What are these people about?

[Terrance]

Both Dixon and Mason are outraged by the massacre and yet they are no
strangers to massacres. They are not ignorant of history. They know the
facts. They have not forgotten the massacres. They know how England took
land and killed the inhabitants of the lands it took, that England
enslaved people. They discuss Jacobite history several times and Dixon
even wonders if Mason is bull-shitting when he tell his younger
assistant about his memories of the 45 and how in his youth his passions
ran. So why are they shocked? Are they? They are, after all, working for
the Royal Society. And although they don't want to admit it when they
must contemplate the evil of that society, they don't hesitate to
impress the locals with the fact that Kings pay them to look in their
fancy machines at the inverted firmament and divide the earth. They are
men of science. When, during a political debate, Dixon is called an
Astrologer, who but Mason defends the surveyor, insisting that Dixon is
an Astronomer? 



Why does RC send Dixon as Mason or why does Pynchon do it? 

It's a mixed up scene, hard to tell who went where when, but at one
point Dixon goes AS MASON. Same sort of thing happens to four critical
characters in VL. 


And why can't Jere get on his knees and pray at the massacre museum? Is
it really because people are watching him? This doesn't make any sense.
A Quaker who fears falling to his knees? This is the same Quaker who
will not hesitate to use violence to right a wrong? Or not even right a
wrong but only make  himself feel a bit better for lashing out.