Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote about many scary things: the firebombing of Dresden, the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the specter of individuals controlled by the state or by technology. But the most unnerving image he ever put on paper may have been this, written when he was 47 years old, recounting the words of a fellow Indianapolis high school grad: “When you get to be our age, you all of a sudden realize that you are being ruled by people you went to high school with … You all of a sudden catch on that life is nothing but high school.”…
To read this article in its entirety, pick up a copy of TIME magazine at your local newsstand or download the TIME iPad app. Or, to have TIME magazine delivered to your door every week, subscribe. Print subscribers to the U.S. edition of TIME can access the iPad edition FREE for the length of their current print subscription term.