That’s according to an excerpt I was reading last week. I’m not sure I could handle the entire book. Life under Bush — no, my own experiences of what’s happening to our country are depressing enough.

Vonnegut, who is aging as quickly as anybody else born in the early 1920s, may feel queasy about the future because his generation will not be experiencing it — but instead lapsing into the past or history; in short, oblivion.

But that feeling is natural. Not many people are angry on their deathbeds just because they think they’re going to miss out on the dawning of a new era of peace, prosperity and an end to suffering.

It’s quite easy to understand older people thinking that the world is falling apart and so not being terribly upset that it’s going to go on without them.

Nowadays, however, such feelings seem to be making their way into the minds of younger generations. And that can’t be indicative of a healthy society. Why is it that so many people seem to think we’re heading in the wrong direction, or off- track, these days?

Recent polls have shown that as many as 60 percent of respondents thought the nation was heading in the "wrong direction," while only about a third figured this mess was the correct path. In fact, the last time more people than not had warm feelings about our direction was election week 2004. And it cost us dearly.

Too many think we’re headed the wrong way. And that’s troubling.

And worse yet, according to Vonnegut, is that so many of us act like we don’t really care whether there’s a bright future for our planet. And if we’ve resigned ourselves to a future beyond our interest and control, what does that say about us?

The direction of our country and our prospects for the future really haven’t changed since Bush assumed power in 2001. We knew then that all the president’s men had their eyes on Iraq or some other renegade nations sitting on top of oil.

We knew the environment would have to go into hiding.

We knew health care costs would continue to soar without a plan for national insurance.

We knew programs for people would take a back seat to military spending.

We did not know that the spread of government and corporate corruption would soar into the higher echelons of power.

We did not know that 9/11 would occur and that it would be used to justify the invasion and war we feared.

We did not know that a War on Terror would lead to spying, abuses of power and lies originating in the Oval Office.

But does all this mean that humans have no chance for a decent future?

Who knows and who cares, some may say. Sure, it’s a bad scene, but too many people just want to shut it out with the Internet, TV, iPods and cell phones. They’re tuning in to one world and trying to shut out the bad world.

Unfortunately, today the world’s a global village, and you can’t escape it by eating its fruits.

The Web has made the Earth so small you can’t hide anymore — unless you’re Osama bin Laden. Some obscure newspaper in Denmark publishes an offensive cartoon, and the next thing you know Muslims are rioting all over the world.

I know, you can’t blame people for thinking negative thoughts about our prospects. There’s Bush rattling his sword at Iran, and then, someday, you know something has to happen with China. Everything the Chinese have is made here, and everything we have is made in China. Strange world.

Vonnegut, at 82, is still trying to figure out what’s going on. And the following remarks from his book show he hasn’t entirely given up on the younger generations.

"`When you get to my age," Vonnegut says, that is "if you get to my age, and if you have reproduced, you will find yourself asking your own children, who are themselves middle-aged: `What is life all about?’ I have seven kids, three of them orphaned nephews.

"I put my big question about life to my son the pediatrician. Dr. Vonnegut said this to his doddering old dad: `Father, we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."’

Nice thought. Now we just have to convince people that we’re all in this together, and that the only way we’ll have a future is if we stop killing and start cooperating.

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Cary Brunswick is managing editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at (607) 432-1000, ext. 217, or cary@thedailystar.com.