Baffling

[Michael Bailey]

...like theory, perhaps, OWS has never been a big part of my
life...I'm content to admire it from afar...

playing tiddly winks with manhole covers, my cousin Jim used to say,
apropos of what - for him - i still do not know, but for me it always
has meant slinging outsize plans and intentions around...
there are, like, people already occupying wall street who put in a lot
of time and effort and so forth to get there and have, y'know, deals
in force that like keep them there -- it's their life's work...
and there is a whole bunch of existing moral and philosophical theory
that - it would seem to me - has already invented, refined, sold,
fitted to conveyances, been sued for design errors and faulty
manufacture, responded, paid penalties, re-designed, repaired, etc the
wheels that much modern theory is trying to invent...

but it does seem like the ability to string a lot of big words
together has much to do with both theory and the occupation of wall
street
- and this i applaud -- as a kid, i always hoped to one day be able to
do that myself, type thing - "the ineluctable modality of the
audible", so forth...

so if i were about 30% more cogent i'd couch the following in much
more resounding and smart phrases:

-- if there is something like a wall street implicit in our economy -
and many people, some of them <gasp> smarter and most of them <sigh>
richer than I, seem to think so....

then the occupation of it ought to be by people who work it well --
right?  a-and the definition of "well" ought to include "not screwing
people over", shouldn't it?

it looks to this perennial outsider a lot like some people went to a
lot of trouble to change the rules in the direction of "screwing
people over" and being able to walk away

into some gay-Ted community

and enjoy the fruits of the pilferage

so the work that would seem to matter most would be weaving convincing
arguments as to why that is not a good way to occupy one's time, and
coming up with better things to do....Right?  even at the cost of
downplaying one's righteous indignation...

and of course we on the pynchon list have one main weapon, which is
the willingness to read thoroughly and the ability to think
imaginatively...

...Two! main weapons: the willingness to read thoroughly, the ability
to think imaginatively, and the generosity of spirit to feel
compassion for and learn from those on both sides of a controversy...

...Three! main weapons:  the willingness to read thoroughly, the
ability to think imaginatively, the generosity of spirit to feel
compassion for and learn from those on both sides of a controversy,
and the ability to use Occam's razor only when necessary, since there
are many times when one can indeed untie the Gordian knot instead...

-- 
- where the bee sucks, there suck I


...Four! main weapons...