The Structure of the Moment

Why try to prevent something from happening when it’s going to happen anyway? This is the Trelfamadorians’ attitude towards life. They consider that whatever they do, moments are going to happen anyways. I think differently, although of course I don’t have the ability to travel in time. Time-Traveling is no advantage at all if you can’t use it to change the past or even the future. Therefore, Trelfamadorians should not be more advanced than us only because they are unstuck in time since they don’t use that ability anyways. I think instead of an advantage, knowing what is going to happen is worse than not knowing at all, because at least I am sure that I don’t want to know the date of my death, and if I knew it, I would have a bitter life thinking that I am getting nearer and nearer, although I am still getting nearer and nearer, but it’s still a surprise. In chapter five, when Billy asks Trelfamadorians how to prevent war on Earth, they call him stupid because they say he shouldn’t do anything. Billy asks how the Universe ends, and the Trelfamadorians reply that a Trelfamadorian blows it up by pressing a button, and when Billy asks them why do they not prevent it they reply like this: “He has always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way.” In other words: “Why prevent it from happening if it’s going to happen anyways? The moment is structured that way.” Therefore, as I see it, Trelfamadorians have no will; they cannot make decisions because of their way of life. They don’t make an effort to change the future. For all I know, they could lie in a bed for all their life and their life would be exactly the same as if they actually tried to do something with it.