Discover God

My brother is partly dependent upon the Navy for funds with which to investigate cloud physics.  He was talking recently to a similarly mendicant scientist about the billions invested in space.  The colleague said this, wryly:  “For that kind of money, the least they can do is discover God.”
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
From his book: “Wampeters Foma And Granfalloons“
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On This Day In:
2013	Without Witness
2012	Nutritarian

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Monkey Business

I “discovered” Kurt Vonnegut Jr. when I was going through my first Science-Fiction reading phase back in high school (way back in the late 60’s early 70’s).   I read a couple of his novels and really enjoyed them, so whenever I would stumble upon one of his books on a store shelf, I’d pick it up for my “library”.
I bought “Welcome to the Monkey House” (1968©) back in my Army days and have carried it around the world with me ever since.  Last summer (2011 that is), I took it along with me for its second trip to Liverpool, determined to read it.  I didn’t, but I read another Vonnegut (Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons), and it rekindled my interest so I set “Welcome” on my nightstand, hoping I’d get around to it sooner rather than later.  I guess since I bought it 40 years ago, reading it after another year and a bit is “sooner” rather than later…
Anyway, the book is absolutely terrific!!
It is a series of 25 short stories from Vonnegut’s early writing (50’s and 60’s).  A few are Sci-Fi related, but all are really about humanity.  Almost every story has a “twist” at the end which, for me, was unpredictable.  Okay, maybe not “unpredictable” as by the fourth or fifth you KNOW there will be a twist so you’re left trying to anticipate it, but most still surprised me.  Some will make you almost cry, some will make you almost laugh out loud, but all will make you feel better about yourself (and maybe even humanity).
The book is a very fast read.  The stories average 12 pages, so you can complete one and put the book down for a while as you wind your way through your day.  I had training in San Francisco during the week, so I read the first five or six stories on the BART  traveling to and from and then finished the book yesterday while home in bed with my kidney stones flaring up.  Very highly recommended!!!
Oh, in case you’re wondering how I know when I bought this book, when I was in the Army they used to make us write our names and the last four digits of our social security number in the book as it was a personal belonging which they would ship home in the event they had to ship you home too…
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On Torture

Agony never made a society quit fighting, as far as I know.  A society has to be captured or killed — or offered things it values.
… One wonders now where our leaders got the idea that mass torture would work to our advantage in Indochina.  It never worked anywhere else.  They got the idea from childish fiction, I think, and from a childish awe of torture.
… I am very sorry we tried torture.  I am sorry we tried anything.  I hope we never try torture again.  It doesn’t work.  Human beings are stubborn and brave animals everywhere.  They can endure amazing amounts of pain, if they have to.
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
From his book: “Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons“
[Obviously, this is a book Bush / Cheney never bothered to read.   —    KMAB]
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Humane Writers

Most writers I know, all over the world, do the best they can.  They must.  They have no choice in the matter.  All artists are specialized cells in a single, huge organism, mankind.  Those cells have to behave as they do, just as the cells in our hearts or our fingertips have to behave as they do.
We here are some of those specialized cells.  Our purpose is to make mankind aware of itself, in all its complexity, and to dream its dreams.  We have no choice in the matter.
…  But if the entire organism thinks that what we do is important, why aren’t we more influential than we are?  I am persuaded that we are tremendously influential, even though most national leaders, my own included, probably never heard of most of us here.  Our influence is slow and subtle, and it is felt mainly by the young.  They are hungry for myths which resonate with the mysteries of their own times.
We give them those myths.
We will become influential when those who have listened to our myths have become influential.  Those who rule us now are living in accordance with myths created for them by writers when they were young.  It is perfectly clear that our rulers do not question those myths for even a minute during busy day after busy day.  Let us pray that those terribly influential writers who created those our leaders’ were humane.
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
From his book: “Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons“
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Are You Bored, Too?

About the dumb Earthlings versus the smart Earthlings: I have known a fair number of scientists over the years, and I noticed that they were often as bored by each other’s work as dumb people would be.
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
From his book:  “Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons“
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Religious Lessons

A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete.  All science has damaged is the story of Adam and Eve and the story of Jonah and the Whale.  Everything else holds up pretty well, particularly the lessons about fairness and gentleness.  People who find those lessons irrelevant in the twentieth century are simply using science as an excuse for greed and harshness.
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
From his book:  “Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons“
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Forever

When I think about my own death, I don’t console myself with the idea that my descendants and my books and all that will live on.  Anybody with any sense knows that the whole solar system will go up like a celluloid collar by-and-by.  I honestly believe, though, that we are wrong to think that moments go away, never to be seen again.  This moment and every moment lasts forever.
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
From his book: “Wampeters, Foma And Granfalloons“
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I’m Definitely Not In Control

Writers are specialized cells in the social organism.  They are evolutionary cells.  Mankind is trying to become something else; it’s experimenting with new ideas all the time.  And writers are a means of introducing new ideas into the society, and also a means of responding symbolically to life.  I don’t think we’re in control of what we do.
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
From his book: “Wampeters, Foma And Granfalloons“
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Large Families

My longer-range schemes have to do with providing all Americans with artificial extended families of a thousand members or more.  Only when we have overcome loneliness can we begin to share wealth and work more fairly.  I honestly believe that we will have those families by-and-by, and I hope they will become international.
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
From the preface to his book: “Wampeters, Foma &  Granfalloons“
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Seeming Sane (Or Not)

This is what I find most encouraging about the writing trades:  They allow mediocre people who are patient and industrious to revise their stupidity, to edit themselves into something like intelligence.  They also allow lunatics to seem saner than sane.
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
From the preface to his book: “Wampeters, Foma &  Granfalloons“
[This explains why Sarah Palin can appear so stupid when she tries to give an unscripted presentation at a campaign stop (remember Boston and Paul Revere riding to warn the British) versus her taped ads and TV appearances.  She can have a platoon of writers and camera folks edit in their intelligence to substitute for her lack of intelligence.  Hey, Sarah!  Have you figured out the names of any of the newspapers you usually read, yet?  —   KMAB]
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Unnecessary Stagefright

“Nobody is going to listen to what you say,” he assured me.  “People are seldom interested in the actual content of a speech.  They simply want to learn from your tone and gestures and expressions whether or not you are an honest man.”
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
From the preface to his book: “Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons“
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Just Being Human

But laughter is a response to frustration, just as tears are, and it solves nothing, just as tears solve nothing.  Laughing or crying is what a human being does when there’s nothing else he can do.
—    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
From his book: “Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons“
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What If I Don’t Want To?

A first grader should understand that his culture isn’t a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society.  I didn’t find that out for sure until I was in the graduate school of the University of Chicago.  It was terribly exciting.  Of course, now cultural relativity is fashionable — and that probably has something to do with my popularity among young people.  But it’s more than fashionable — it’s defensible, attractive.  It’s also a source of hope.  It means we don’t have to continue this way if we don’t like it.
—   Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Quoted from his book of collected shorter works: “Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons“
[We don’t have to let 400 families in the United States control 60% of America’s wealth. Ronald Reagan (the God-Father of the wealthy class) signed the largest tax increase in U.S. history to ensure the country paid it’s way.  Incidentally, most of this increase was directed at corporate tax loop-holes, not personal income taxes, although there were increases to those as well.   —    KMAB]
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