Pynchon's Luddite politics

[Eric D. Dixon]

Doug Millison wrote:
>It's precisely the distinction between government and corporations 
>that Pynchon erases in his writing

Exactly.  My point was that Luddism is not the only perspective that sees
this as a bad and dangerous phenomenon.  My own political views, which are
libertarian, also loathe the combination of government and corporations --
but in my case, it's not because the power of corporations corrupt
government, but because the power of government corrupts corporations.

>(I ignore his personal political 
>beliefs and speak only of the politics evident in his writings), in 
>my reading of his work.  Corporations, and the specific individuals 
>and forces that in turn control corporations, play governments like a 
>piano (to pick up a metaphor somebody else used on the P-list 
>recently), in GR, in M&D, in Vineland, throughout his writings. Ample 
>contemporary evidence in the real world confirms Pynchon's artistic 
>vision of corporations (and their directors and shareholders) bending 
>governments and people to their will, but that probably carries no 
>relevance for literary criticism of his works other than to 
>demonstrate the prescience of his art. The symbiosis between 
>corporations and governments is complete and mutually reciprocal, the 
>boundaries between them extremely porous, both in this world and in 
>the world of Pynchon's writing.  Which controls the other?  Follow 
>the money.
>
>I just don't see -- in Pynchon's world or in contemporary society -- 
>a "separation of economy and state"; the economy is the state.

Again, I already said I agree that this is the case.  Currently the economy
is synonymous with the state -- libertarianism seeks to separate them.  I
brought it up not as an example of what our society currently is, but what
one set of radical politics seeks for it to become.

>Thus 
>I find bizarre, both in the world and in the context of Pynchon's 
>writings, the statement that "neither governments nor corporations 
>have the power to manipulate or exploit citizens/consumers in ways 
>that can't be easily counteracted."

If libertarians managed someday to actually separate economy and state,
corporations wouldn't have the government's monopoly of force at their
disposal.  Similarly, government wouldn't have the personal financial
agendas and economic power of corporations at their disposal.  With the
power of each weakened, citizens/consumers would be better able to overcome
the hobbled machinations of either.

>"Easily counteracted" if prepared to take the survivalist wacko route 
>with a bag of Kruggerands, bomb shelter, and guns, I suppose.  Even 
>then, escape is far from complete.
>
>How do Pynchon's characters free themselves from the influences of 
>Them, which can reach all the way down to the deepest and most 
>intimate levels of personal, dream, subconscious experience?  They 
>don't.

No, they don't.  But Pynchon's apparent political views aren't the only
ones consistent with addressing these particular concerns.

Eric D. Dixon

"There is nothing less interesting than a fact
unilliminated by a theory." -- Steven E. Landsburg