Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector- Kurt Vonnegut:
"I feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable.
"And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka "Christians" ...plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities." <A HREF="">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- Begin Message ------ End Message ----Caveat Lector- In These Times Kurt Vonnegut interview > > Kurt Vonnegut vs. the !&#*!@ > > In November, Kurt Vonnegut turned 80. He published his first novel, > Player > Piano, in 1952 at the age of 29. Since then he has written 13 others, > including Slaughterhouse Five, which stands as one of the pre-eminent > anti-war novels of the 20th century. > > As war against Iraq looms, I asked Vonnegut, a reader and supporter of > this > magazine, to weigh in. Vonnegut is an American socialist in the > tradition of > Eugene Victor Debs, a fellow Hoosier whom he likes to quote: "As long > as > there is a lower class, I am in it. As long as there is a criminal > element, I > am of it. As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free." > > -Joel Bleifuss > > > You have lived through World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Reagan wars, > Desert > Storm, the Balkan wars and now this coming war in Iraq. What has > changed, and > what has remained the same? > > One thing which has not changed is that none of us, no matter what > continent > or island or ice cap, asked to be born in the first place, and that > even > somebody as old as I am, which is 80, only just got here. There were > already > all these games going on when I got here. An apt motto for any polity > anywhere, to put on its state seal or currency or whatever, might be > this > quotation from the late baseball manager Casey Stengel, who was > addressing a > team of losing professional athletes: "Can't anybody here play this > game?" > > My daughter Lily, for an example close to home, who has just turned > 20, finds > herself-as does George W. Bush, himself a kid-an heir to a shockingly > recent > history of human slavery, to an AIDS epidemic and to nuclear submarines > slumbering on the floors of fjords in Iceland and elsewhere, crews > prepared > at a moment's notice to turn industrial quantities of men, women and > children > into radioactive soot and bone meal by means of rockets and H-bomb > warheads. > And to the choice between liberalism or conservatism and on and on. > > What is radically new in 2003 is that my daughter, along with our > president > and Saddam Hussein and on and on, has inherited technologies whose > byproducts, whether in war or peace, are rapidly destroying the whole > planet > as a breathable, drinkable system for supporting life of any kind. > Human > beings, past and present, have trashed the joint. > > Based on what you've read and seen in the media, what is not being > said in > the mainstream press about President Bush's policies and the > impending war > in Iraq? > > That they are nonsense. > > My feeling from talking to readers and friends is that many people ar > beginning to despair. Do you think that we've lost reason to hope? > > I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a > just > war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. > Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it > has been > taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style > coup > d'etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government > are > upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus > not-so-closeted > white supremacists, aka "Christians," and plus, most frighteningly, > psychopathic personalities, or "PPs." > > To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical > diagnosis, > like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete's foot. The classic > medical > text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs > are > presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause > others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. > They > have a screw loose! > > And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and > WorldCom > and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their > employees and > investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, > no > matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these > heartless > PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were > leaders > instead of sick. > > What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now > in > government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they > are > never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care > what > happens next. Simply can't. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! > Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap > everybody's > telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile > shield! > Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my > ass! > > How have you gotten involved in the anti-war movement? And how would > you > compare the movement against a war in Iraq with the anti-war movement > of the > Vietnam era? > > When it became obvious what a dumb and cruel and spiritually and > financially > and militarily ruinous mistake our war in Vietnam was, every artist > worth a > damn in this country, every serious writer, painter, stand-up comedian, > musician, actor and actress, you name it, came out against the thing. > We > formed what might be described as a laser beam of protest, with > everybody > aimed in the same direction, focused and intense. This weapon proved > to have > the power of a banana-cream pie three feet in diameter when dropped > from a > stepladder five-feet high. > > And so it is with anti-war protests in the present day. Then as now, > TV did > not like anti-war protesters, nor any other sort of protesters, unless > they > rioted. Now, as then, on account of TV, the right of citizens to > peaceably > assemble, and petition their government for a redress of grievances, > "ain't > worth a pitcher of warm spit," as the saying goes. > > As a writer and artist, have you noticed any difference between how the > cultural leaders of the past and the cultural leaders of today view > their > responsibility to society? > > Responsibility to which society? To Nazi Germany? To the Stalinist > Soviet > Union? What about responsibility to humanity in general? And leaders > in what > particular cultural activity? I guess you mean the fine arts. I hope > you mean > the fine arts... Anybody practicing the fine art of composing music, no > matter how cynical or greedy or scared, still can't help serving all h > umanity. Music makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or > she > would be without it. Even military bands, although I am a pacifist, > always > cheer me up. > > But that is the power of ear candy. The creation of such a universal > confection for the eye, by means of printed poetry or fiction or > history or > essays or memoirs and so on, isn't possible. Literature is by > definition > opinionated. It is bound to provoke the arguments in many quarters, not > excluding the hometown or even the family of the author. Any > ink-on-paper > author can only hope at best to seem responsible to small groups or > like-minded people somewhere. He or she might as well have given an > interview > to the editor of a small-circulation publication. > > Maybe we can talk about the responsibilities to their societies of > architects > and sculptors and painters another time. And I will say this: TV drama, > although not yet classified as fine art, has on occasion performed > marvelous > services for Americans who want us to be less paranoid, to be fairer > and more > merciful. M.A.S.H. and Law and Order, to name only two shows, have been > stunning masterpieces in that regard. > > That said, do you have any ideas for a really scary reality TV show? > > "C students from Yale." It would stand your hair on end. > > What targets would you consider fair game for a satirist today? > > Assholes.<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om--- End Message ---
