The Oil Drum

I'm Jeremiah, and I'm not talking about God being mad at us," novelist Kurt Vonnegut says with a straight face, gazing out the parlor windows of his Manhattan brownstone. "I'm talking about us killing the planet as a life-support system with gasoline. What's going to happen is, very soon, we're going to run out of petroleum, and everything depends on petroleum. And there go the school buses. There go the fire engines. The food trucks will come to a halt. This is the end of the world. We've become far too dependent on hydrocarbons, and it's going to suddenly dry up. You talk about the gluttonous Roaring Twenties. That was nothing. We're crazy, going crazy, about petroleum. It's a drug like crack cocaine. Of course, the lunatic fringe of Christianity is welcoming the end of the world as the rapture. So I'm Jeremiah. It's going to have to stop. I'm sorry.

A tear falls quietly for Mr. Vonnegut, as this primate brain laughs tenderly at its own ocean-deep absurdity, which Kurt captured so well. So it goes.

And you could say that Galápagos was as clear a proposal for localization as I can think of.

All our problems arise from our big brains.

I feel shocked. It was one of the best writers of our times.
So it goes.

Below is my favorite Vonnegut passage. I find it inspirational when fighting long odds. Perhaps other TODers can relate.

“You thought we were sure to lose?” said Paul huskily.
“Certainly,” said Lasher, looking at him as though Paul had said something idiotic.
“But you’ve been talking all along as though it were almost a sure thing,” said Paul.
“Of course, Doctor, said Lasher patronizingly. “If we hadn’t all talked that way, we wouldn’t have had that one chance in a thousand. But I didn’t let myself lose touch with reality.”
...
“If we didn’t have a chance, then what on earth was the sense of--?” Paul left the sentence unfinished, and included the ruins of Ilium in a sweep of his hand.”...
“It doesn’t matter if we win or lose, Doctor. The important thing is that we tried. For the record, we tried!”...
“What record?” said Paul...
“Revolutions aren’t my main line of business,” said Lasher, his voice deep and rolling. “I’m a minister, Doctor, remember? First and last, I’m an enemy of the Devil, a man of God!”

(end of Chapter XXXIV) Player Piano – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ©1952

I'm touched that the first comments on TOD's "drumbeat" today were about Vonnegut. Some very classy and bright people hang out here.

As a Tralfamadorian Bokononist, philosophically, it is a great shame to have him gone, but if you look at him in earlier years he is really doing quite well.

May we each choose the lies we live by with open eyes.

NO one here has taken a leak lately have they. If so please quit taking leaks

Quid Clarius Astris
Ubi Bene ibi patria