George Carlin - Owners of This Country

[Twist_U_Up]

True, George Carlin has never been afraid of being ... all » politically incorrect, but in this piece he lays the big picture on the line. Clocking in at just over 13 minutes, he has to get the award for the quickest introduction to the real world ever. As in feudal days, it seems that the jester is the only one left allowed to speak the truth openly. So if you wanna know what's going on and you are determined to get that info from TV, maybe you had best tune in to the Comedy Channel: Jon Stewart for daily updates + George for the big picture overview

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-771488600376041822

[Echo In Light]

1. Carlin's anti-establishment views had a substantial impact on while growing up

I quote him often.

[Echo In Light]

4. Ha...been listening to this piece. We saw him on this tour not long ago.

It's funny how he can take on that role and offer up some of the most damning examples of American society, and people cheer him on, they 'get it.' As where if he wasn't renown, and stood on a street corner and leveled such harsh social critiques, people would be chasing him down with torches and pitchforks.

[Twist_U_Up]

5. He is truely a genius.

I would love to spend the day with the man. His insight on the world is truely unique.
As you, I grew up with him.
Lewis Black another outspoken comedian idolizes George.

[Echo In Light]

7. Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Prior, and Bill Hicks - I have a huge Hicks poster w/quotes

I didn't like what Denis Leary did with Hicks' dissident approach: he de-fanged the anti-establishment heart of his jokes/critique and made it "sports bar" friendly.

[melody]

9. It should also be noted that Carlin has been heavily influenced by the late Bob Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson was a mentor of a kind and friend to Carlin.

[midnight]

2. As long as it is said with a smile and washed down with a

laugh, I suppose anything is tolerable to have to listen too. Maybe the news casters can report to us daily about the status of our constitution. We can all laugh about that.

[Twist_U_Up]

6. "it`s just a god damned piece of paper"

[Echo In Light]

10. "You have no choice, you have OWNERS"

"They don't want a populace filled with people capable of critical thinking."

"Americans remain willfully ignorant about the big red, white and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes everyday."

[Squatch]

3. Damn, he's starting to look old.

[bdamomma]

8. George Carlin is great,

do you guys remember when he used to do the "hippy dippy weatherman", Carlin is one of a kind.

[Echo In Light]

11. Ironically he became far more caustic later in life as American unreality became more pervasive

Hippy Dippy, and even his Seven Words bit are very pale compared to the brutal social critiques he began laying out after the first Gulf war.

[Swamp Rat]

12. "They want more for themselves and less for everybody else."

:kick:

Let them eat cake.

[bdamomma]

13. yup, we all know that is true

that is their motto, more for me less for you. Hey Swampy!!:hi:

[Swamp Rat]

15. "I committed suicide, but all I got was a stupid, fucking t-shirt."

:hi: Good morning alyce douglas! ... off to school now. :hi:

[Twist_U_Up]

20. "Pretty soon alls you`ll need to get into college is a fukin pencil"

shrub needs a little green in this one. Maybe a tail.
Keep up the great work Swampy!!

[lonestarnot]

21. nnnnn some paper.

[warren pease]

17. Pretty much what Adam Smith said way back when...

Smith was concerned that unrestrained capitalism would produce an amoral, greedy oligarchy who cared for nothing except continuous self-enrichment and lived by the credo: "...all for ourselves and nothing for anyone else."

He called this the "vile maxim of the masters of mankind." So he was either prescient or people are depressingly predictable.

Note that Smith is the hero of all those free market anti-regulation capitalists who need an acceptable precedent to justify their rotten lives of unrelenting avarice -- and who cite him constantly, of course, but have never actually read him.

Here's the exact quote, from "The Wealth of Nations," published in 1776:

"All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind."

Wiki has a pretty comprehensive Cliffs Notes version of "The Wealth of Nations" here.

And on a related topic: To the horror of our current class of robber barons and feudal lords, Smith also believed the rich should contribute to the maintenance of civil society via "a tax upon house-rents" (which I guess is the equivalent of property taxes), apportioned through a progressive taxation system that would hit the rich the hardest:

"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."

So Smith's a borderline pinko commie rat bastard who apparently believed in the Enlightenment concepts of the inherent dignity and worth of all individuals -- not just the ruling class. Just about the same time as people like Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, Washington, Madison and the rest of those radicals were busily committing treason against the crown across the Atlantic.

There must be so many decent, idealistic, brilliant people from that era rotating in their graves these days that it's a wonder the earth remains on its axis.


wp

[bdamomma]

14. kick

and everyone should watch this.

[ProgressiveFool]

16. Occupation: Foole

Yes, Carlin is one of the greatest, and an inspiration to fools everywhere!

[King Coal]

18. Thanks for that. He nails it.

[guitar man]

19. nails it

...cleanly on the head...

[Initech]

22. George Carlin is awesome.

[RayOfHope]

23. I saw him live in December. His take on 'god given rights':

He was talking about how people like to go on and on about 'god given rights' to carry guns, free speech, etc. , and how these rights were sent down from heaven above. He said that's all bullshit, and why the hell wouldn't god give you a right to food on the table and a roof over your head instead.