Vonnegut Off The Rails

I am a fan of Kurt Vonnegut, if for no other reason than his short story Harrison Begeron. I'm a bit of a fan of dystopia writings. Unlike Ayn Rand, both Vonnegut and George Orwell do a fine job of painting the bleakness of totalitarianism without being tedious. They know how to get to the point.

Unfortunately, Vonnegut doesn't have his A game going in a recent rant published on the website of the leftist magazine In These Times. Vonnegut kicks off into an embarrassingly disjointed spleen-vent that simply makes no point at all. It's worth a read, if for no other reason than to see what happens when a celebrated writer preaches to the choir.

Here are the opening grafs:

Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace.

But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America's becoming humane and reasonable.

What the heck?? Here is a little test. Educate a poor person about the trials and tribulations of being poor during the Great Depression, then ask if he would like to live there. Don't think they would? No kidding! Ironically, it wasn't until after the sainted FDR ramped up the economy with massive wartime spending (and the resultant loss of life in the Pacific and European theaters) that our economy turned around. Until then, the unemployment figures were much higher than 6% average under the evil cabal of Bush and his "oil buddies". Put another way, whatever bile Vonnegut has for Bush should go orders of magnitude more for Roosevelt.

Unfortunately, it gets worse. Vonnegut goes on to string together one unsupported assertion after another, something an English student would receive poor marks for, but a literary giant can do with impunity. Why does Vonnegut think America is unreasonable and inhumane beside the fact that the U.S. hasn't outlawed corporations and Republicans?

Defending himself (preemptively) against the charge of hurting the morale of our fighting forces, Vonnegut asserts that the soldiers' morale overseas "is already shot to pieces. They are being treated... like toys a rich kid got for Christmas". Everybody must know this, so Vonnegut must feel no need to explain why he believes troop morale is shot to pieces. These two examples exhibit a weakness that gallops throughout his entire article.

Vonnegut is a particularly thought-provoking author, which makes this recently published tripe exceptionally disappointing. Sensible debate is crucial in a free society, but wild assertions and hyperbole do not debate make. Vonnegut has done himself and our nation a disservice with his incoherent ramblings, though I doubt anyone in his circle will point that out.

Tim McNabb