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

[Mark Kohut]

See Henry Adams'( again) little read now: Degradation of the Democratic Ideal. 

--- On Sun, 10/18/09, Doug Millison <dougmillison at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Doug Millison <dougmillison at comcast.net>
> Subject: "the ideals of democracy have been degraded to a censorious and inquisitorial CONTROL of thought, expression and action"
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 1:58 PM
> 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.
> 
>