Kurt Vonnegut on President Bush

[Ragnarok]

link

August 11th, 2004 10:31 am
I Love You, Madame Librarian - by Kurt Vonnegut


by Kurt Vonnegut / In These Times

I, like probably most of you, have seen Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Its title is a parody of the title of Ray Bradbury’s great science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451. This temperature 451° Fahrenheit, is the combustion point, incidentally, of paper, of which books are composed. The hero of Bradbury’s novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books.

And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

And still on the subject of books: Our daily sources of news, papers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books can we find out what is really going on. I will cite an example: House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger, published near the start of this humiliating, shameful blood-soaked year.

In case you haven’t noticed, and as a result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida, in which thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily disenfranchised, we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jut-jawed, pitiless war lovers, with appallingly powerful weaponry and unopposed.

In case you haven’t noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.

With good reason.

In case you haven’t noticed, our unelected leaders have dehumanized millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race. We wound and kill ’em and torture ’em and imprison ’em all we want.

Piece of cake.

In case you haven’t noticed, we also dehumanize our own soldiers, not because of their religion or race, but because of their low social class.

Send ’em anywhere. Make ’em do anything.

Piece of cake.

The O’Reilly Factor.

So I am a man without a country, except for the librarians and the Chicago-based magazine you are reading, In These Times.

Before we attacked Iraq, the majestic New York Times guaranteed that there were weapons of mass destruction there.

Albert Einstein and Mark Twain gave up on the human race at the end of their lives, even though Twain hadn’t even seen World War I. War is now a form of TV entertainment. And what made WWI so particularly entertaining were two American inventions, barbed wire and the machine gun. Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don’t you wish you could have something named after you?

Like my distinct betters Einstein and Twain, I now am tempted to give up on people too. And, as some of you may know, this is not the first time I have surrendered to a pitiless war machine.

My last words? “Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse.”

Napalm came from Harvard. Veritas!

Our president is a Christian? So was Adolf Hitler.

What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons without consciences, without a sense of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations and made it all their own?

I agree with the first few paragraphs, but it goes downhill from there and hits rock bottom with the part about Hitler being a Christian. At the very best that's a half truth.

I've got Slaughterhouse Five and need to read it; I expect I'll enjoy it. I have numerous problems with the Bush administration but I disagree with him involving America to be anything like Nazi Germany, we'd have to do the following:

1) Pick a scapegoat group (probably gays) and start throwing them into ovens.
2) Attack a lot more countries than Iraq, many of which had nothing to do with 9/11, but also all of the ones that did to further that as our excuse.
3) Congress gives Bush absoulte power, or he takes it by some other means.
4) The FBI becomes a secret police force. Ashcroft REALLY goes to town.

EDIT: Whoops made a mistake... he said that the US was "almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were." He didn't say that they were following the exact same action path as nazi germany.

[Fat middle]

Originally Posted by Ragnarok

I agree with the first few paragraphs, but it goes downhill from there and hits rock bottom with the part about Hitler being a Christian. At the very best that's a half truth.

I agree. It doesn't seem the leveled article one would expect from an intellectual. Any iletterate member of the less intellectual board of the internet could have written that article.

In case you haven’t noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.

That's clearly an exaggeration. But I must say that I was very shocked last saturday when I read in a newspaper, in the review of the Opening Ceremony of Athens 2004, that the public had cheered every delegation, "even the most problematic ones, like the USA and Israel" I never had seen something like that in years past. There have always been some (few, very few) anti-americanists around, but I had never seen that the USA team (nor Israel) could be considered problematic "a priori".

One should think that other teams may have appear more problematic "a priori" like Turkey (the traditional enemy of the greeks) and Saud Arabia which had no women in its team

[brownjenkins]

kurt vonnegut likes to go overboard in his examples (read cat's cradle, one of his best)... it's what makes his writings stick with people... he also had some horrific war experiences, which are certain to add vehemence to his views concerning the subject

on world views and newspaper reports, as i've said before, perception is reality... and the 'perception' people of the world have of us in america is our responsibility alone to change

[Ragnarok]

Couple of intersting thoughts though;

It's actually occurred to me a few times to wonder what Mark Twain would have thought of people nowadays. If you were to decide on one author ever to label the best/most important American writer ever, Twain would have to be near the top of the list. Definitely one of the conders for best misanthropic authors ever. In Kurt's writing, even at it's absolute harshest, had a certain warmth, or desire to believe in some sort of nobility, and his most common theme was probably a desire for common decensy. He even admitted as much, in one of his books, and for the life of me, I can't remember the quote or the book it was, which is upsetting as it was great.

[zinnite]

I think it's "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater". Actually, now that I think of it, it's pretty much the general, or at least an underlying, theme of all of his books. It's most blatant in "Mr. Rosewater".

[Lady Ravyn]

do you mean "god bless you, dr. kevorkian" or are we talking about two different books? i read dr. kevorkian last week, and while it was amusing, i definetly did not agree with most of his views. but, *shrugs* to each their own.
but did he write another book called god bless you mr. rosewater? just curious...

[zinnite]

Yeah, there are two books. "Rosewater" is fiction and one of his best, IMO.

