Kurt Vonnegut was an American author best known for his satirical and darkly humorous commentaries on American society, arguably the most famous being his sixth novel, “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

In 1965, before the great success of “Slaughterhouse-Five,” Vonnegut had published his fifth novel, “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine” — a satire centered around a multi-millionaire who develops a social conscience and establishes a foundation “where he attempts to dispense unlimited amounts of love and limited sums of money to anyone who will come to his office” . . . leading his family and friends to conclude that he has obviously lost his marbles.

But Vonnegut himself was the furthest thing from crazy. In fact, he may have been something of a prophet, some 60 years ahead of his time, when he wrote this:

“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, then went bang in the noonday sun.”

– Kurt Vonnegut, “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater”

Does that strike a familiar chord for anyone? Yup . . . for me, too. Let’s just hope we don’t all go “bang in the noonday sun.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/19/25