Pynchon's Beliefs

[DudiousMax at aol.com]

Dudes,
           I was reading in VL and in it, as you all know, TRP uses the word 
fascism a lot.  People are calling each other "fascist" for high crimes, like 
the murder of Weed Atman, and misdemeanors, like telling the kids to brush 
their teeth.  So I started looking up terms like fascism, totalitarianism, 
liberalism, (secular) humanism, and The Enlightenment.  I offer them here.  
We know TRP occasionally has thoughts about these things (more overtly in 
VL), but they certainly are floating around in GR.  And, I sometimes cobbled 
together items found in some definitions with others.  The results are:
                Fascism: Political philosophy wherein all power resides in 
the party and its leader.  Individual is very subordinate to the state that 
can intrude at any level on the individual.  The Leader is infallible, as are 
State and Volk (race).  Typically, the mechanics of the government are 
centralized and autocratic, headed by the dictator.  Socially, the people are 
coerced into extreme social and economic regimentization.  Any opposition is 
met with severe and violent suppression.  Benito Musolini wrote (1925), that 
Fascism could take any economic form (capitalist or Marxist), could have any 
form of legislature (uni or bi-camaral), with or without a Supreme Court 
(which would be rubber stamp).  The governmenet could even be judged a 
bourgeois democracy, and still be fascism, according to him.  It seems to me 
the key concept is "totalitarianism."             
                Totalitarianism: that political philosophy that holds the 
absolute state authority is super ordinate to everything; religion, family, 
and most particularly, the individual, in all aspects of life.  In seeing 
that this goal is achieved, the state is empowered to use extreme coercive 
measures (censorship, terrorism, prison, and state murder).
                As opposed to these philosophies of governance there is 
Liberalism, and Secular Humanism.
                Liberalism: that political philosophy that believes in the 
essential goodness of man, progress, the autonomy of the individual, and the 
protection of political and civil liberties.
                Secular Humanism: that political philosophy that sees the 
individual of primary value to the state.  It holds the secular 
characteristics of the Renaissance as primary, stressing individual's dignity 
and worth, and capacity for self-realization through reason.  It is 
characterized by an anti-authoritarian approach to institutions (believing 
they exist to serve the individuals), and it rejects supernaturalism 
(religion), hence its secular nature.
                The Enlightenment: the eighteenth century philosophy based on 
rationalism and the "brotherhood of man," that rejected the social, 
religious, and political ideas of the time.  It was reflected most vividly in 
the French Revolution.
                Well that's about it.  Thought I'd toss that into the soup.
                                            Max