Quoteworthy: from “A Man Without a Country”

Kurt Vonnegut’s thoughts on:

Science Fiction: “I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life as badly as Victorians misrepresent life by leaving out sex.” (p.17)

Progress: “Now, during our catastrophically idiotic war in Vietnam, the music kept getting better and better and better. We lost the war, by the way. Order couldn’t be restored in Indochina until the people kicked us out. That war only made billionaires out of millionaires. Today’s war (Iraq) is making trillionaires out of billionaires. Now I call that progress.” (p.67)

Reality TV: “I once was asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show. I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: ‘C-Students from Yale.’” (p.99)

Homeland Security: “The shoe thing at airports and Code Orange and so on are world-class practical jokes, all right. But my all-time favorite is one the holy, anti-war clown Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989) pulled off during the Vietnam War. He announced that the new high was banana peels taken rectally. So then FBI scientists stuffed banana peels up their asses to find out if this was true or not. Or so we hoped.” (p.108)

Our Current Leaders: “Well, one wishes those who took over our federal government, and hence the world, by means of a Mickey Mouse coup d’etat, who disconnected all the burglar alarms prescribed by the Constitution, which is to say the House and Senate, and the Supreme Court, and We, the People, were truly Christians. But as William Shakespeare told us once long ago, ‘The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.’” (p.111)