JAAP:
I just discovered Thoreau. ( You may think me to
> be a barbarian for not knowing him, but he's no part of the dutch
> school-program. I came along his name by the film "death poets society".)
I
> think he could be a source for better understanding ""the american way""
and
> thus freedom and indian values.
RICK:
Amazing you should mention this. I've been working on a post concerning
Pirsig and Thoreau in the last couple of days in connection with freedom and
order and Bo's SOLAQI idea. I wasn't quite ready yet, but what the heck...
I guess I'll just say it here.
The first thing I think worth mentioning isn't so much an idea as an
historical tidbit. The last project that
Thoreau worked on (which was never completed because of death) was about
American Indians. According to several biographies of him that I own, he
took HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of pages of notes on Indians and was planning
something big. What was it??? Unfortunately, much like the number of licks
it takes to get
to the tootsie roll center of a tootisie pop... the world may never know.
I pulled my copy of Thoreau's essay on "Civil Disobedience" from the shelf
and skimmed through it. I was at once struck by this quote:
"Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in
government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing
and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really FREE (my
emphasis) and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the
individual as a higher and independent power, from which its own power and
authority are derived, and treats him accordingly."
This quote threw me for a while because of two mixed elements. First, I see
the idea that the right to govern comes from the governed. No real problems
there. But, the individual as a higher and independent power... than
Society??? This seemed wrong. According to the MoQ, individuals are not a
"higher and independent power..". The only SQ higher than Society is
Intellect. I reread the quote substituting in some MoQ terms, and I got
this:
"Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in
government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing
and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really FREE and
enlightened state until [Society] comes to recognize the [Intellect] as a
higher and independent power, from which its own power and authority are
derived, and treats [the individual] accordingly."
That's more like it... it jives with Pirsig's notion of Intellect containing
such "truths" as freedom of the press and habeas corpus...etc. I looked
through the rest of Thoreau's essay to see if this substitution was really
what he meant. I first found this and stuck in some MoQ terms:
"It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the [Social] law, so much as
for the [Intellectual] right. The only obligation which I have an
[Intellectual] right to assume is to do at anytime what I think is
[Intellectually] right."
I would now guess Thoreau is talking about gaining FREEDOM from Society
through an Intellectual ORDER. I suspected he saw the moral chain in one
way or another. I was sure when I found this---MoQ terms added:
"Those who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream
no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible [Society] and Constitution
[Intellect], and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who
behold where it comes trickling in this lake or that pool, gird up their
loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountainhead
[DQ]."
The man was definitely on to something.
SOLAQI (mainly for Bo):
After reading the Thoreau I thought (for whatever reason) about Bo's SOLAQI.
I thought about Pirsig's deliberate assertion that the Intellectual gives us
freedom of the press and freedom of speech.... Can these things really be
determined using the tool of S/O logic? What deduction or induction
guarantees us freedom of speech? Or the right to a fair trial? Or freedom
of the press? I can't find these things in SOL anywhere. These concepts are
neither generalizations of experience, nor are they formal necessities. So
I put it to Bo--- How does one get freedom of the press from SOL???
all is Good,
Rick
------- End of forwarded message -------
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