoke the first
amendment, the rights of free speech and all that, it is being used to
defend pornographers or the KKK. I think this is a case of saving the
degenerates with laws and rights that are really aimed at protecting the
saviors. The right of free speech is about providing "open space" for the
creation of new ideas, not screeching about lust or hate. Saviors are
creative and dynamic, while degenerates are just latching on to some static
values. The lower those values, the more degenerate they are. For some
reason it reminds of the difference between peyote and beer as its depicted
in Lila.
> "He remembered a metaphor that had occured to him of a bug that had been
> crawiling aound in some smelly sock all his life and now someone or
> something had turned the sock inside out. The terrain he covered, the
> details of his life,were all the same, but now somehow everything seem
> open and FREE and all the horrible confining smell of everything was
> gone." P320
>
The quotes above and below describe the shift in his personal
perspective. I think its a description of a Dynamic perspective, the
perspective of a savior and not a degenerate, if you will. All the details
of his life are the same, just as data is data, but those details are
re-arranged into a new structure. Dusenberry's info about the Indians didn't
change when Pirsig weaved the vast intellectual web, but he put it into a
completely new structure, one that he created. Same with the MOQ itself. The
facts of the world remain the same, but they are better understood in a new
structure.
> " Another metaphor that had occured to him was that he'd been on a
> tightrope all his life. Now he'd fallen off and found that instead of
> crashing he was flying, a strange new talent he never knew he had...... He
> was FREE of a static pattern of life he thought was unchangeable." P320
>
Freedom is fightening but at least it doesn't smell. Those two quote
tell us that there some of the brujo in him, but the next one admits that
there's some Lila in him too.
> "During Phaedrus' time of insanity when he wandered FREEly outside the
> limits of cultural reality,.." P339
>
Pirsig knows the difference between mystics and lunatic, however,
because he knows both from personal experience. He tripped at least once and
went insane at least once. Both left him free of static patterns, but oh
what a difference.
> "But they're not being contrary in a way that is just decadent. They're
> way to energetic and aggressive to be decadent. They're fight for some
> kind of Dynamic FREEDOM from the static patterns. But the Dynamic FREEDOM
> they're fighting for is a kand of morality too." P359
>
Well, there is one sure way to make the distinction. Degenerates are
lazy, saviors aren't. Lila was catotonic, but the brujo was an agressive
shaker-uper. As a mystic, Pirsig created new intellectual forms. As a
lunatic all the static intellectual patterns ran out of him like so much
urine. Lunatics are not exactly the same as degenerates, but you get the
idea. They're not really free so much as "out of order".
> "Both lunatics and mystics have FREED themselves from the conventional
> static intellectual patterns of the culture." P373
>
Again, there is a difference. Lunatics have shifted to private
static patterns of their own or they've lost them all together. A mystic is
free from conventional static patterns because they have become transparent.
He sees through them, so to speak. The details are the same because facts
are facts, but the stinky fear is gone.
> "Lila's problem wasn't that she was suffering from a lack of Dynamic
> FREEDOM. It's hard to see how she could possibly have any more FREEDOM.
> What she need now were some stable patterns to encase that FREEDOM." P386
>
There can be no freedom without order because static patterns ARE
preserved freedom. Static patterns of quality lock in the freedom DQ has
created. Its not right to say that freedom is order, but it certainly isn't
chaos either. Freedom and evolution are suppressed when we cling too tightly
to static patterns, when we destroy static patterns or when we abandon the
world for our own private reality. And that's a drag in the truest sense of
the word. The saints and saviors push us forward.
Mystic anger is like road-rage on the path of evolution. He's saying
"C'mon, if you can't move it along any faster, could you at least pull over
and get out of the way."
Beep beep.
------- End of forwarded message -------
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