calculated madness on the way to the transit of Venus-

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Surely, this is an allusion to the "madman theory":

-- The madman theory was a primary characteristic of the foreign policy
conducted by U.S. President Richard Nixon. His administration, the
executive branch of the federal government of the United States from
1969 to 1974, attempted to make the leaders of other countries think
Nixon was mad, and that his behavior was irrational and volatile.
Fearing an unpredictable American response, leaders of hostile Communist
Bloc nations would avoid provoking the United States.

Nixon explained the strategy to his White House Chief of Staff, H. R. 
Haldeman:

'I call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to 
believe I've reached the point where I might do anything to stop the 
war. We'll just slip the word to them that, "for God's sake, you know 
Nixon is obsessed about communism. We can't restrain him when he's 
angry—and he has his hand on the nuclear button" and Ho Chi Minh himself 
will be in Paris in two days begging for peace."'--

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory

"Thus deriving an Advantage..."

(As for today's madmen, according to Dow Jones' MarketWatch, there seems 
to be no feigning involved:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/perhaps-you-missed-it-were-at-war-with-russia-2015-01-20)


> "At this turn in his Life, Capt. Grant has discover'd in his own
> feckless Youth, a Source of pre-civiliz'd Sentiment useful to his
> Praxis of now and then pretending to be insane, thus deriving an
> Advantage over any unsure as to which side of Reason he may actually
> stand upon."
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l