Afternoon Matinee: Carlin on the Illusion of Freedom

Afternoon Matinee: Carlin on Countdown

Ramming It Up Our Behinds

In a great article today, Glenn Greenwald talks about how President Obama -- not the "nasty" Republicans -- is setting the stage to remove the last obstacles to turn America into a playground for the corporate class and a vast wasteland for the rest of us.

It's been bleedingly obvious for some time that the bipartisan D.C. political class and the economic factions that own it have been intent on massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare...but the combination of deficit hysteria (repeatedly bolstered by Obama) and the manufactured debt ceiling deadline has, by design, created the perfect pretext to enable this now. As one "Democratic official" told the Post: "These moments come along at most once a decade. And it would be a real mistake if we let it pass us by." Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine is not a GOP-exclusive dynamic.

Reports are coming out of Washington that Obama is pushing a budget that slashes $4 trillion over the next 10 years -- TWICE AS MUCH as the Tea Party-backed Republicans are seeking -- as a supposed "compromise" to raise the debt ceiling. That's right, the man vilified by the Radical Right as a Muslim-loving socialist is working hard to strong arm the members of his own party to acquiesce to a plan that throws 90% of the country under the proverbial bus!!

NOTHING IS OFF THE TABLE, except for ending war and windfalls for the wealthy and Corporate America. If Obama has his way -- and there is no indication he won't -- Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will be chewed up and spit out without a second thought. And there's not a damn thing you or I can do about it!

Even worse,

Obama knows full well that he can slash Medicare, Medicaid and even Social Security -- just like he could sign an extension of Bush tax cuts, escalate multiple wars, and embrace the Bush/Cheney Terrorism template recently known in Democratic circles as "shredding the Constitution" -- and have most Democrats and progressives continue to support him anyway. Unconditional support ensures political impotence, and rightly so. He's attending to the constituencies that matter: mostly, Wall Street tycoons who funded his 2008 campaign and whom he hopes will fund his re-election bid, and independents whose support is in question. And he's doing that both because it's in his perceived interest and because, to the extent he believes in anything, those are the constituencies with which he feels most comfortable.

If this goes down like it looks like it will and you vote for Obama in 2012, then you must at least admit you are not a progressive...or even a liberal. No, you are a disaster capitalist and Milton Friedman is your god. You will have voted for a man who supports economic policies to the right of those ON the right!

Greenwald concluded his essay with a George Carlin video that I have featured on this blog before. I am featuring it again for those of you who still don't understand what is transpiring before our very eyes.

George Carlin, Taoist Sage 2

In the quote below, I contend that George Carlin's enshrinement in the halls of sagacity is secured. What say you?

I believe I am bigger than the universe, smaller than the universe and equal to it. I'm bigger than the universe because I can picture it, define it in my mind and everything that's in it and contain all that in my mind in a single thought. A thought that's not even the only one in there: it's right between "Shit, my ass itches!" and "Why don't we fuck the waitress?"

That thought, with all the others, is inside the twenty-three-inch circumference of my cranium. So I'm bigger than the universe. I'm smaller than it because that's obvious: I'm five foot nine and 150 pounds and the universe is somewhat taller and heavier. I'm equal to it because every atom in me is the very same as every atom the universe is made of. I'm part of the protogalaxy five billion light years away and of that cigarette butt in Cleveland.

There are no differences, we're equal. Unlike our fake democracy, the democracy of atoms is real.
~ from Last Words, pp. 285-86 ~

George Carlin, Taoist Sage 1

When we look at almost every religion or philosophic tradition, we always seem to look to the ancients. It is the centuries old prophets, messiahs, teachers and sages who command our attention. Just as Christians look to a Jewish carpenter who died nearly 2,000 years ago, we Taoists look to quasi-historical figures who have long been dead for thousands of years!

The more I ponder the life and thought of George Carlin, I've come to believe that he may well have been a latter day Zhuangzi. In this post and another later today, I'm going to share some more of his thoughts from Last Words. See what you think. Could we call George Carlin a Taoist sage?

