BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

Many of these writings first appeared in the progressive Chicago-based magazine, "In These Times," over the past few years.

Here is what the Tribune reviewer had to say about "A Man Without a Country":

He's direct in saying what he thinks about the president and his pals ("George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, . . . plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, . . . the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences"), Americans' dependence on oil ("We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial"), the war in Iraq, ("our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we're hooked on"), the damage we've done to the environment ("we . . . have now all but destroyed this once salubrious planet as a life-support system"), and the future of our country ("there is not a chance in hell" it can become "the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of").

Because Americans now present themselves to the world as "proud, grinning, jut-jawed, pitiless war-lovers," because "our unelected leaders have dehumanized millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race," and because we have "dehumanized our own soldiers, not because of their religion or race, but because of their low social class," Vonnegut calls himself "a man without a country"--except, he says, for librarians (who have "staunchly resisted" censors and government snoops seeking library records), and (not surprisingly) In These Times magazine.

But in fact, there are other sources of illumination in Vonnegut's mostly dark world. He likes big families ("A few Americans, but very few, still have extended families. The Navahos. The Kennedys."), music ("It makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it."), the arts generally ("They are a very human way of making life more bearable" and "a way to make your soul grow."), the clerk who sells him stamps at his post office near the United Nations ("Sometimes her hair will be all frizzy"). Sometimes she will have ironed it flat. One day she was wearing black lipstick. This is all so exciting and so generous of her, just to cheer us all up, people from all over the world."), and making people laugh.

Those BuzzFlash readers who are Vonnegut fans know that he mixed bafflement with the human condition, with humor and a faint hope of decency -- that even if the human spirit can't always triumph, it should be allowed to.

The Tribune reviewer notes, "But there is still humor in Vonnegut's writing, as well as tenderness (see the piece about extended families, and the one about his being a Luddite) and even hope, implicit in a simple admonishment to everyone: 'Be honorable.'"

"Be honorable," not a bad motto to live by, Kurt Vonnegut, not a bad motto at all.

And, of course, we repost, once again, on of our favorite Vonnegut quotations about the Bush years, which he said in a 2003 interview with "In These Times":

"[In These Times Interviewer]My feeling from talking to readers and friends is that many people are beginning to despair. Do you think that we've lost reason to hope?

[Kurt Vonnegut]I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka "Christians," and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or "PPs."

To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete's foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!

And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.

What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!"



BUZZFLASH REVIEWS