Vineland

[Richard Fiero]

Time, place and the head of government don't seem to matter. In 
my opinion, Pynchon describes the operative mechanism at work 
whether it is WWII, Early American hijinx or Nixon/Reagan who 
both propelled their careers through red-baiting and cosy 
deals. I'll thankfully leave out the very long lists of public 
agencies these last two subverted and perverted for their own 
ends. GR occurs during a world war which is more structured 
than a War on Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos, a War on Drugs or a War on 
Terror and offers far fewer degrees of freedom for 
grandstanding and personal aggrandizement. To not notice 
Pynchon's astute observations and characterizations in these 
Wars is to deny much of Pynchon, in my opinion.
On this list, there is far less animosity between right-wing 
anarchists and left-wing anarchists than there could be. Oddly, 
each of these anarchist wings does much of the other's work 
while each views the other as an agent of a repressive State. 
For instance, Ruby Ridge and Waco are issues for few people to 
the left of Jesse Helms. In Ruby Ridge, Federal agents wished 
to turn Weaver into a snitch which he declined. His kid was 
shot in the back and killed, his infant-holding wife was killed 
by a Fed sniper, his friend shot in the back. We are told that 
Weaver is a "white-supremicist" so we don't care about the 
facts. We're told that the bunch in Waco were kinky, 
child-abusing racists although half the people defending 
themselves in that church were not white. Note that the initial 
Waco raid was largely a public relations stunt to justify and 
expand an ATF budget where ATF brought lots of weapons and 
video tape. It wasn't until lies about drug distribution 
brought in military and FBI gunslingers to incinerate these 
sub-humans that the job was done and any exonerating evidence 
could be destroyed along with the supposedly abused children.
I find it interesting that Doug's thread about Reagan's 
anti-union (and FBI) activities actually appears in Vineland 
but is just now becoming public knowledge.
For those that think the 60's were more hazy heat than light, 
we've a wonderful opportunity to do it right this time and 
avoid being hollowed out from within by CIA/FBI/DIA.