Worthwhile Warnings by Kurt Vonnegut
...ike something the cat drug in” (8). Any unusual talent is considered a flaw, and must be countered. Nobody feels the need to work hard to become smarter, stronger, or successful. Nobody could be looked upon as an inspiration because everyone is equal. Vonnegut poses this argument for a dark side of equality to promote a different way of thinking about a topic thought to be nothing but positive. In the story of “Welcome to the Monkey House,” the problem of overpopulation is a great concern, and Vonnegut poses the idea of mandatory birth control. He also writes about suicide centers, where death can be achieved in a painless way by choice. These are interesting solutions to the problem. He also describes what the world is like where the Government controlled everything. “Nancy and Mary and the sheriff were lucky to have jobs. Most people didn’t. The average citizen moped around home and watched television, which was the Government” (34). The World Government encouraged everyone to take the ethical birth control, which numbed people from the waste down. The penalty for refusing was a fine of $10,000 and ten years in jail. Though these ideas may not be realistic, they spark a thought in thinking about the problem, and how the government is handling the situation. The vast majority of the people don’t question the government, and it takes Billy the Poet to reveal to people what they are being held from. The reader is able to read the story from an objective point of view and decide if the government is truly being ethical. An intelligence analyzer mentioned in “Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog.” Edison said, “It will be your generation that will grow up in the glorious new era when people will be as easily graded as oranges” (115). This machine would be a much easier way of grading students and people. There would be no variables such as different schools, or different teachers. SAT scores would not be necessary. The negatives however, seem to outweigh the positives. This analyzer wouldn’t be able to measure all kinds of intelligence. For example, a person could not do well in math, but be a genius in art, but it wouldn’t be known. People would have no reason to work hard. Vonnegut is trying to show that some technology can be very hazardous. He obviously sees that measuring intelligence only by grades and standardized tests is a problem, and he takes it one step further, magnifying the issue to have an affect on his audience. The concept of living forever, or atleast as long as desired, while forever looking twenty or thirty years old sounds very appealing. Once again, Vonnegut is able to show his audience the flip side. Botox, anti-aging creams, and plastic surgery are currently more popular than ever before in history. These things were not popular when Vonnegut wrote the story, and the fact that the world is now obsessed with staying young shows that he is perfectly correct in his predictions. Society is already taking steps towards how life is in the story “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.” In the story, the year is 2158, the population is about double the population today, and there are no raw materials remaining. Many generations of families are crammed together...