[WAR] Trump emotionally impulsive (if not psychotic) even in war

Razer g2s at riseup.net
Mon Jun 26 18:25:15 PDT 2017


"You can't run a war on gusts of emotion." ~P.M.S. Blackett

> P.M.S. Blackett was an English experimental physicist who contributed
> to a variety of scientific fields, including paleomagnetism and
> particle physics. As the quote above reflects, he is most widely
> recognized for his work with military strategy and operational
> research during World War II.
>
> Here one sees yet another lovely example of Pynchon playing with
> names, as well as a quick look into one of the book's central
> dichotomies. Although it's conceivable that others might print Patrick
> Blackett's name as "P.M.S. Blackett" with no thought of premenstrual
> syndrome, given that the quote attributed to him involves staying calm
> and unemotional, we know better than to expect Pynchon to ignore this
> delicious morsel of irony.
>
> The quote, as well as its author, provides an early glimpse into the
> book's central theme of war as both a sterile, bureaucratic process
> and a nightmarish, human ordeal. Blackett's main goal as an adviser to
> the British military was to make strategic decisions based solely on
> numbers, rather than emotions or gut feelings. Math itself is a
> leitmotif of Gravity's Rainbow, where the ordered and pristine world
> it inhabits is in stark contrast to the hell of war, clearly
> illustrated in the novel's title. "... A million bureaucrats are
> diligently plotting death and some of them even know it..." (p. 17)

http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_7-16


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