beatin them bozos......

[MalignD at aol.com]

<< I can only hope, and pray, not.........banal isn't in him....    >>

I don't know if I think it's a banal notion, but I think it's what P is 
saying.  As I said in response to someone else:

<<"Serve" has many definitions, one of which is "to be adequate," which I 
think, because of context, is the usage Pynchon intends.  It comes more clear 
if the sentence is slightly recast:

"It may yet turn out that racial differences are not as basic as questions of 
money and power, but have served in keeping [been adequate to keep] divided, 
and so relatively poor and powerless, those who deplore them most." >>