The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut is a novel that has proven to be prophetic of the attitudes and beliefs that have become common in the culture wars of the today.

Vonnegut is perhaps one of the few authors of the past century would not have been surprised by today’s war on privilege, which in the novel takes the form of a new religion adopted by a humanity that becomes stricken with collective guilt after wiping out a pathetically-equipped army of invaders from Mars. One of the principal beliefs of this religion is that to declare oneself lucky is to commit blasphemy: God is now worshipped as a figure of total indifference, and to insist that he has preferences or takes any interest in human affairs is the new Satanism.

But condemning luck (or privilege) is not enough. One needs a practice in which to express this belief, and to make a practice universal, one needs an imperative that is distant and difficult to fulfill. Much of today’s resentment, acrimony, and bitterness can be said to stem from the absence of everyday practices that the privileged can all adopt to negate their advantages, to demonstrate to the rest that they not only are equal to the rest, but also that it is their heart’s desire to be equal to those who have not been so blessed by the accidents of fate.

Vonnegut offers an eminently practical solution: “handicapping.” Those who are agile and strong must wear weights to bring themselves down to average speed and dexterity. Women blessed with good looks must wear make-up in a grotesque manner, so that men’s eyes will not drift toward them. Those with intellectual gifts must marry those who have no interest in the matters of the mind. Vonnegut does not talk about cuisine, but in this society, the moral thing would be to eat food that one does not like, or perhaps food that makes one gag. And surely, the act of sexual coupling would be sanctified by the absence of any attraction to one’s partner.

What makes this all credible, aside from the evidence before our eyes, is the principle cited by the prophet and law-giver of this new order, who is modeled after FDR. He tells the protagonist, Malachi Constant, formerly the luckiest man in the world, that nothing intoxicates people more than the “thrill of a fast reverse.” It doesn’t matter if the big reward or the great suffering comes first – what people find meaningful and take to heart is the contrast, the sudden experience of a vast distance.

Nietzsche observed that the morality of equality, which he called the “morality of the mediocre,” can “never admit what it is and what it wants!” This morality conceals its aim by chattering on about “moderation and dignity and duty and loving your neighbors.” I am tempted to say that Vonnegut spilled the beans on the esoteric teaching of social justice, but perhaps we have already arrived at the point where it has lost its mystery, that it has lost the sentimental veil that has prevented one from addressing its nakedness in polite company.