Hitchhiking, In a Galaxy

I want to go for a long walk with Douglas McAdams - just him and me - with a bottle of wine and no glasses. 

When I first read Slaughterhouse Five, I got to the end and then started again at page one.  I think Douglas McAdams read Vonnegut and then got an idea to make Vonnegut's idea of life - smashing with science fiction - more specific and (definitely) weirder.  This guy is a true and proper nerd, in all the great ways.  Hyper-intellectually making up words so the reader has to pay attention differently. 

I'm reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy again right now, for whatever reason, and the parallels between what Vonnegut was saying and what McAdams was saying, and what is happening RIGHT NOW are just dead-on.  (Actually,  that's not a great statement about humanity in general, but whatever.)

So anyway, Douglas and I are hanging out (me reading his book), and I'm also listening to Christopher Hitchens talk about George Orwell while reading Hitchens' book Why Orwell Matters.

Here's what I'm thinking:

Since the dawn of modern civilization ... humans started fucking things up.

• people often don't know where they belong
• people often forcibly tell others that they don't belong 
• people can see things happen
• people often choose a version of what they are seeing
• People often hear words
• People very often don't listen

My favorite writers are those who tell me a story that I believe and which adds something important to the conversation about humanity and culture and social ideology.  

Vonnegut wrote about hitchhiking in a galaxy called Vietnam and PTSD ...

McAdams wrote about hitchhiking in a galaxy called Existential Angst and Peace ...

Orwell wrote about hitchhiking in a galaxy called Social Injustice and Fear ...

Hitchens wrote about hitchhiking in a galaxy called Ideology and Communication ...

If you don't think for yourself, other people will think for you.  I know that sounds easier on some level, but don't drink their Kool-Aid.  The only things that makes people semi-unique is that they can choose how to think and act.  Humanity is doomed to (accelerated) extinction if individual people stop thinking.  

As Christopher Hitchens wrote, "an old radical adage states that 'the will to command is not as corrupting as the will to obey'."  Amen, brother.  Obedience is what we should want from a dog (and even then, leave the fucking dog alone).  

Think.  Step out of your head.  Now do it again.  (simple civics advice)