I Evoke Brow 31: Screw You, Roman Numerals!

Hocus Pocus, Kurt Vonnegut

I love coming across passages in books that are wonderfully prescient. The copyright on this novel is 1990 but look at this passage:

“What makes so many Americans proud of their ignorance? They act as though their ignorance somehow made them charming.”

This selection is preceded by a character referring to Yale as “Plantation Owners Tech.”

Hopefully those two excerpts together are enough to set off the same alarm bells in your head but allow me to drive the point home: Yale Grad G.W. Bush had only just purchased the Rangers in 1989–he wouldn’t run for Governor for another 5 years. But isn’t charming ignorance the most succinct explanation of his election to both offices and sustained popularity? It took massive failure on essentially every front for the majority of the country to get tired of the smirking chimp.

Anyway, the book was good but not great, as it tailed off to a not-really-end. 6/10