I no longer identify with my species. I haven't for a long time. I identify more with carbon atoms. I don't feel comfortable or safe on this planet. From the standpoint of my work and peace of mind, the safest thing, the thing that gives me the most comfort, is to identify with atoms and the stars and simply contemplate the folly of my fellow species members. I can divorce myself from the pain of it all.

Once, if I identified with individuals I felt pain; if I identified with groups I saw people who repelled me. So now I identify with no one. I have no passion anymore for any of them, victims or perpetrators, Right or Left, women or men. I'm still human. I haven't abandoned my humanity, but I have put it in a place that allows my art to function free of entanglements.

My job is to watch the ludicrous dance down here for the humor and entertainment it provides and drop in every now and then to show my former species how fucked up they are.

Carlin on Everyday Expressions

Since the last two posts have referenced the late George Carlin, I thought a "laugh break" would be in order. Enjoy!

Book Review - Last Words

There are some books that a person knows going in that he or she is going to like. This may be because it's by a favored author or it covers a topic that the reader simply can't get enough of. In the case of Last Words by George Carlin with Tony Hendra, I knew before I even finished reading the introduction that this would go down as one of my all-time favorite books and, now that I've finished it, this certainty has become reality!

Needless to say, George Carlin is one of my two modern heroes (the other is Pete Seeger). As I've written in this space before, I consider Carlin to be the social conscience of his generation. He possessed the uncanny ability to make me -- and millions of others too -- laugh uproariously while simultaneously thinking very deep thoughts. He was a social critic, philosopher and comedian all rolled into one.

Last Words is not your typical autobiography. While he does trace the trajectory of his life from the streets of New York to all his various stops along the way, he offers a running comedic insight not unlike his later stand-up routines. I often found myself laughing, crying and nodding my head within the same paragraph!

If so-called "bad words" are not your cup of tea, then I strongly urge you NOT to read this book. Your sensibilities will be shocked beyond belief every time you see "Fuck" or "Shit" used and both words are used quite frequently.

If delving into the machinations of a known druggie bother you, then again this book is not for you. Carlin goes to great lengths to detail his many years of steady use of, shall we say, illicit substances.

Hallucinations could come not just for the drug [cocaine] alone, but from starving for days on end. I'd stay up as much as six days and not eat, or eat only morsels of food. Fasting, in fact...Even without visions, there was the deadly treadmill of staying awake and taking more drugs to try to put off the time when you would finally have to go to sleep and running out and going through all the rigamorale of getting more and taking it and putting off sleeptime and then realizing that you couldn't go any further.

Amidst the talk of drugs, the signposts that marked his career, family matters and general observations, the book is marked by textual snippets of many of his most famous comic routines, including the classics A Place for My Stuff and the 7 Words You Can't say on TV.

But what I enjoyed most about this wonderful book was the opportunity to get to understand how Carlin went about developing his craft. In the latter chapters, he turns his attention more toward his life philosophy and how he fashioned these insights into a package to induce others to laugh and think. In many ways, his methodology has a Zen and Taoist-like quality to it.

...when you're in front of an audience and you make them laugh at a new idea, you're guiding their whole being for the moment. No one is ever more herself or himself than when they really laugh. Their defenses are down. It's very Zen-like, that moment. They are completely open, completely themselves when that message hits the brain and the laugh begins. That's when new ideas can be implanted.

If you're a thinker who enjoys to laugh or a laugher who doesn't mind thinking, I can think of a no better book to recommend. It's been said that laughter is the best medicine and the musings of one George Carlin will provide you with an endless prescription -- a legal one at that!

(Note: This probably won't be the last time I write about Carlin. There are a few quotes from the book that I may utilize as a springboard for some later posts.)

All The "Way" Around

From time to time, I receive emails from individuals looking for a recommendation about a book on Taoism. While there are a myriad of stupendous books explicitly on this important topic, we each need to be aware that Taoist principles can often be found in books that don't identify themselves as Taoist all!

