Pathocracy /kieselguhr, jeshimon,

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

           Glenn Scheper:
           I once surfed preterite to see which way it would fall, 
           but cannot now remember: Are the preterite those 
           that are passed by in the temporal blessing? Or are 
           they those showing an excess of temporal blessing who
           have been passed by in the spiritual and eternal/post-
           mortal blessing?

In Pynchon's world('s), the Preterite are those who are passed over, mainly by 
the Elect. Though Pynchon's expressions of the concept of Preterite---literally: 
adj. Grammar: Denoting the verb tense that expresses a past or completed 
action or condition, but also applied as a concept by Calvinists of those who 
have not been positively "touched" by G-d as the Elect---usually touch on the 
Religious source of the term, it often points out how the concept infests itself 
into Politics and Public life, offering up such social feats as Slavery, 
Genocide and other cost-cutting measures employed by the plutocratic 
"Elect", such as Scarsdale Vibe. Those who are not chosen are then 
"Left Behind", and Sloth or indifference usually is their fate, drifting 
purposelessly from one "episode" to the next. "Disinheritance" also comes to 
mind. This has always been a personal matter for our author. The following, 
in an attentive reading, yields up biographical specifics:

           We can only infer from the reaction of the stock market to the 
           failure of Pynchon & Co., the use of the Irving Trust Co. as 
           receiver, that the firm was a Morgan satrap. The Pynchons 
           appear to have used to advantage all of their family 
           associations with the J.P. Morgan group, with whom they had 
           shared common interests since the founding of the colonies 
           in 1630. Yet as the J. P. Morgan influence ebbed, the Morgan 
           associates suffered as well. Once again the Pynchon clan had 
           thrown its lot in with the loyalists and lost.

http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/inferno.htm