The students seem to agree.
"The only difference between Bush and Hitler," Vonnegut adds, "is that Hitler was elected."
"You all know, of course, that the election was stolen. Right here."
Off to a flying start, Vonnegut explains that this will be his "last speech for money." He can't remember the first one, but it was on a campus long, long ago, and this will be the end.
The students are hushed with the prospect of the final appearance of America's greatest living novelist. Alongside Mark Twain and Ben Franklin, Will Rogers and Joseph Heller and a very short list of immortal satirists and storytellers, there stands Kurt Vonnegut, author of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE and SIRENS OF TITAN, CAT'S CRADLE and GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER, books these students are studying now, as did their parents, as will their children and grandchildren, with a deeply felt mixture of gratitude and awe.
Nobody tonight seems to think they are in for a detached, scholarly presentation from a disengaged academic genius coasting on his incomparable laurels
"I'm lucky enough to have known a great president, one who really cared about ALL the people, rich and poor. That was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was rich himself, and his class considered him a traitor.
"We have people in this country who are richer than whole countries," he says. "They run everything.
"We have no Democratic Party. It's financed by the same millionaires and billionaires as the Republicans.
"So we have no representatives in Washington. Working people have no leverage whatsoever.
"I'm trying to write a novel about the end of the world. But the world is really ending! It's becoming more and more uninhabitable because of our addiction to oil.
"Bush used that line recently," Vonnegut adds. "I should sue him for plagiarism."
Things have gotten so bad, he says, "people are in revolt against life itself."
"The only difference between Bush and Hitler," Vonnegut adds, "is that Hitler was elected."
"You all know, of course, that the election was stolen. Right here."
Off to a flying start, Vonnegut explains that this will be his "last speech for money." He can't remember the first one, but it was on a campus long, long ago, and this will be the end.
The students are hushed with the prospect of the final appearance of America's greatest living novelist. Alongside Mark Twain and Ben Franklin, Will Rogers and Joseph Heller and a very short list of immortal satirists and storytellers, there stands Kurt Vonnegut, author of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE and SIRENS OF TITAN, CAT'S CRADLE and GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER, books these students are studying now, as did their parents, as will their children and grandchildren, with a deeply felt mixture of gratitude and awe.
Nobody tonight seems to think they are in for a detached, scholarly presentation from a disengaged academic genius coasting on his incomparable laurels
"I'm lucky enough to have known a great president, one who really cared about ALL the people, rich and poor. That was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was rich himself, and his class considered him a traitor.
"We have people in this country who are richer than whole countries," he says. "They run everything.
"We have no Democratic Party. It's financed by the same millionaires and billionaires as the Republicans.
"So we have no representatives in Washington. Working people have no leverage whatsoever.
"I'm trying to write a novel about the end of the world. But the world is really ending! It's becoming more and more uninhabitable because of our addiction to oil.
"Bush used that line recently," Vonnegut adds. "I should sue him for plagiarism."
Things have gotten so bad, he says, "people are in revolt against life itself."
[ ... ]
As for making money, "war is a very profitable thing for a few people. Jesus used to be so merciful and loving of the poor. But now he's a Republican.
"Our economy today is not capitalism. It's casino-ism. That's all the stock market is about. Gambling.
"Live one day at a time. Say 'if this isn't nice, I don't know what is!'
"You meet saints every where. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.
"I'm going to sue the cigarette companies because they haven't killed me," he says.
"Our economy today is not capitalism. It's casino-ism. That's all the stock market is about. Gambling.
"Live one day at a time. Say 'if this isn't nice, I don't know what is!'
"You meet saints every where. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.
"I'm going to sue the cigarette companies because they haven't killed me," he says.
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