The tenor of the recent resistance to public health care in the States (people fiercely arguing against their own welfare) has reminded me of a passage from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. It's one of the passages that has most stayed with me. I wondered how accurate it was. Slaughterhouse-Five was published in 1969, forty years ago. If what was written in it of America was true then, my impression on current evidence is that it is still true today. Here's the passage:
While the British colonel set Lazzaro's broken arm and mixed plaster for the cast, the German major translated out loud passages from Howard W. Campbell, Jr.'s monograph. Campbell had been a fairly well-known playwright at one time. His opening line was this one:
America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain't no disgrace to be poor, but might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'If you're so smart, why ain't You rich? ' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child's hand-glued to a lollipop stick and, flying from the cash register.
The author of the monograph, a native of Schenectady, New York, was said by some to have had the highest I.Q. of all the war criminals who were made to face a death by hanging. So it goes.
Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue, the monograph went on. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times.
Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves. Once this is understood the disagreeable behavior of American enlisted men in German prisons ceases to be a mystery.
Howard W. Cambell, Jr., now discussed the uniform of the American enlisted in the Second World War:
Every other army in history, prosperous or not, has attempted to clothe even its lowliest soldiers so as to make them impressive to themselves and others as stylish experts in drinking and copulation and looting and sudden death. The American Army, however, sends its enlisted men out to fight and die in a modified business suit quite evidently made for another man, a sterilized but unpressed gift from a nose-holding charity which passes out clothing to drunks in the slums.
When a dashingly-clad officer addresses such a frumpishly dressed bum, he scolds him, as an officer in an army must. But the officer's contempt is not, as in other armies, avuncular theatricality. It is a genuine expression of hatred for the poor, who have no one to blame for their misery but themselves. A prison administrator dealing with captured American enlisted men for the first time should be warned: Expect no brotherly love, even between brothers. There will be no cohesion between the individuals. Each will be a sulky child who often wishes he were dead.
Anonymous writes:There are multiple camps of people in this health care debate.You got one camp who are opposed to the obamacare simply because they don’t trust their government. They just know that somehow this is going to end with corruption. I was once a member of this camp, until I heard Obama’s speech, now I’m certain this Obama plan is just a disguised bailout for the insurance companies. The only part of the plan the insurance companies are protesting is the public option, but Obama already stated that no more than 5% of the population would be on the public option.Then you got the “this is socialist” camp. This camp of people are the ones that best fit the description in your blog. They mainly identify themselves as republicans and hate poor people with a passion. They may also commonly refer to Obama as the anti-christ.On the other end of the spectrum you got the Obamanoids. They worship Obama as their savior and support everything he does. They use ad hominems to attack anyone who criticises Obama. They are a vicious bunch who are very protective of their president.Lastly, you have people you think this new Obamacare plan is going to be the equivalent of univeral health care. Unlike the second camp, they support the socialisation of medicine. I would be in this camp too, if I thought we were going to get universal health care. But I know the government does not work for the benefit of the people, the president works for the corporations that funded his campaign into office… and that’s where his loyalities lie.
I see. You’re right that this blog post is about the ‘this is socialist’ camp. I suppose I’ve just seen a lot of that camp about, on the Internet and elsewhere. It’s been the nature of some of the arguments that has struck me. (Not living in America myself, it’s not a matter of urgency to me what the healthcare is like there.) I hear ‘entitlement’ as in ‘a sense of entitlement’ used as a bad word/phrase by this group of people a lot. I find it peculiar.
Hello Jim.Thanks for commenting.Good to hear from another Vonnegut fan.
jim fallope writes:I just re-read (or rather ‘re-listened’) to slaughterhouse five, and i had the identical thought, although not specifically in regard to health care but rather to the current political climate in general. Thank you for posting the passage. Now I can share it with my friends.
Skpodd writes:In 1970 I joined the US Army. At that time I was aware of Kurt Vonnegut as an American writer but knew little else about him and havn’t read his books. I retired from the US Army in 1994. Recently I read Slaughterhouse-Five. I was struck blindsided by the very passage stated above. How did Mr. Vonnegut know this back in 1969(or earlier)?! With the one minor exception with the enlisted uniform he is otherwise ‘spot on’ in my opinion. I’ve been in two wars and studied many cultures. Conclusion, there is no place on the planet where a nation’s hatred for one another is greater than in the United States. Even Rwanda is not as bad as America. I’m amazed and worried for my country. Again, how did Vonnegut arrive at this insight way back when…?
Hello Skpodd.Very interested to read your comments here.I think cultures do change, but I suspect that certain things remain surprisingly consistent, perhaps often those things that are passed on least consciously or are most taken for granted. I don’t know that much about Vonnegut’s life, but I believe I’m correct in sayin that he was witness to the bombing of Dresden or its aftermath.Ah yes:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#World_War_II
Anonymous writes:What will it take for America to change? After the great depression it seemed like the country was on the upswing not just economically but in terms of the very things we talked about; the internal divides such as racism and contempt for labor/the poor. Maybe another Great Depression is what it will take to cure America of its malaise. In any case as other countries surpass America in power and influence at the very least we don’t have to worry about this sick attitude spreading.
This is an interesting outside view of the States:http://marksamuels.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/alain-de-benoist-on-the-usa/I'm not sure of the extent to which America’s global influence is in decline. Even if the political power has declined in America as a geographical entity, I feel that the world is already so overwhelmingly Americanised that the influence will not soon fade. That is, the world has taken up the momentum of American culture like one ball on a pool table struck by another. But nothing lasts forever, after all…
Yes, sadly it seems reasons for these words to resonante continue to present themselves.
Anonymous writes:just been thinking the exact same thing then found this