Hettinger (hettingr@iglou.com)
Wed, 4 Mar 1998 20:09:35 +0100
clark wrote:
> <snip>
> You caught my attention with Nietszche's philosophy of the Will to Power.
> It sounds very similar to the epiphany I had the other night about the
> basis of Pirsig's philosophy being grounded in the force for greater
> information content that we observe everywhere around us in the universe
> including our minds (is that a curse word?).
Well, if you want confirmation of a different kind from a different source,
here's what I can offer. The little booklet I've just finished (which is the
most complete expression of Pirsig's work as I can make right now) is based on
creating habits of doing things (setting up social patterns) that involve a
*much* higher practice of information-gathering and evaluation than people use
normally. I'm just saying that I seem to have come to the same realization as
you did, from a different direction and application.
> I have not had time to go thru ZMM and Lila again with TFFGIC in mind but
> from what I have in my mind it all seems to fit. I like it because it
> relieves us from the necessity for appealing to mysticism, at least until
> we get back to where it all came from.
It seems to me that "mysticism" is a word that covers two different events.
One is the true Dynamic Quality experience, which I'm thinking, after hearing
from the Squad, is a set of linked dynamic shifts, with the evaluative, dynamic
event happening in all evolutionary levels at once, and then forming new
patterns.
The other event is a degenerative thing. It might be the situation in which a
social/intellectually-focused entity gets on the bandwagon of a biological
pattern. At first, because of the opposition of biological and social, the
effect is a centering, balancing effect, and would therefore be perceived as a
Dynamic event. The difference, I guess, is that the biological pattern is
embraced, and if the entity *remains* focused on that part of the experience,
on that force, the Quality balance is lost. (I think Pirsig's Nazis might be
an example of this. At the beginning, though, when the movement started, it
might very well have been a "mystical"-type experience, and certainly seems to
have been from the accounts of people who were involved at the time.)
Only if you have MoQ as an intellectual tool are these two experiences
differentiated.
> I know that this idea will set up a
> great howl in the squad but I have been uneasy about some of Pirsig's and
> the Squad's conclusions without being able to exactly put my finger on my
> objections.
If this is what you mean, I, too, have picked up hints that people who read
Pirsig (maybe especially some of those who don't stick around LS) are subject
to looking for the "feeling" of mysticism. (This is not often seen in the
regular LS contributors, though it's there. Mostly the squad stays pretty
intellectual. <grin>)
> If my re-reading of ZMM and Lila bolsters my ideas then I will
> have completely satisfied myself about the MOQ and will feel that I
> completely understand it. A quick glance back into ZMM (the genesis of
> Pirsig's thinking) makes me think that he may have had something like this
> in mind. Lila is a fine book but to my mind smacks a wee bit of having to
> get something ready for publication. ZMM was the book that he poured his
> heart into. Squad, I am ready for a blast. Ken Clark
Thanks for the thoughts.
Maggie
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