I love Kurt Vonnegut.

I’d heard of him before he died last week, but had never read any of his stuff. But since his death was highly publicized, now I have. That’s the bright side of famous writers dying; they’re so eloquently eulogized on NPR that I am inspired to immediately read their books.

Anyway, I really like what he had to say about the War on Drugs. Claiming alcohol and fossil fuels as “the two most [legal], widely abused and addictive and destructive substances”, he writes:

When you got here, even when I got here, the industrialized world was already hopelessly hooked on fossil fuels, and very soon now, there won’t be any left. Cold turkey.

Can I tell you the truth? I mean, this isn’t the TV news, is it? Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.”