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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Problem With Americans, And Other Earthlings: A Few Words From Kurt Vonnegut...
American humorist Kin Hubbard said , "It ain't no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be". The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?"
Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue... Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times.
Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue... Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times.
Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1683562-slaughterhouse-five-or-the-children-s-crusade
And...
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The guide invited the crowd to imagine that they were looking across a desert at a mountain range on a day that was twinkling bright and clear. They could look at a peak or a bird or cloud, at a stone right in front of them, or even down into a canyon behind them. But among them was this poor Earthling, and his head was encased in a steel sphere which he could never take off. There was only one eyehole through which he could look, and welded to that eyehole were six feet of pipe.
"This was only the beginning of Billy's miseries in the metaphor. He was also strapped to a steel lattice which was bolted to a flatcar on rails, and there was no way he could turn his head or touch the pipe. The far end of the pipe rested on a bi-pod which was also bolted to the flatcar. All Billy could see was the little dot at the end of the pipe. He didn't know he was on a flatcar, didn't even know there was anything peculiar about his situation.
"The flatcar sometimes crept, sometimes went extremely fast, often stopped--went uphill, downhill, around curves, along straightaways. Whatever poor Billy saw through the pipe, he had no choice but to say to himself, 'That's life.
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
"This was only the beginning of Billy's miseries in the metaphor. He was also strapped to a steel lattice which was bolted to a flatcar on rails, and there was no way he could turn his head or touch the pipe. The far end of the pipe rested on a bi-pod which was also bolted to the flatcar. All Billy could see was the little dot at the end of the pipe. He didn't know he was on a flatcar, didn't even know there was anything peculiar about his situation.
"The flatcar sometimes crept, sometimes went extremely fast, often stopped--went uphill, downhill, around curves, along straightaways. Whatever poor Billy saw through the pipe, he had no choice but to say to himself, 'That's life.
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Link: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/421661-the-guide-invited-the-crowd-to-imagine-that-they-were
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The Problem With Americans, And Other Earthlings: A Few Words From Kurt Vonnegut... (Original Post)
WillyT
Apr 2014
OP
WillyT
(72,631 posts)1. Updated Title Kick...
zeemike
(18,998 posts)2. Slaughterhouse-Five
One of the greatest works of science fiction ever...by one of the best...K&R
Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)3. "No Pain" and "Here I am , cleaning shit off of everything"
Two eternal truths as expressed by KV.
On Edit: I forgot to add, possibly the finest American writer as of yet.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)6. My two Heros: Vonnegut and Wittgenstein: Heart and Head. For you Willy....
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)7. PS: That line about "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?", reminds me of this by Octafish....
''The Principles of Newspeak''
An appendix to 1984
Written by : George Orwell in 1948
EXCERPT...
The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought -- that is, a thought diverging from the principles of IngSoc -- should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meaning and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meaning whatever.
CONTINUED...
http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-prin.html
A prison is a prison. And, thus, we see US citizens getting locked behind the bars in their own heads -- except the 1-percent who can afford to travel, no matter the price of a barrel of oil.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4839869
An appendix to 1984
Written by : George Orwell in 1948
EXCERPT...
The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought -- that is, a thought diverging from the principles of IngSoc -- should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meaning and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meaning whatever.
CONTINUED...
http://www.newspeakdictionary.com/ns-prin.html
A prison is a prison. And, thus, we see US citizens getting locked behind the bars in their own heads -- except the 1-percent who can afford to travel, no matter the price of a barrel of oil.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4839869