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[–]StillLessons[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I have commented several times in the past month or so to recommend we direct our attention away from the "horse race". This post falls within this realm. It is a common human sensation and hope that we can "throw the bums out!" and make the world better. What Pirsig captures here is the fact that "the bums" actually do represent us - at the very least in that we tolerate them. As long as we believe that some "system" is possible that will be better if only we get the "right people" into it, we are already lost. No system will ever represent a person. Ever. We must culturally recognize that each individual is responsible for his/her own life. Nobody will - or can, even did they want to - ever help us with that responsibility. It is for each of us to bear, and each of us alone. This is the reality of the universe. Unfortunately, far too many still believe someone else - some "system" - will magically and benevolently make our lives easier. Giving this power to any system is precisely the same power these systems then turn around and use against us in the tyrannical fashion we are seeing moving toward a climax again, as they do cyclically throughout history. The best periods in history are those when whatever "system" is in place is at an absolute low in influence and power to affect the lives of individuals. Traditionally this comes after a past super-system (empires) goes super-nova and melts down entirely into complete destruction and chaos. Then the cycle begins again.

[–]thefirststone 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

His thinking is as rigid as those he decries. There are villains, those lives aren't meaningless, and there are other structures to slot yourself into. If I recall correctly, he's extremely flippant about churches, for example. But, like motorcycle maintenance, he learned to treat relationships like a tedious, fussy, dangerous affair punctuated by picnics. Sad!

I read most of that book, and I was not impressed. At some point the references to his wife added up to, if he was true to his own feelings, that he was being extremely unkind to her, and he decided not to feel any remorse at all. I had to put it down and give it away at that point, because the increasingly-long sections of the driving with the son seemed like an attempt to force the reader to judge his actions with the wife, but maybe that was an editor's sleight of hand, instead.

I get the point of the quote: that the system itself must be changed, because it's internally-supported, and those supporting ideas have to change in ourselves. But the empire does not require my consent. It has always existed, and it always will. You just don't have to take part.