This whole book is a critique or satire of modern ideas. He begins his seemingly whimsical book with the line above. While this is a weird way to try to critique an idea, such as modernism, it allows the reader to see the idea of modernism as silly. He revolts against the previously concieved ideas such as pure science leads to the perfect world, by saying that pure science leads to a gray area between good and evil. He combats the idea that knowledge is always good, and states that knowledge somethings leads to destruction. He also states that the pursuit of truth is pointless because there is no absolute truth. While others fought to cling to the idea that knowledge could lead us to a perfect society, Vonnegut stated that perfection does not exist and if you constantly pursue it you will go mad.
It is hard to sit down and read a story that is against what many people believe, such as religion is a shameless lie. Therefore Vonnegut wrote a story in which directly he attacked modern ideas by pointing out the obvious flaws in his exagerrated examples. While reading his book an individual must realize that in order for utopia to be attained reality must be given up. But if we give up our own personal truth then how can we ever be happy living and denying our true self. For this reason it is easy to see the Vonnegut is attacking the pursuit of perfect society which it the goal of modernism.
The religion of Bokononism is a complete lie that consumes the people who believe in it. This allows them to get away from reality and pretend their life is more than it actually is. The religion itself is a testament to Vonnegut's stance on modern beliefs.
