GOD BLESS YOU, MR. VONNEGUT
by Andrew Williams

There are a lot of angry people in the United States. Some of them are
angry at George W. Bush, which is a harmless preoccupation since he
himself is mostly harmless--a cat's paw. Some of them are angry, more
sensibly, at the psychopathic personalities with delusions of empire in
Bush's Cabinet. And most of the rest are angry at anyone who tries to tell
them that their so-called leaders are insane.

Case in point: Kurt Vonnegut has derided our leaders as being
"psychopathic personalities." He has received much encomium and opprobrium
for this scientific observation. The latter takes two forms. One is the
Christian response (Vonnegut has associated Christians with the white
supremacist movement), which starts with something like "I must beg to
differ..." or "As a Christian, I must respectfully disagree..." and
proceeds with civil discourse. The other negative response I call the
"Don't confuse me with facts" response, which usually entails numerous
misspellings, expletives (also commonly misspelled) and a fervent wish
that the object of the writer's Two-Minute Hate would consume feces and
expire. Or something similar. Such broadsides are usually unsigned, marked
with a clear alias, or signed minus the writer's e-mail address.

The main reason the 2-Minute Haters are upset with Vonnegut is they are
annoyed that "this old crank," who has seen more of life and knows more
about how it works than they do, has the utter temerity to suggest, in
blunt language, that they are being used by clever psychopaths who have
neither scruples nor morals nor consciences. But that's perfectly
understandable. After all, marks don't like being called marks--especially
to their faces.

If I were to meet one of this contentious bunch, I would hope that I would
say something like the following: "So you think Kurt Vonnegut's a crank?
Well, guess what--he's 80 years old! He's earned the right to be a crank!
He's spent his whole life watching psychopaths turn this lovely planet
into a cesspool. He's seen the stupidity of war first-hand. What's more,
many intelligent, moral and conscientious people agree with him. So maybe,
just maybe, this man--who was fighting for your beloved country when your
parents were busy soiling diapers--has something to say that you'd do well
to hear." It might not help them to hear this, but it would do me a world
of good.

So I say God bless Kurt Vonnegut. Especially because I understand--as I
know he does--that most human tragedies are the doings of human beings who
have grossly misinterpreted the words of God. It's just that we both wish
It would make an appearance every little once in a while, if only to say
"WHAT PART OF 'THOU SHALT NOT KILL' DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? ARE YOU DEAF? DO
YOU UNDERSTAND ANY LANGUAGE? HOW ABOUT THIS: JUST DON'T KILL ANYONE. OK?
DID YOU GET THAT?" and then vanish into a cloudbank.

That would be nice. I would kvell if that happened.

www.vonnegut.com
www.iahf.com