1984 Foreword "fascistic disposition"

[s~Z]

> > Now, those of fascistic disposition - or merely
> > those among us who remain all too ready to justify any
> > government action, whether right or wrong - will
> > immediately point out that this is prewar thinking,
> > and that the moment enemy bombs begin to fall on one's
> > homeland, altering the landscape and producing
> > casualties among friends and neighbors, all this sort
> > of thing, really, becomes irrelevant, if not indeed
> > subversive. With the homeland in danger, strong
> > leadership and effective measures become of the
> > essence, and if you want to call that fascism, very
> > well, call it whatever you please, no one is likely to
> > be listening, unless it's for the air raids to be over
> > and the all clear to sound.  But the unseemliness of
> > an argument - let alone a prophecy - in the heat of some
> > later emergency does not necessarily make it wrong.
> > One could certainly argue that Churchill's war cabinet
> > had behaved no differently than a fascist regime,
> > censoring news, controlling wages and prices,
> > restricting travel, subordinating civil liberties to
> > self-defined wartime necessity. (ix-x)

I started doing what Paul did, writing my own paraphrase, point by point, of
what Pynchon is asserting here. I thought I had it, that it was Pynchon
arguing against the fascist/pro-gov position, then the Churchill thing
undermined my whole reading. I don't think a clear meaning can be discerned
from this paragraph. I have the same experience trying to decipher it that I
had trying to decipher the passages we found confusing in the Slow Learner
intro. If you already think you know what Pynchon believes about a topic and
read the passages casually it is just so obvious what he is saying. But, if
you put your bias on the backburner and read the logic of the writing, there
ain't none.