Vonnegut on our current mess

In These Times, the leftist paper, recently interviewed Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.; here's some of what he said:

"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 uppercrust 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."



The full text of the interview, which is critical and amusing in Vonnegut's abstract/concrete way, is at the In These Times website here.