Pynchon under Human Rights law

[Mark Kohut]

I continue my studies in international law, this course
in Human Rights, w special emphasis on indigenous peoples'
rights since my professor is actually one of the many who
get to judge, comment, add to or argue to change language
in upcoming UN documents re indigenous peoples. It won't surprise
anyone as it did me, why all official documents take YEARS.
 Every idea, every nuance, every word, every comma is open to
argument and negotiation.

Anyway, some focussed reading of how the culture of indigenous peoples
*clashes with *the Western legal and cultural tradition(s) and the attempts
to meld them under Human Rights principles is fascinating and

inevitably reminds me of some of Pynchon's themes and tropes.

Think about the Western legal tradition trying to 'understand' (for legal
reasons)
the oral traditions and contracts vs. that Western document, the piece of
paper.

The UN and other folk grapple with the cultural justice-centered meaning of
'myths & magic' as quotidian REALITIES--
as real as rocks and springs-- in many indigenous cultures.
The existence of [mentally]"inner qualities"; inner [mental] societally
human "truths"--
the rooms and carriage larger inside than from without in TRP;  the mound
life in M & D.

The 'collective consciousness' and therefore 'collective rights' of peoples
vs. Western society's monopolistic
 (by analogy) individualism and therefore individual rights--including
of property, that rock bottom Western 'right' which comes up against
peoples
who HAVE ALWAYS owned much territory in common, not to mention nomadic
indigenous peoples whose territory varies
---always and still unmapped, ---which IS the territory conceptually.

And more. One more: a self-sufficient people who DO NOT practice capitalism
yet 'own' valuable shit
 the Nation-States of the World want. Most of whom got it for a steal,
which is being legally challenged,
since stealing is 'illegal' under Western law yet if given freely by
cultures which had no use for certain minerals in their ground???

Key phrases to learn:  Knowledge capitalism.....distributed
authority.......no ontology except for a transcendent one...

That's All, Folks.
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