[Inderjit Sanghera]

Hitler was very much against Christianity, since Christianity went against his beliefs. Christianity was the product of a non-Aryan, and thus inferior race and its belief in peace and love for man went against his own rather bellicose and twisted beliefs and polity. He was, if he was to be given a religion, a pagan, though his German Faith Movement never really gained much ground. Hitler once stated that, eventually, he wanted to eradicate Germany of Christianity. He did, when he needed to, support the Church, in a very superficial sense, but his support for the Church was only a case of Hitler's opportunism-he supported the church when he saw fit, just like he supported Socialism when he saw fit-though both were anathema to Hitler. To call Hitler a "Christian" is both a misnomer and a fallacy. Just because he was a anti-Semite does not mean he was a Christian.

never had seen something like that in years past. There have always been some (few, very few) anti-americanists around, but I had never seen that the USA team (nor Israel) could be considered problematic "a priori".

To say Israel is not a _problem_ is a tad strange-Israel is a pretty big problem. To say that Israel is perfectly innocent and democratic is again a tad strange. Israel is very much a "problem" state-as much as Iran and its ilk. As for America-America is a democratic state. America may be a "problem" in some respects, it certainly is not perfect, and it's foreign policy is certainly littered with "problems" but it is by no means a problematic state in the sense that Iran, Libya and Israel are "problem" states.

One should think that other teams may have appear more problematic "a priori" like Turkey (the traditional enemy of the greeks)

Harking back to the days of Menelaus, Paris and Achilles!

Turkey (the traditional enemy of the greeks) and Saud Arabia

Rather ironically, the two, especially Saudi Arabia are on Americas good list, Saudi Arabia being a particularly conservative Islamic state.

It's actually occurred to me a few times to wonder what Mark Twain would have thought of people nowadays

Indeed; Hemingway stated that The Adventures of Huck Finn was the most important work of American literature. As Alexis De Tocqueville states in Democracy in America, American literature was in a pretty dire state (this was written in the 1830's) though American society and culture was pretty inchoate at the time. But then came authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne, as well as poets such as Walt Whitman and later, of course Mark Twain himself. Even then, a lot of early American authors such as Edgar Allan Poe went unappreciated in America.

[brownjenkins]

Originally Posted by Inderjit Sanghera

To say Israel is not a _problem_ is a tad strange-Israel is a pretty big problem. To say that Israel is perfectly innocent and democratic is again a tad strange. Israel is very much a "problem" state-as much as Iran and its ilk. As for America-America is a democratic state. America may be a "problem" in some respects, it certainly is not perfect, and it's foreign policy is certainly littered with "problems" but it is by no means a problematic state in the sense that Iran, Libya and Israel are "problem" states.

i agree completely!

i wish more people could be this realistic

[The Gaffer]

I suppose a lot of this revolves around what you understand by the term "problematic".

You could argue that America is the ultimate problem state because it is far more powerful than any other.

On the other, I would far rather have America in that powerful position than, say, China or even Britain (we were in that position, and chose to royally shaft the world in ways that make Halliburton look like rank amateurs).

[Inderjit Sanghera]

You could argue that America is the ultimate problem state because it is far more powerful than any other.

Of course; being the biggest state usually leads to some level of arrogance. An interesting book on Americans power and how America utilises it, is Robert Kagans Paradise and Power. (It is written in a pretty much pro-American style.)

were in that position, and chose to royally shaft the world in ways that make Halliburton look like rank amateurs

That was of course 50-150 years ago. A hundred and fifty years ago the American south supported slavery. 150 years ago the British idea of democracy was for the politicians to bribe the way to their seats and for the priviliged to vote.

[The Gaffer]

Indeed. Though my point was that maybe we shouldn't despair; maybe our global empires are getting a bit more benign as the years roll by!

[Radagast The Brown]

Originally Posted by Inderjit Sanghera

To say Israel is not a _problem_ is a tad strange-Israel is a pretty big problem. To say that Israel is perfectly innocent and democratic is again a tad strange. Israel is very much a "problem" state-as much as Iran and its ilk. As for America-America is a democratic state. America may be a "problem" in some respects, it certainly is not perfect, and it's foreign policy is certainly littered with "problems" but it is by no means a problematic state in the sense that Iran, Libya and Israel are "problem" states.

We aren't, perhaps, totally innocent - although we try to be, and try not to kill any citizens - but in a war you can't really do that. And our enemy doesn't really care who's getting killed... I can't believe you'r eputting us in the same level as the fundamental Iran, though. How can you possibly compare?
Israel is democratic, as much as any other country, In my opinion.

[brownjenkins]

Originally Posted by Radagast The Brown

We aren't, perhaps, totally innocent - although we try to be, and try not to kill any citizens - but in a war you can't really do that. And our enemy doesn't really care who's getting killed... I can't believe you'r eputting us in the same level as the fundamental Iran, though. How can you possibly compare?
Israel is democratic, as much as any other country, In my opinion.

don't people of jewish decent get certain rights and priviledges in israel which are not available to just anyone?

the essence for me is that all countries could improve their foreign policies... put aside questions like who is worse than who, and concentrate on ones like 'how can i make my country better?'

[Radagast The Brown]

Originally Posted by brownjenkins

don't people of jewish decent get certain rights and priviledges in israel which are not available to just anyone?

the essence for me is that all countries could improve their foreign policies... put aside questions like who is worse than who, and concentrate on ones like 'how can i make my country better?'

No, I don't think so.

The really religious Jews, thougth, get some priviledges - they don't pay taxes. and don't work, and get funding from government, 'because they are learning Bible'. If I could, I'd change it, but still, it's not like we're undemocratic - it's a rule, and can be changed if most of the parliament is against it.