On April 27, Kurt Vonnegut was scheduled to speak in Indianapolis as part of the city-proclaimed The Year of Vonnegut. On February 28, in what was to be his last interview, I spoke by phone with Vonnegut, who was home in New York. We did not talk for long because he was not well, but we discussed memories of family vacations,… return to article
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Reader Comments (4)Page 1 of 1 pages“Anyway, when I was young, I noticed these contradictions and, of course, they were quite acceptable to a lot of people, but not to me.”
I guess that is why he became unstuck in time, to fix it up. Too bad (for us) that he was not able. Seriously, humans are obviously imperfect creatures. And when you put us in groups, our imperfections multiply. To expect perfection is simply foolish. But it is fun to kibitz about how bad things were/are etc.
““What did you learn?” and he replied, “I’ll never believe my government again.””
Sounds like he learned the wrong lesson. Trust but verify is a better choice.
One thing to notice, at least for those of us lucky enough to live in the developed world. This is the **absolute** best of times. We live in great luxury today, but times will change. I doubt my children will have the standard of living i do, and would be amazed if my (potential) grandchildren had anywhere near the current standard of living. This is not a bad thing - rather it is an acknowledgment that the current standard is simply not sustainable. We all (or perhaps those who come after us) are going to have to learn to do with less material things. Of course, that may lead to other good things lost in this very material world (e.g., more social interactions, spirituality, etc).
Posted by wolf on May 9, 2007 at 9:00 PM “Trust but verify?” St. Ronnie lives! I don’t think the relationship between two super powers facing each other in the grip of mutually assured destruction is quite comparable with the individual citizen and the overwhelming power of the state, but whatever.
Give me the necessary transparency, openness and freedom from secrecy to actually verify and a certain willingness to acknowledge, apologize for and ameliorate past wrongs and I may be willing to extend a modicum of trust.
Otherwise, nice of you to admit our imperialist, mercantilist corporate system is squandering the resources of the planet at the expense of our progeny, Wolfgang.
Don’t you think it would be better if we, each of us individually and all of us consensually, made efforts to get our spiritual, social and material houses in order in the here and now, than to leave it up to future generations?
Posted by luminous beauty on May 13, 2007 at 4:50 PM “Don’t you think it would be better if we, each of us individually and all of us consensually, made efforts to get our spiritual, social and material houses in order in the here and now, than to leave it up to future generations?”
In fact, i think this is the only way most of us can contribute. I use compact fluorescent lights for most of my fixtures and hope and dream of the day i can put up photovoltaics on my roof (no more money for crazies in the Middle East ought to be our new slogan. Note that Germany now produces about 10% of its electricity via photovoltaics and expect to be up to 20-30% by 2020!!!).
i am also very helpful and respectful to most of the folks i interact with, both on the web and in real life. . .
But the real questions are intractable. What to do about Africa (no need to spell out the individual countries)? What to do about the Islamic crazies? What to do to protect the homeland? They go on and on. The questions are easy, the answers are controversial and difficult to decide.
Posted by wolf on May 15, 2007 at 9:14 PM Some democracy indeed. a great man that will be sorely missed by all.
Posted by MediaFriend on May 18, 2007 at 6:54 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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