Kurt Vonnegut, continues to impress

When I posted my review of Slaughterhouse-Five a few days ago, I did not know much about its author, Kurt Vonnegut. What I had discerned was a brief acclamation of his work on the back cover of the book's cop that I had. Since then, people have told me about him and I have been referred to a few places where I can check out more of his stuff. One such piece was referred by my friend Marcus in the comments section. Taken from a Kurt Vonnegut article in the monthly magazine, In These Times:

Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace.

But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America’s becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.

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Do check out the rest of that article, his style is both funny and inviting. He makes some excellent points. Besides the article, I have started another book by Vonnegut. This one is called The Cat's Cradle- and is supposed to be the novel that helped him become the acclaimed author he is. I must say that what i have read till now has been very impressive. In fact, the book is hard to put aside. It has short chapters and so you don't feel like you've read much, when only two hours later you realise half the book has gone by. I'll tell you more when I've finished the book. Speaking of which...