Friedman V. Pynchon WAS Re: Internet & social control

[pynchonoid]

pynchonoid:
>Pynchon's got an impressive resume, too. How does
> Friedman's C.V. illustrate a greater grasp of world
> affairs than what we see in Pynchon's work?>

--- Malignd <malignd at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Read it. 

I've read it. I've read all of Pynchon's published
works, too.  Friedman has a great resume, agreed, but
he has written nothing that comes anywhere close to
illustrating the grasp of world affairs that Pynchon's
work illustrates.  

As a journalist, Friedman has distinguished himself
most recently by joining the pack of apologists for
Bush and his neocon polices, the war on Afghanistan,
Iraq, & etc., dutifully repeating the latest talking
points from the White House, RNC, etc.

Meanwhile, you've led this thread far from its topic,
Pynchon's observation from the Foreword to _1984,
having offered no convincing reason to disagree with
Pynchon's insight:

[...] What has steadily, insidiously improved since
then, of course, making humanist arguments almost
irrelevant, is the technology. We must not be too
distracted by the clunkiness of the means of
surveillance current in Winston Smith's era. In "our"
1984, after all, the integrated circuit chip was less
than a decade old, and almost embarrassingly primitive
next to the wonders of computer technology circa 2003,
most notably the internet, a development that promises
social control on a scale those quaint old
20th-century tyrants with their goofy moustaches could
only dream about. [...]
-Thomas Pynchon, Foreword to _1984_



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