To offer an example, here's a quote from George Carlin's book, Last Words. In describing how he put together his later comedic monologues, he well exemplifies the concept of wu wei, going with the flow.

There was a familiarity to the feelings of anticipation. It was how I'd felt in the formative stages of Class Clown and Occupation: Foole. I knew -- just as I had then -- that this new material would flow easily and naturally. It had been stored up and was already halfway formed or ready to start forming. It had a life of its own. My process always works like that. I review a file and say, "There's a lot of good stuff in here, but I don't feel this bursting out of my chest yet." I look at another and get excited: "This shit's going to be GOOD! Can't wait till they hear THIS!"

But something else was happening that had never happened before. Previously my notes and ideas came together the way galaxies do: they just naturally clumped. They clumped simply because they were related -- an extended family of ideas around a general topic. Now they were parts that fit and functioned together, which I then formed into a whole...

You see, if our hearts and eyes are open, we can find the key concepts of philosophical Taoism in places that we would least expect. All it ever takes is to be open to the possibilities around us.

Carlin on Growing Old

The last clip down memory lane...at least for today! :D

Carlin on "Stuff"

If Chuang Tzu was alive today, me thinks he would sound like this...

Carlin on War

This one needs a bit of a set-up. For starters, when Carlin refers to President Bush, he's talking about Bush, the elder. The war he's talking about is the first attack on Iraq. Also, for you non-native English reading visitors, this video will teach you many words that you might not find in your x language-English dictionary! :D

Carlin on Similarities

On this blog, I write a lot about the notion that all things are connected, including each human being. In his own way, Carlin talks about the similar experiences we homo sapiens share -- some you might not readily think of.

Carlin on Religion

Today I'm going to post some videos of George Carlin's comedic routines. One of my all-time favorite comics, what I loved about Carlin so much is that nestled amongst his wild humor was some of the best social commentary of our generation. While I didn't agree with every single one of his perspectives, I did most of the time...like this one!

Courtesy of the Baroness

In the comments section for Wen Tzu - Verse 11, Baroness Radon wrote, "George Carlin on "Saving the Planet" comes to mind. Maybe we are part of the universe's plan to make...plastic?" She then include a link to a Carlin bit on YouTube which is featured below for you to ponder and enjoy.

Something Having to Do with Bulls

I've shown some cartoon videos that, shall we say, question Christianity. However, I realize that some of you may not be fond of stick figures and cartoon characters with mouths that don't move. So now, I'm bringing out the big guns: Penn & Teller and the late George Carlin. I mean, if you can't trust these fellows, who can you trust? (P.S. If you don't like to hear naughty words, you might wish to turn the sound down.)

Carlin on Flatulence

Hello. I'm Fred Ponsaloney III, president of the Fart Retrieval League. We all know that millions of farts are released by Americans each day, but did you know not all of them are free to rejoin the atmosphere? It's true. A small but significant number of farts each day are hopelessly trapped in seat cushions, suspended forever in cotton padding or foam rubber. We're asking you to help rescue these forgotten farts by sending your donations to the Fart Retrieval League. We'll send you a booklet entitled The Facts on Farts. And next time you're in a hotel lobby, do your part: Jump up and down on a seat cushion for several minutes and liberate a few trapped farts.
~ from "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" by George Carlin ~

Carlin on Control Freaks

Hello. We're the ones who control your lives. We make the decisions that affect all of you. Isn't it interesting to know that those who run your lives would have the nerve to tell you about it in this manner? Suffer, you fools. We know everything you do, and we know where you go. What do you think the cameras are for? And the global-positioning satellites? And the Social Security numbers? You belong to us. And it can't be changed. Sign your petitions, walk your picket lines, bring your lawsuits, cast your votes, and write those stupid letters to whomever you please; you won't change a thing. Because we control your lives. And we have plans for you. Go back to sleep.

~ from "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" by George Carlin ~