April 13. 2007 12:00AM
Kurt Vonnegut saw humanism as way to build a better world
APPRECIATION
By David A. Niose
Tributes to author Kurt Vonnegut, who died this week, will no doubt praise him as one of the important writers of the 20th century. And with classics such as “Slaughterhouse Five” and “Cat’s Cradle” to his credit, he certainly deserves such recognition.
But no tribute to Vonnegut would be complete without reference to his ranking as one of the great humanists of our time. As honorary president of the American Humanist Association, Vonnegut was a great proponent of humanism as a tool for building a better world.
Humanists are skeptical of religious claims, particularly claims of prophecy and revelation. Vonnegut, like most humanists, had little use for speculation about supernatural realms and saw organized religions that attempted to do so as creating needless division in the world. Differences among Jews, Christians and Muslims, after all, often amount to disagreements over whose ancient prophets received the real word of God, with eternal salvation hanging in the balance.
Vonnegut brushed aside such theological disagreements: “I am a humanist,” he said, “which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishment after I am dead.”
Usually blunt and to the point, with wit and sarcasm as his trademarks, Vonnegut derived much enjoyment from ruffling feathers and breaking decorum. Though the ceremonial leader of the largest humanist group in the country, he would routinely make metaphorical religious references. “God forbid,” he would frequently say, causing the more disciplined secular humanists to cringe.
He even mocked his role as the AHA’s honorary president, calling it a “functionless” job, but of course such a description overlooked the fact that his name brought so much to the AHA, and to humanism as a respectable nontheistic life stance.
If you’re wondering how a nontheistic humanist views death, Vonnegut provided some guidance. In his recent book, “A Man Without a Country,” Vonnegut discusses a presentation he gave at a memorial service for Isaac Asimov, who was Vonnegut’s predecessor as AHA honorary president. “We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, ‘Isaac is up in heaven now.’ It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, ‘Kurt is up in heaven now.’ That’s my favorite joke.”
In his novels, Vonnegut often utilized bizarre plots and characters to make the reader see the inconsistencies in society that too often go unquestioned. It troubled him that countries could annihilate one another, including even innocent children, and then sign peace treaties and go on with life as if everything were normal.
Vonnegut, who fought in Europe in World War II and was a prisoner of war, refused to accept war as normal. He saw humanism as a means for building a better world, a world beyond senseless divisions and beyond war. It was humanism that nourished Vonnegut’s optimism, though his knowledge of history and his own personal experiences made that optimism cautious. Vonnegut’s humanism was rooted in the idea that humans need to see themselves as what they are — brothers and sisters who share a home, and who have little use for divisive creeds that were formulated in ancient times.
Ironically, though Vonnegut utilized absurdity to convey his message, that message was essentially one of sanity.
So yes, Vonnegut was a great author. More important, he was a great humanist. And considering all he has done, for both humanism and humanity, we are obliged to grant his wish:
Kurt is up in heaven now.
And so it goes.
David A. Niose, a lawyer in Fitchburg, is an officer and director of the American Humanist Association and facilitator of Greater Worcester Humanists.
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