From: Kirk Rankin (kriketkrankin@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Jun 08 2004 - 18:06:28 BST
Jaap said,
> P.S. Maybe money can be described as a mechanism
> employed by the social
> level to suppress some elements of the biological
> level ?
I think he is pretty much correct on this aspect of
money. To some extent money became a substitute for
our biological needs, instead of worrying about
getting food or shelter we harnessed that energy into
gaining money in a capitalist society, the ultimate
evolution of society. This is one of the major ways
in which sociey was able to use biological needs as a
tool to create cooperation and conformity to its
system. One must participate in the system and
maximize productivity in order to survive.
In this way it also represses some biological
desires which are undesirable to society. In ZMM
Pirsig says we should "do what you want." However, I
believe in Lila he partially retracts this statement
by saying that some of the talk of the sixties came
out of an attempt to free our biological repression,
which is immoral. Repression is necessary in society,
society will not allow for people to simply do what
they want. Money allows society a control over
people's biological wants by forcing them to be
consistent and productive, to conform to societal
values.
Having evolved to an intellectual level, many
people have felt that money was no longer necessary.
The socialist utopian ideal said people could do what
they want, that repression was not necessary for
society. Although it is hard to say if their society
is possible, this idea can really be seen as part of
its necessary attack on society. The failing of the
intellectual level is that it tries to free our
biological instincts even though the social level was
necessarily created to repress these biological
instincts. When these biological desires are released
at the expense of society, this is degenerative and
immoral.
The real question is, as an individual, why does
money still have such a grip on us, even when we
intellectually accept that money is unimportant. I
too have this desire to accumulate large amounts of
money, even though I understand that it will really
buy me nothing of high value, so I end up simply
hoarding.
In some ways money is part of society's mythos. In
ZMM Phaedrus encountered tremendous problems in moving
out of our intellectual mythos. The "good" of money
is something so deeply built into our societal
structures and ourselves that it takes incredible
individual Dynamic movement to escape from it, more
than just an intellectual understanding of its
worthlessness at a certain point.
To a large extent I think it also comes from the
fact that we are still members of society, we all have
some desire for social conformity or acceptance. In
Lila Rigel said, "Other people matter." As the
spokesman for the societal level, and by no
coincidence a wealthy lawyer, Rigel speaks of the
necessity of social relationships.
In Lila Phaedrus also speaks of his isolation and
loneliness at times, how he can't communicate with
Lila. This shows that even those who recognize
society as a lower level still long for meaningful
relationships. Whether our existing societal
structure helps to provide them is another question
entirely, but regardless our longing for contact with
others helps to reinforce the social good as our good,
as an intrinsic good. Thus we still have a deep
attatchement to money that is hard to shake.
Thanks,
Kirk
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