So it goes...
I was wondering what you were getting at. For me it was cat's cradle. And I guess man without a country turned out to be his last after all...
Best Joke Ever: You know what the white stuff in bird poop is?
That's bird poop too
south bend lathe is a long-time machine tool type company [around since 1900?] so the company name would be recognized by people of my advanced age as another example of American industrial skill/advancement just like a pontiac or a mouse trap---my thought is that if a human being has no more sacredness than a pontiac, then there is no reason to behave in a moral fashion toward our fellow pontiacs [other than fear of arrest or jail].
I'm a big fan of Vonnegut's writing--more partial to Slaughterhouse 5, myself. However, I saw him speak at Miami University years ago and he came across as a real prick--total buzz kill. My girl friend was coming in the side door late and passed a man smoking a cigarrette. She asked if he was "getting a nic fix before seeing Vonnegut speak?" The man who was, of course, Kurt Vonnegut looked at her funny and nodded. That same year I saw Timothy Leary and boy was he a poster child for why not to do drugs. Later at the State Theatre, I met Ken Kesey. He came across very well despite the compious amounts of drugs he's addled his brain with. In conclusion, it appears that Ken Kesey has won this irrational, illogical, non scientific poll of old guys who either write or did drugs but most probably both.
"if a human being has no more sacredness than a pontiac, then there is no reason to behave in a moral fashion toward our fellow pontiacs [other than fear of arrest or jail]."
Jack-
I have to disagree; the moral imperative is simply re-framed in terms of property rights. We should treat our fellow man as we would treat his house, his car, or his pet: as his. In doing so, we grant him the right and obligation to do with himself as he pleases (educate, slack off, write, or do copious quantities of drugs) so long as he respects our right to do the same. Boils down to the basic vibe of "I disagree with what you say, but defend to my death your right to say it."
Sadly this is lost on the modern politicos who offer us either a nanny-state or a christofascist-state.
Just leave me alone to do my thing, and I'll grant you the same.
Thanks Brian. Powerful stuff. He was a genius who, in my youth, helped me find my way as a creative, thoughtful person in a world I couldn't understand or accept.
"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."
"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
"Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information."
Seriously depressing.
Brian,
Very touching tribute. It's no Seven Swans, but very touching in its own right.
but why should i respect the property rights of a pontiac-----isn't it foolish and profitless to restrain myself from stealing, hurting or just doing whatever i want to something of no more value than a pontiac-----hurting a pontiac has no more transcendental significance than throwing a stone into the lake.
Jack - you are not respecting the pontiac, but rather the role it plays to someone else: their ride to work, their favorite possession, perhaps even the object of their derision. It is someone else's to do with as they see fit.
So it is with someone's own existance.
And why not destroy it? It's not yours to destroy. Whether a car or a life.
Frankly, you'd be a little pissed if someone destroyed your life.
Brings to mind a phrase "do unto others as you would have others do unto you."
Which is the most moral of all statements, if a moral statement has ever been made.
His was a full life well-lived, but his death is still a great loss.
I happen to be in the middle of reading Vonnegut's "The Sirens of Titans". It was his second novel and is full of brilliant, biting satire. I'm sad that he won't be around to make more.
One of his pranks he did at Cornell was to go into a random class during final exams and rip up the test, and run out of the room screaming.
Sounds like a good was to remember him...
And so on.
and not counting the statue of Abraham Lincoln in front of the old Nigger* high school.
Please explain to me...I don't know the book or it's contextual use.
the book uses that word to demean the sort of people who use it and not the object of the slur.
the book uses that word to demean the sort of people who use it and not the object of the slur.
ahhh, see I didn't get that and couldn't have devined it from that little blurb. I wasn't offended or anything, just puzzled at it just sitting there like it was. I appreciate the asterisk and the coordinating info prompting me to ask about it.
...instead of periodically wondering 'what in the hell' was that about for the rest of the night.
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