Investing Quote by Thomas Pynchon
““What more do they want? She asks this seriously, as if there's a real conversion factor between information and lives. Well, strange to say, there is. Written down in the Manual, on file at the War Department. Don't forget the real business of the War is buying and selling. The murdering and violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to non-professionals. The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways. It serves as a spectacle, as a diversion from the real movements of the War. It provides raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be more prepared for the adult world. Best of all, mass death's a stimulus to just ordinary folks, little fellows, to try 'n' grab a piece of that Pie while they're still here to gobble it up. The true war is a celebration of markets. Organic markets, carefully styled "black" by the professionals, spring up everywhere. Scrip, Sterling, Reichsmarks, continue to move, severe as classical ballet, inside their antiseptic marble chambers. But out here, down here among the people, the truer currencies come into being. So, Jews are negotiable. Every bit as negotiable as cigarettes, cunt, or Hersey bars.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, 1973
The quote critiques how war is commodified, turning human lives into market assets and using mass death as both spectacle and economic stimulus.
In simple terms: War turns people into market goods and uses death for profit.
Recognize and resist the commercialization of human suffering.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- journalism
- political analysis
- academic study
- activism
- public policy
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How does market logic shape our perception of conflict?
- What ethical limits should exist on profiting from war?
It oversimplifies complex geopolitical motives and may ignore genuine humanitarian concerns.