To rule forever, it is necessary only to create, among the people one would rule, what we call…Bad History. Nothing will produce Bad History more directly nor brutally, than drawing a Line…through the midst of a People,— to create thus a Distinction betwixt ‘em,— ‘tis the first stroke.— All else will follow as if predestined, unto War and Devastation.- Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon