drugs in Vineland---and drug laws

[Mark Kohut]

Love that phrase--combo-word--pharmaco-libertarianism too.

BUT the State wins.......Weed Atman dies. 
Thanatoids and flawed citizens do not help much.Citizen passivity helps enable the State to win? 

 
is the pervasiveness of drugs in Vineland the major reason the Mafia---American and Japanese---is part of the plot?
A---and, TRP links the Justice Department with "organized crime"........

the kind of link a libertarian who thought drugs should be decriminalized might make, no? 



----- Original Message ----
From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org; Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 3:21:00 PM
Subject: Re: drugs in Vineland---and drug laws




"In VL the use of drugs serves as a symbol of the power to the individual to resist the power of the state ..."


Excellent Paul - that's one of the fundamental perceptions of "Vineland" - a species of pharmaco-libertarianism.

--- On Tue, 3/31/09, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: drugs in Vineland---and drug laws
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 3:35 PM
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 2:18 PM
> Subject: Re: drugs in Vineland---and drug laws
> 
> 
> > Drug use is a form of social protest in a society
> where it's outlawed. But it's an easy, ineffectual, and
> basically self-serving substitute for real protest (strikes,
> demonstrations, civil disobedience, riots, organizing,
> alternative media, education campaigns, etc).
> > 
> > Laura
> 
> In real life a drugged population most likely would be a
> more docile one.
> 
> In VL the use of drugs serves as a symbol of the power to
> the individual to resist the power of the state and Pynchon
> plays with the idea in a way that makes a kind of crazy
> sense.
> 
> The flaw in logic gives the figure a double purpose.
> 
> The oppressors are properly held in contempt while the
> victims are shown to be a little foolish.
> 
> P
> 
> 
> 
> However this is a
> 
> 
> Pynchon's power as a writer does not drive from his logic.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> >> Sent: Mar 31, 2009 2:02 PM
> >> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >> Subject: Re: drugs in Vineland---and drug laws
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Premise: Crackdown on pot smokers in Vineland is
> major embodiment of The State interfering in what
> >> should be our simple right to ingest what we want.
> New fascist Prohibition State, so to speak.
> >> 
> >> Yet, just as we should be and are able to drink
> alcoholic beverages in Vineland
> >> America, being too much drunk would not be part of
> "the good life", whatever that is, right?
> >> 
> >> OBA, like all the best writers, has a perspective
> on 'the good life" in Vineland.
> >> 
> >> Contentious perspective for discussion: drug use,
> despite our freedom to, is "part of the problem" in
> Vineland????
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> -
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> > 
> > 
> 
>