By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com
Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not. The same particle does not rise from the valley to the ridge. Its unity is only phenomenal. The persons who make up a nation today, next year die, and their experience dies with them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, paragraph 48.
Our current modes of rationality are not moving society forward into a better world. They are taking it further and further from that better world.
Robert M. Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, Chapter 10
A MAN’S JOURNEY
On April 24th, 2017, an author and philosopher by the name of Robert M. Pirsig passed from this world. Pirsig, born in 1928, was best known for his 1974 book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” which is a semi-autographical account of his personal philosophical exploration into the concept of “quality”.
At the age of 9, Pirsig’s IQ measured at 170 and, at the age of 15, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota to study biochemistry. After becoming disillusioned with the validity of the Scientific Method’s ability to genuinely reduce seemingly unlimited numbers of hypotheses, Pirsig’s attention diverted from his studies and, within two years, he was expelled for poor academic performance. At the age of 18, Pirsig joined the Army and developed an interest in Eastern culture and philosophy while stationed in South Korea. He eventually returned to college and obtained degrees in chemistry, philosophy, and journalism. He also studied Oriental philosophy at Benares Hindu University in India.
Continue reading “An Inquiry into Values: Men and the Art of Life-Cycle Governance”
