Hi Focs and 3WD:
William Blake said, "Men forget that all deities reside within the human
breast."
Dave, prepare to be scolded. Without saying nasty things about your mother,
I'm going to insist that you're wrong about Pirsig's Giant. In fact, I think
you're twisting the MOQ in order to accomodate your personal political
views, but that's psychoanalysis not philosophy, so I won't go there.
Your giant just isn't Pirsig's. Check it out... from page 218 and 219 of
Lila, the chapter where he talks about the Giant. Directly following the
story about his sell-out frat brothers...
"Phaedrus had always believed science is a search for truth. A real
scientist is not supposed to sell out that goal to corporations who are
searching for mere profit. Or, if he had to sell out in order to live that
was nothing to be happy about. These fraternity brothers of his acted like
they never heard of science as truth. Phaedurs had suddenly seen a tentacle
of the Giant reaching out and he was the only one who could see it."
"That was why he had run that day... He was on his way to India, done with
this corporate psuedo-science, still pursuing truth, knowing that to find it
he would have to get free of the Giant first."
And even in Lila, as he depicts himself in New York City as an aged, famous
and wealthy writer he says, "SO PHAEDRUS HAD BEEN RIGHT IN RUNNING THEN"
"This was the brain center of that corporate network, surrounded by other
networks; financial networks, information networks, electronic transmission
networks. That's what all those tiny bodies were doing up there suspended so
many hundreds of feet up in the sky. Participating int the Giant. So
Phaedrus had been right in running then. But now - funny thought - ..."
Sure, he finally comes back to appreciate what the Giant is all about and in
the end he learns how to deal with the social level Giant without being
devoured by it. But its just not the same as saying he was wrong to have
ever run and free himself. He says just the opposite. He had been right in
running then. And of course he's not JUST telling us his own story is he?
He's telling us about how we should relate to the Giant, or at least it
suggests that its likely to be a struggle for each of us in a similar way.
And please notice how many times Pirsig mentions money and corporations in
describing the Giant? Lots and lots. I think the similarities with
Buckminster Fuller are astonishing. Check it out...
He somewhat humorously described the force that runs the world as a
"GRUNCH", that is a bunch of giants. It was also a kind of acronymn standing
for; the Gross Universe Cash Heist. Bucky had balls, eh? He and Pirsig not
only used the same image, they both paint the same sorts of intitutions as
being the giant. Fuller identified them as "the corporately inter-locked
owners of a vast invisible empire, including airwaves and satellites, and
visible empires,,, including cluster cities around the world, factories and
research laboratories." He also included "the financial credit system, with
the means of initiating any world-magnitude mas-production and distribution
ventures." Please notice the similarities to the quotes from Lila. And to
Horse's list of particulars.
Those greedy and heartless forces that oppress have been imagined as Giant
ever since Gulliver's Travels. At least. It doesn't much matter what kind of
social patterns are your favorites, they are still social patterns.
Let le put it this way. I'll try to speak your language, sort of. There a
place where I can stand to get this very cool visual perspective. I'd
photograph it and work it a bit if it weren't for all the telephone poles
and wires and such. Those usgly distracting lines are part of the story too,
I suppose, but they'd ruin a photo. Anyway, from this spot a person can see
the evolution and progression of our society. The spot lets you see a tall
chuch steeple reaching up past the height of the surrounding trees. Behind
that, taller and larger than the steeple is the gold dome of the State
captiol building. And behind that, taller and larger still, is the nameless
non-descript skyscraper which serves as a bank building in the heart of the
city's financial district. From the spot, a person can see all three
structures at once and they are aligned so that the upward thrust of each
adds to an overall push that is .. well .. I was kind of moved. But the idea
I'm trying to get you to SEE is that social patterns evolve and change. The
church was once the most powerful thing going, the the government was the
most powerful thing going, and now it is money and such. And none of those
things ever really lost power so much as that there power was dwarfed in
comparison to a new and larger power. The steeple and the dome never shrank,
but they got smaller when the skyscraper went up.
But my main point is just that 3WD is way wrong about the Giant.
Beware the Giant.
DMB
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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