"the ideals of democracy have been degraded to a censorious and inquisitorial CONTROL of thought, expression and action"

[Doug Millison]

Sing it, brother!

On Oct 17, 2009, at 10:35 AM, pynchon-l-digest wrote:

>  In America, Pynchon sees, and asks that
> his sophisticated reader to see, that the ideals of democracy have
> been degraded to a censorious and inquisitorial CONTROL of thought,
> expression and action; its freedoms have been subordinated to
> self-interest and the accumulation of wealth; and its individual
> determination has been leveled to the purveying wholesale of articles
> of common taste. This great sleep of freedom, this great American
> error, this transforming of Freedom to its contrary, constitutes the
> "Perfect Plot" of the tragedy of American History. This is Pynchon's
> Politics.  Ultimately, the advance of Humankind involves Freedom of
> the Spirit, for freedom in this sense is the prerequisite, as well as
> the end, of democratic institutions.