"...self-serving, self-perpetuating oligarchies."

[Michael Bailey]

 Mark Kohut wrote:
> Just a remark within the AtD framework--and vision of Pynchon?
>
> Is he largely 'against', so to speak, "complex systems" as used below?
> Does he not hold 'simple systems--European villages, small towns, community-sized groups--up as ideals?
>

hmm, I think that we see smaller systems painted attractively, and we
see their deconstruction as well -
the sacred circle of the Hereros devolving into racial suicide and
Schwarzkommando
the kids in Secret Integration losing their illusion and getting
co-opted into the grown-ups' viewpoint out of love
the cozy immortal feeling of the hippies in Vineland getting
noise-polluted by jets screaming over the commune, etc

I am starting to think of the Chums as an emerging model for
successful small group camaraderie,
after an evolutionary process and extensive stress-testing
--- they do have hierarchy, but it isn't their main thing...