In his book, Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut recounted what was ostensibly a fictional story about an alien creature, come to save the world. It turns out that what happened to Zog was quite real, and accurately described. Where Vonnegut dropped the ball was in his description of the problems Zog came to solve.
More below, but first, a word from our sponsor ...
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top to pop up in diaries around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fleur de kos...
|
Here is Vonnegut’s short 'tale:'
A flying saucer creature named Zog arrived on Earth to explain how wars could be prevented and how cancer could be cured. He brought the information from Margo, a planet where the natives conversed by means of farts and tap dancing. Zog landed at night in Connecticut. He had no sooner touched down than he saw a house on fire. He rushed into the house, farting and tap dancing, warning the people about the terrible danger they were in. The head of the house brained Zog with a golfclub.
The story is actually buried two levels deep in fictionhood. Vonnegut composed it as a fictional story within the semi-fictional book Breakfast of Champions written by his protagonist and also fictional author, Kilgore Trout. Certainly we all understand the frustration of our leaders not acting on wise ideas. But in Vonnegut’s case, the burying of world-saving solutions two levels deep in a fictional work cannot help. It gives our leaders political cover for their failures. ‘Aw good grief, I thought that was fictional!’ What BS!
Never do that. Provide them political cover. Not even if your name is Kurt Vonnegut.
However, the problem tonight is trying to correct Vonnegut’s critical omissions about Zog’s 'message,' since Zog can no longer communicate it himself. After running his farts and tap dances through the universal translator, this is what I have discovered.
Yes, it’s true Zog came with the solution of how to prevent wars (hint: some origins are in pie fights and pissing contests. Never invest your time in those. You cause wars when you do, and give those engaged in wars political cover - not that they give a fu … not that they care.) and cure cancer (hint: its origin is in the act of taking in and accepting ownership of toxic ideas, proliferating them). But he came with much more. He came with the answer to global warming (no, farts don’t materially contribute to it, so, communicating via farts is NOT hypocritical!), along with easily implementable measures to counter it, that people are psychologically inclined to buy into, and not resist (unless they are deeply invested in the toxic idea/incipient cancer/pie fight path). He also brought an answer to the travesty of ‘corporate citizenship.’ (They’re not citizens. Not EVEN if they fart and tap dance. No, they’re not from ‘Margo,’ either. Zog was emphatic on that point, and he cracked off many farts making it.)
On the subject of wars, Zog did not MERELY have the answer to preventing them, he had the answer to ending those already underway, both within Daily Kos and without. And though he did not proffer a ‘solution,’ exactly, he counseled strongly against placing credence in anything Michele Bachmann and Ted Cruz say. (And not JUST them. Tonight’s not the time for the full list, but they’re all conservative Republicans, and I’d wager you know their names, more’s the pity. And, to answer the obvious question, all of the names WERE given in farts, not tap dances. Too, some of the names are not easily rendered in Margese ... some of them he to spell out fartnetically.)
In Zog’s memory, then. Long live the wisdom of Zog!
Tap Dancing is Alive and well.
Who’s bringing the Farting?
(This is Gianni Luminati’s (From Walk Off the Earth) nephew, Myles Erlick, with his novel cover of Ed Sheeran’s version of Wayfaring Stranger.)
(Oh. To answer the other obvious question, yes, Zog was indeed the original Wayfaring Stranger, though probably not the one that inspired the historical folk tune. Originally called the Wayfarting Stranger.)
On to tonight’s comments! Formatted by
brillig!
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything
without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do
not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From peregrine kate:
cville townie has a long and passionate comment regarding the current damnable policies and attitudes of many people and jurisdictions within the U.S. that deserves more attention IMHO.
Top Mojo for yesterday, December 3rd, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Failure of leadership by Dallasdoc — 150
2) That's one of many reasons I tell people to get a by here4tehbeer — 127
3) It's something, yes. Gotta be! by Eileen B — 111
4) The people touting body cameras by Richard Lyon — 101
5) If you are asked to build it and offer it by karma5230 — 100
6) It isn't running away from Obama. by inclusiveheart — 91
7) You've been doing great reporting on Ferguson by sephius1 — 84
8) Sigh by BoiseBlue — 83
9) are you flipping kidding me? by Usererror — 82
10) Wages are so low that no one can save anything. by judyms9 — 81
11) The Prosecution Must Be Removed from the Juris- by Gooserock — 79
12) Staten Island by gchaucer2 — 77
13) Worse Than That, IMO by thewolf — 76
14) One more nail by Quabbin — 74
15) Shaun King said, by Nebraska68847Dem — 74
16) Not a threat by Tracker — 74
17) That is fantastic. You rock Chanute! n/t by glitterscale — 71
18) they fired Martin Bashir by rexymeteorite — 70
19) About time. by Cpqemp — 70
20) This should be enshrined in the Halls of Nonpology by ontheleftcoast — 70
21) President bagained away public option in 2009 by RFK Lives — 70
22) It's interesting to see right wing folks by ivorybill — 67
23) Mika is worse than worthless. She's an enabler, by flitedocnm — 66
24) The Autopsy Ruled Mr Garner's Death A Homicide.... by snapples — 66
25) That Jim Cramer question was a softball by The Termite — 65
26) Scarborough even included Lawrence O'Donnell... by markthshark — 64
27) All the police officer who by Frank In WA — 64
28) Yes! Yes! Yes! ... by Meteor Blades — 62
29) This is not about fucking obama! by JoanMar — 62
30) I thought Ferguson was a foregone conclusion. by jpmassar — 62
31) I just read that by anastasia p — 62
Top Pictures for yesterday, December 3rd. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment and/or larger picture. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!