Benedict Cumberbatch Reads Kurt Vonnegut’s Prescient 1988 Letter to People 100 Years in the Future
During a Letters Live event on December 12th, 2024, British actor Benedict Cumberbatch spoke with a general American accent to read “Ladies and Gentlemen of A.D. 2088”, a powerfully prescient 1988 letter by Kurt Vonnegut that semi-scolded people 100 years in the future.
In this letter, Vonnegut talks about the power of nature, an overgrown population, inept politicians, and what to do in order to save the planet.
Now that we can discuss the mess we are in with some precision, I hope you have stopped choosing abysmally ignorant optimists for positions of leadership. …The sort of leaders we need now are not those who promise ultimate victory over Nature through perseverance in living as we do right now, but those with the courage and intelligence to present to the world what appears to be Nature’s stern but reasonable surrender terms.
Lori Dorn
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