more re MDMD Dixon's nonviolence

[Doug Millison]

 Scott Badger
>...or, as I have stated before, if Dixon were to have stuck around to finish
>the job, he would have run the probable risk of being arrested (as advised
>by the slave immediately before he and Mason leave), if not a beating by the
>Sheriff's men or the crowd as well.

But Dixon does stick around long enough to continue to berate and threaten
the driver.

> You are assuming that "conscience"
>refers to a choice between violence and non-violence,

I think Dixon's conscience is telling him not to beat or kill the slave
driver. Pynchon leaves it ambiguous, but the sequence is there:  Dixon
wants to kill, he thinks What's a man of conscience to do, he lectures and
threatens and takes the whip when he finally gets around to leaving instead
of killing the man.

>I read it as referring
>to a choice between self-preservation and dealing with the slave-driver in
>the manner that Dixon feels he deserves.

That may be the case, but it seems more of a stretch to me to interpret it
that way than the way I have done, especially when Pynchon writes the scene
to show Dixon lingering even after he's warned to leave.