SLSL Intro "Racial Differences"

[Dave Monroe]

Well, again, as always, the caveat, "content does not
necessarily reflect the views of management."  Goad is
one of those guys I'd really rather NOT agree with,
but, in outline, at least, he does seem to make some
valid points.  Why he makes them is one thing, but how
they've been taken up, that's another, and that in
particular is what concerns me here ...  

Pynchon, I think, is relatively straightforward, or
straightfoirwardly relative, at any rate, there. 
Divide and conquer.  However it can be done.  The
positive factor in Goad's manifesto is, perhaps, that
presumably opposed groups like "rednecks" and
"minorities" might well have common interests,
interests which might well unite them, save for
potentially (if not practically) irrelevant
distinctions (e.g., race ["race"]), prejudices, which
prevent either group, and, esp. most precariously, the
more (relatively) enfranchised one ("rednecks"), from
recognizing and acting on those commonalities, for the
common good ...  

Net result: eight years of Ronald Reagan, four more of
GH Bush, and so forth.  "Rednecks," "blue-collar
workers," et al., suffer badly, but not nearly as
badly as various minorities, so ... so they keep
voting to cut off their noses to spite someone else's
(darker) face nonetheless.  Of course, that's me
making a perhaps generous reading of a book I haven't
actually read (which is why I posted blurbs previously
postred by others here), but ... 

But I was hoping my James Bond and/or Archie Bunker
stuff would generate further discussion as well.  In
the meantime, I'll look for an alternative to Goad. 
Just wanted to get a quick one in, is all, and it came
to mind, so ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> I guess it depends on the interpretation you apply
> to "racial differences", and who you then define
> as "those who deplore them most". The Goad stuff
> isn't necessarily apt at all (and seems to have more
> affinity with what Ayn Rand has to say about race 
> and "racism"). But I admit that the train of
> thought in Pynchon's sentence is quite difficult to
> untangle, if not downright, and worrisomely,
> ambiguous.

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos
http://launch.yahoo.com/u2