Fidel & Cuba

[Paul Mackin]

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From: 	Greg Montalbano[SMTP:Greg.Montalbano at ucop.edu]
All this discussion of noble revolutionaries & fascist, entrenched dictators
brings to mind an interesting bit of CONVENTIONAL WISDOM, as represented in
literature, movies, and the minds of the Great Unwashed (of which I am a
charter member & past chapter president):  the fact that the noblest, most
righteous revolutionaries, no matter how pure their motives, will, upon the
achievement of their goal, sooner or later BECOME the evil power they displaced.
>>>>>>>>>>>This sounds like the Iron Law of Oligarchy, enunciated by the German sociologist Robert Michels (1876-1936). He meant the alleged inevitable tendency of political parties and trade unions to become bureacratized, centralized, and conservative once in power. ( I guess stating the obvious (conventional wisdom) is what sociologists do.)

These two forces are generally represented in TRP's novels as WE (the
grunts, the feebs, the counterforce) and THEY (near-absolute power, in all
it's forms, striving constantly to maintain & enlarge itself).  What I find
interesting is that I cannot, for the life of me, think of any examples of
characters in any of his novels who have CHANGED STATE from counterforce to
power-establishment (mildly evocative of the medieval society, where if
you're born a peasant, you stay a peasant;  if you're born royalty, you
remain royalty).
Pynchon's characters DO go through changes (animate to inanimate comes to
mind);  but can anybody give me an example of a character who ascends to
power through "revolutionary" means & is or is not corrupted?
>>>>>Can't think of an example of either. Under the Iron Law the latter CAN'T happen, while the former outcome is too commonplace to write about. The goodness of revolution is in the struggle. Feel the excitement. Experience the paranoia. Die on your feet, not your knees, as that Pasionaria said so many years ago.

Oh dry up Paul.

			P.