VLVL2(4)(ll) summer CAMP

Terrance lycidas2 at earthlink.net
Mon Sep 8 06:40:45 CDT 2003



Dave Monroe wrote:
> 
> >From Richard E. Burket, "The State Law Enforcement
> Apparatus as America: Authority, Arbitrariness, and
> the 'Force of Law' in Vineland," Oklahoma City
> University Law Review, Vol. 24, No. 3 (1999), pp.
> 727-59 ...

 But the 'War on
> Drugs' has an added advantage over McCarthy because it
> is effectively depoliticized. There can be no
> organized resistance or appeals to law by 'druggies,'
> unlike leftists, because drugs, as inanimate objects,
> are an easy 'evil' to construct, not to mention
> lacking in constitutional protections, unlike
> political beliefs and speech. But Pynchon understands
> these two 'wars' to be fundamentally the same. The
> 'War on Drugs' evolves out of, and is an extension of,
> the crackdown on radicals in the 1960s (which in turn
> is an extension of similar practices in the 1930s)
> because it is an easier 'war' to wage; drug users are
> an easier and more pervasive 'Other' to create and
> demonize. It is easier to produce generalized
> sentiments of hostility toward the 'criminal' than the
> political dissident, and thus to produce affirmative
> sentiments toward law enforcement and consent for its
> escalating use of force to fight this 'war.'" (p. 747)


Good stuff. I like it. Excellent!  But  ...  again, the critic ignores a
good portion of the text to construct this argument. In doing so he
makes a major error. 

These wars are Fundamentally the same? Not quite. And Pynchon (the text)
doesn't see it that way at all. 

We need to look at the jobs being done by various arms of the
government, foreign and domestic. 

Thoreen does this to an extent (Moody). 

And how the "daisy chain"  is twisted.  



Since we are still reading the early episodes we should take a closer
look at Hector & Zoyd in the Pizza joint. 

Zoyd won't eat the pizza. 
But the Tibetan chants, now being used to keep Hector up on a table, are
also used to protect the US pot growing regions. How does that work? Of
does it? 
Why is Hector up on a table in the Pizza parlor? or  Why is the chanting
freaking his out?  Why use Tibetan chants against CAMP? 
Why is the NEVER goon squad  NATO camouflaged? 
Why is Hector asking Zoyd for help? 
Why won't Zoyd help his old friend out this time?



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