"fascistic disposition" paragraph

[Terrance]

s~Z wrote:
> 
> >>>Not really. The most specific context is Churchill's response to attacks
> on England and how one (Orwell, You, me) might categorize those
> reactions. Can they be called fascist? <<<
> 
> Some *could* call them that.


Yes, and one could call the failure of the public to see how some of
Churchill's  responses to those attacks were not far behind fascism,
Sloth. 

One could define Sloth as: 

"primarily political, a failure of public will allowing the introduction
of evil policies and the rise of evil regimes, the worldwide fascist
ascendancy of the 1920's and 30's being perhaps Sloth's finest hour,
though the Vietnam era and the Reagan-Bush years are not far behind." 


> 
> Obviously, for those of Us living in America the 9-11 application makes
> perfect sense.<<<
> 
> Yes, application does make perfect sense.

And not only 9-11, but the "not far behind fascist" response of our
government. 

And one could say that the public Sloth, the political failure of the
public, allowing the introduction of policies like those being
implemented after the Patriot Act in the USA, is not far behind the
public Sloth of the Vietnam era and the Reagan-Bush years. 

And one could go further, extrapolating from Pynchon's own essay on
Sloth and say that P wrote the Foreword to Orwell's Classic because, as
he says, "Fiction and nonfiction alike are full of characters who fail
to do what they should because of the effort involved" and he does not
want to be counted among those that fail. And he wrote and published the
Foreword to Orwell's _1984_ be cause he "recognize[d] our world. And
because "Occasions for choosing good present themselves in public
and             private for us every day, and we pass them by" but he
was not going to pass it by. 

I prefer not to, Sir. 
And I will die, hungry, in the shadows of your churches and cathedrals
of commerce, if the terrorist don't get me with their third swing of the
bomb, plane, rocket or whatever they swing in my direction next time.