Chapter 9, "Do Unto Others" Summary

This chapter is aptly named, since it begins with, and focuses on the old saying, "Do unto others would you would have them do unto you." Vonnegut starts by pointing out that while most people believe Jesus says this, and he does, that Confucius said it five hundred years before that. Vonnegut marvels at how while this is a common saying known in virtually every nation by hundreds of cultures, people still just do not get it. Vonnegut muses on how this is such a basic piece of advice that could change the world, and yet after over two thousand years nobody gets it.

Vonnegut uses the example of an early Socialist candidate for President of the United States, Eugene Debs, and how his political mottos and his philosophy of life and how similar it...