Free 'n' easy/power

[Mike Weaver]

The limitation of being a digest reader is that I come in at the end of the
day,  and read all these rapid exchanges between all you constant on-liners
and feel a little behind the times, so here follows a compendious response.
And to cap it I filed it without posting,  ooops!  Better late...??

 Greg.Montalbano wrote of Frenesi:

.  She seemed to me to strongly represent the passiveness & will to
>surrender to power that so many of Pynchon's characters display, rather than
>the drive to amass power. 

I've assumed that the names in V-land were fairly direct pointers to the
characters:
Zoyd Wheeler cruising between the zone and the void
Frenesi = free and easy, i.e. ultimately irresponsible. 
Prairie Gates,  youth the passage to the wide open possiblities of the future.

What's the conventional take on this area?

Greg again:
>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.

It is a question every serious revolutionary could ask themselves:  Are you
prepared to be one of the bad guys?
Every successful revolution, at some point,  has to consolidate, and at that
point along with suppressing the vestiges of the previous regime, the
radicals who want to go further have to be defused.  It isn't possible to
generate a stable system ( a state) without being the villain in someone's
eyes.  Saying *the evil power* is a little too blanket for my taste.
Davemarc has called me (not with hostile intent) an apologist for Castro.
I'm by my personal idiosyncrasies pretty much of a libertarian commie but in
viewing what goes on I prefer to look at the possibilities on offer to those
with the ability to hold and wield political power,  rather than apply a
kind of  'if I were them' logic.  I'm not them, my skills, if any, are more
in the areas of political and philosophical perception,  not  the effective
use of political power.  I'm not going to righteously condemn the Castroites
for their stupidities, callousness and self serving decisions,  when the
vast majority of the Cuban population has benefitted from their rule and
there is no state in the world which has a comparable record of public
service internally and internationally.  
        I can remain pure and aloof by condemning any state which does not
meet my idealised criteria of an okay government or I can look at the world
as is and say I want to see more of that kind of governance and less of
that.  I look at the capitalist governments past and present and I see no
ability, let alone genuine desire, for self criticism and positive change,
only the accomodation necessary to keep the  profits flowing into the
pockets of the shareholders and their lackeys.  Then I look at the
development of socialism and see the opposite,  diverse debate,  a capacity
for self criticism and an ability to acknowledge past errors, horrors and
idiocies.  By socialism I don't mean just the non capitalist countries but
the whole global struggle to supercede capitalism.  The lessons learnt from
the failure of Leninism are an ingredient in the brew.

   Davemarc (in an off list mail) said:
> There's no end to the rationalizing one can undertake on
>behalf of the professed utopian strategy of a government, fascist,
>communist, capitalistic or otherwise.  All of these governments have deep
>flaws that must be identified and denounced. 
  
I'm not into utopian planning,  that's what I'd condemn. To say something
has a flaw implies there is a correct form which has not been achieved. That
is utterly unreal.  There is only the way things have happened, warts, boils
and all.  I'm into 'better'  not  'best',  a dominance of positive
development over decay and corruption, both sides being present in any
organism.  So I'll support Cuba as is, accept that the history (and present
state) of the revolution has been a mixture of laudable and deplorable,  and
give my energy to the tendencies which I feel are working for a better,
kinder and more creative system.
TTFN
Mike
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"...if you do not love words,  how will you love the communication?
  How will you, forgive me my tropes, communicate the love?" 
R. A. Lafferty
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