More on:The Eichmann of Ballona

[Christian Halpin]

Day late but wha the..

Steelhead writes:-
> Families in Compton may go without water or
>electricity because of this massive diversion of needed funds. The taxes of
>the poor are going up, so that Dreamworks can pay nothing at all. This
>means that people will have to work more hours to bring home less pay so
>that Stevie can have his studio on the cheap. That's political extortion
>and a kind of slavery, isn't it?

Why is this a surprise? Why pick on this? What about BPs involvement in funding
military guards for its plants in South America, just so we can use our cars
more? What about Shell in Uganda (hang on - it might be Nigeria?!) doing
basically the same thing. Families are being wiped out because of their
reluctance to allow them access to their own lands (its not even resistance
really). Welcome to capitalism.

It amazes me that people are outraged about this, and are simultaneously
spending time writing about it on Pynchon mailing lists. Thats pro-active,
innit: - having said that Steelhead appears to be much more committed to Doing
Something About It than most, so no disrespect. Of course its slavery, of course
its political.  Of course it begs the questions - 
 what can be done about it? Write to your Senator/ M.P...
 How to resist. Tricky one that. I'll get back to you...
Is it possible to have a 'good' form of capitalism? Probably not, but isnt it
great. Look at the trinckets we get; and look at the distance we have from pain
and death (on the whole).

The people who are doing something about it in general are already out there.
There not sitting in front of a computer, going Boo! Down with Baddies! The rest
of us, are tourists. This, this mailing list,  is our Baedecker to the
contemporary world. Isn't it great to watch.

Yours

Chris H.