Sure sign of madness, wasRE: globalization & Pynchon?

[Richard Fiero]

Doug Millison wrote:
>But I don't agree that people are helpless in the face of Nature.  Nature
>may overwhelm us, but we can still choose what we try to do.

What Nature? Only the congruent world of the inanimate. If I 
read "Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite" correctly as a warning about 
nanotech and biotech, then we do have a problem headed our way.

>Are you arguing that Pynchon's novels show us humanity at the mercy of
>natural forces?  No agency at all?  I think that would be an eminently
>debatable proposition.
>
>Pokler has been duped and abused by the system, no doubt, and the limits of
>his personal responsibility for the dead and dying Dora slave laborers are
>difficult to establish -- still he exercises a choice.  He stops and makes a
>gesture of kindness and solidarity, and conveys an object real exchange
>value, when he commiserates with the dying woman and slips his gold wedding
>band on her finger. He chooses to do this. He could have chosen to leave in
>disgust without engaging anybody in any fashion.

Wha. . .  Pokler is no victim. Pokler is the victimizer who 
participates completely in his own duping.