Colonization of time

[Scott Badger]

Monte Davis wrote:
> Commerce is indeed a powerful system, but a voluntary one. To forget that
> is to trivialize not only the plight of real slaves, past and present, but
> our own ability -- however rarely exercised -- to choose how far to buy
> into it.

I did not mean to trivialize the plight and suffering of those who fit
our most common usage of the term "slavery" and I apologize to any who
read my post in this way.  Probably, "slavery" is poor choice for what I
was trying to get at.  It is the choice, though, of Pynchon and I do
think that his meaning extends beyond the practice of slavery in the
1700's.

Andrew Dinn responds to Monte:

> How voluntary is it for those with no capital. I have been reading a
> very interesting book called `Economics of the environment and natural
> resources'....

Yeah, what he said...

I'll only add an observation made by a French mountain guide, over a
beer in Chamonix.  Though American society is synonymous with freedom
throughout the world, the edifice of laws and regulations that govern
our day to day actions exceeds every other society.  Granted, few others
enjoy the freedom of speech, religion and politics that we do, but when
it comes to driving down the street, walking your dog, etc. we are
guided at every turn.  This has little to do with Pynchon's Commerce
through Control, but I think it does illustrate how thin our vaulted
freedom may be.

Scott Badger