GRGR(20) 1904 revisited

[Doug Millison]

Thanks for a thoughtful post, but I wonder. Is it the cocaine in and of
itself that causes the violence, or do we observe that the substance acts
in a matrix of poverty, exploitation, crime, violence, police brutality.
The monetary value of the drug -- manipulated by "scarcity,"  CIA and other
governmental intervention -- drives a lot of the violence, although a
certain amount of the increase in violence certainly comes from the release
of inhibitions by the substance itself, as we see with alcohol (remember
Celine's rant about red wine and wife beating on weekend afternoons in
Journee au bout de la nuit).  Ease some of the social problems, take the
CIA and violent drug peddlers out of the equation -- cocaine as a
socially-approved stimulant wouldn't look so evil, or would it? I don't
doubt that cocaine is highly addictive, of course -- but then so are many
of the socially approved drugs (alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, a range of
psychoactive prescription drugs, TV, etc.). Is Pynchon really so wrong in
this case?

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