Cold Turkey By Kurt Vonnegut

[Junkdrawer]

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. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.


.....

I am of course notoriously hooked on cigarettes. I keep hoping the things will kill me. A fire at one end and a fool at the other.

But I’ll tell you one thing: I once had a high that not even crack cocaine could match. That was when I got my first driver’s license! Look out, world, here comes Kurt Vonnegut.

And my car back then, a Studebaker, as I recall, was powered, as are almost all means of transportation and other machinery today, and electric power plants and furnaces, by the most abused and addictive and destructive drugs of all: fossil fuels.

When you got here, even when I got here, the industrialized world was already hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels, and very soon now there won’t be any more of those. Cold turkey.

Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn’t like TV news, is it?

Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.

And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/cold_turkey/

[ComerPerro]

1. Appeared in Man Without A Country, IIRC. Nice piece of writing, all of it

[Junkdrawer]

3. I wish I could post it in its entirity..One of the most humane essays ever.

Fair use rules...

[ComerPerro]

5. some of his essays in that book had appeared in other places, and that one especially

was completely humane and wonderful. I've never understood how someone could be so frank and bleak about human events, but still be such a believer in the values of humanism and have such insistance on treating people well.

[FtWayneBlue]

2. Yep.

There is hell to pay.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. I printed that out and read it on the way home today.

A great man.
As others have said, Vonnegut is gone, and pieces of crapola like Cheney and his ilk are still walking the earth. :grr: :mad:

[Cleita]

6. They are afraid to go. Afraid that maybe Hell is real. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Aha! They have sold their souls to the devil...and that is why they are still around.

[lectrobyte]

11. Yeah, but I think Mr. Vonnegut had more joy in one day than Cheney

will know in his entire lifetime. You can see it in their faces:

http://homepage.mac.com/dmhart/iblog/C1192696909/E727803457/Media/kurt_narrowweb__300x403,0.jpg

[BrklynLiberal]

17. Can't argue with that. A picture is worth a million words.

:thumbsup:

But it is our loss...

[The Wizard]

12. The Gods are angry

because we passively let criminals take over the government. When there were voting irregularities in the Ukraine the citizens took to the streets. We've taken to the streets, but not in the numbers necessary to effectuate change. The 06 election was a step in the right direction. We have to make it evident that the Administration cannot govern. You can neither govern nor wage war without popular support. Without 9-11, Bush wouldn't have been able to frighten enough people to avert impeachment, which he's done up until now. The fact that the vast majority pays no attention to the propaganda any longer may be the cause of another attack on our soil.
Vonnegut put much of what we are feeling into terms that are amusing and enlightening and in a cadence that induces the reader to continue turning pages. He used science fiction and satire to write about things he found disturbing. In Hocus Pocus he brought up privatization and the pitfalls associated with it. We now have a mercenary contract army in Iraq. Mercenaries were also tasked with keeping citizens under control after Hurricane Katrina.
Writers like Vonnegut are 10 years ahead of the times. I know the disgust he felt from watching the worst among us denigrate the Constitution some of us defended with our lives.
One way to take down a tyrant is with ridicule and wit.
In Kurt's memory we should ridicule the fascists into History's dust bin. Point at them and laugh.

[BrklynLiberal]

18. EXACTLY!!!! Public humiliation is the worst punishment of all.

In Kurt's memory we should ridicule the fascists into History's dust bin. Point at them and laugh.

Great post!!!!

[The Wizard]

20. FYI

It was a Brooklyn liberal who got me into Vonnegut, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

[BrklynLiberal]

21. We are a very helpful and uniquely intelligent group.

:rofl: :hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

22. BTW.. I made a separate post referring to your wonderful post....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=653368&mesg_id=653368

[FogerRox]

19. Kickin

[nam78_two]

7. Love Vonnegut

Thats a great piece.

[Junkdrawer]

8. He nailed it simply and truthfully....n/t

[sasquatch]

10. And it wasn't cigarettes that killed him either

It was a head injury.
:(

[Hekate]

13. He's a great soul gone from us. We were lucky to have him. nt

[IanBean]

14. thank you for posting this

a legend like him will never die, his brilliant works will be around forever.

[Gregorian]

15. He speaks my mind.

This article is one of them. I remember him saying this stuff and cheering. Like it was just me and Kurt. The two people who get it. I identified with him to the absolute core. To me, Kurt was what everyone should be. He was just common sense. I mean, maybe there are only a few who see through their own hypocrisy. Who can deny guilt just long enough to see themselves. Or maybe it's just fearlessness.

[Junkdrawer]

16. And how true is this:

...

That chief and his cohorts have as little to do with Democracy as the Europeans had to do with Christianity. We the people have absolutely no say in whatever they choose to do next. In case you haven’t noticed, they’ve already cleaned out the treasury, passing it out to pals in the war and national security rackets, leaving your generation and the next one with a perfectly enormous debt that you’ll be asked to repay.

Nobody let out a peep when they did that to you, because they have disconnected every burglar alarm in the Constitution: The House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the FBI, the free press (which, having been embedded, has forsaken the First Amendment) and We the People.

...

[Jcrowley]

23. Bumping

[BrklynLiberal]

24. Just one more kick for Mr. Vonnegut