Bleeding Edge's pear tree....yes?

[Corbeau Castrum]

Speaking of the successes and failures of the 60s in his 2018 film Fahrenheit 11/9, Michael Moore narrates:

“There seems to be a misunderstanding about who the real America is. Let me share with you a fact that has never been stated in the press or reported on the nightly news, or even spoken amongst ourselves. The United States of America is a leftist country. That's right. We are one rocking, shit-kicking, gay-loving, gun-rejecting, race-mixing, pot-smoking, tree-hugging, hip-hopping, anywhere breastfeeding, quinoa-cooking, left-leaning liberal nation.
Here are the facts. The vast majority of Americans are pro-choice. They want equal pay for women. Stronger environmental laws. Legalized marijuana. A raise in the minimum wage. Medicare for all. Tuition-free college. Free child care. Support for labor unions. A cut in the military budget. Break up the big banks. Most Americans don't even own a gun. And 75% believe that immigration is good for the US. And on, and on, and on. Heck, Texas isn't even white anymore. Houston had a lesbian mayor. When you think Texas, you need to think lesbian. All power to the people! The values they stood for in the '60s and '70s... This is a meeting of American radicals....are now the beliefs of this great land. Put your whole face over that. Yes, there. Those crazy motherfuckers have won. And I love the smell of essential oils in the morning.”

Mutatis mutandis for America 8 years later, post covid, post BLM, post Gaza, and under King Trump, but I think Moore's perspective rhymes well with what Joseph was trying to articulate.

On Tuesday, September 15th, 2026 at 08:53, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks,Joseph.....as written I was all wrong. You point out what the
> sixties meant and
> I concur in general...and I think Pynchon does to in many themes of all his
> books
> 
> What I should have written was that a Vineland major theme was how
> the ideals, particularly the ideals of a political/social movement that
> changed America more, and for the better, more
> particularly as Pynchon himself wrote, how the New Left, the best vision of
> Social change America ---The Port Huron Statement
> is a wonderful near-utopian document that was not utopian (in the sense of
> nowhere possible)
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Sep 14, 2026 at 9:34 PM Joseph Tracy <coypoet at mailfence.com> wrote:
> 
> > I think that is an absurd assertion , both about the 60s and Vineland.
> > The 60s was a time of remarkable change and liberation, releasing forces
> > and Ideas we still live with, many rooted in the core ideals of
> > constitutional liberty and hearkening back to revolution against empire,
> > but equally important was the ecology movement, the renunciation of
> > McCarthyism, a challenge to imperial war, the women's liberation
> > movement, the civil rights movement, the farmworkers movement, the
> > revival of grass roots folk music, the mainstreaming of black  R&B black
> > entertainers and feisty black athletes like Muhamed Ali, psychedelics,
> > Food co-ops with healthier food options,  a flourishing of all arts, ...
> > the list is long and I could go on. Some of the best leaders of this
> > liberating change did not fail at all. They were murdered, not by lone
> > nuts, but by the state. State criminality was exposed, in MK Ultra,
> > Vietnam, This is something made quite explicit in Vineland. By any
> > measure state violence and war crimes far exceeded any leftist
> > revolutionary violence.
> >      Like all big changes some shifts were shallow, passing,
> > commercialized, but I had enough of a taste of Mcarthyism and Nixon  and
> > LBJ to know why the opposition was so powerful and necessary. The
> > culture wars and the real wars and the warlike addictions of both
> > political parties continue, but change begins within and spreads through
> > the cultures we build..  If there is failure it is much larger than any
> > ten years or any of the human movements of an era. We have to take
> > responsibility ourselves. We are all creating history in our affinities
> > and lived lives.
> >
> > On 9/14/26 7:02 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:
> > > I read Nixon's novel as not unlike Vineland. Why the sixties failed...
> > >
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>