Originally posted at Hoffmania...
This is how bad the American condition is. When a firebrand like George Carlin turns inward and goes through the motions, it's serious. It's completely understandable to feel as if no matter how hard you speak out about war, environment, corruption and just about every social issue we face, your words just fall flat to a citizenry and government who just want an incompetent religious figurehead up there.
But, George - half of us are on your side. In fact, the very cities which were attacked on 9/11 voted an average of 85% against Bush (Manhattan 80%, Washington DC 90%). The defeat was crushing only in the outcome, not the margin. It sucks, but we can't shut up now. Smaller minorities of Americans created major upheaval before. We can certainly overcome a flyweight like Bush and his new gang of flyweight pals now.
Keep fighting, George. America REALLY needs you today.
LA Times article on the other side of the wall...
Losing faith all around
George Carlin gave up on religion. Belief in his fellow humans might be the next thing to go.
By Martin Miller, Times Staff Writer
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On L.A.'s Westside earlier this week to promote his third book, Carlin sold out a 500-seat-plus room at the Skirball Cultural Center, where the audience sat in rapt anticipation of their favorite George rhetorically ripping the other one to bits.
But it didn't exactly happen that way during his two-hour appearance, part of an ongoing author series sponsored by the nonprofit group Writers Bloc. There were a few fulminations directed at the younger George - hardly any of them printable - but by and large the evening did not achieve the kind of Bush-bashing hilarity and healing that Democrats might have expected from a pioneer of the angry comic act.
Instead, the 67-year-old comedian sounded world- and, at times, even life-weary. A single night's mood amid a tiring national book tour does not a man make, but Carlin did seem by turns depressed, defeated and resigned over ever improving the lamentable human condition.
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"I try not have an emotional stake" in the world, said Carlin, dressed in all-black clothing. "I've turned off the feeling part because I refuse to be voluntarily heartbroken by what we're doing to ourselves and each other. So I'd rather divorce myself from it and wash my hands of it, which isn't very responsible, but that's the way I feel."
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Once an admitted idealist, Carlin believed in the possibility of positive change for people and societies.
Now, he claims he does not, at least not in any meaningful way. Thus, he explained, he can't or won't let himself care anymore and that it's only the "entertainment" value of the ongoing pageant of human folly and tragedy that sustain him and his career.
"If you're born into this world, you're given a ticket to the freak show, and if you're born in this country, you're given a front-row seat," said Carlin. "I say: Sit back and enjoy the show."
Whatever still drives him, Carlin trampled over any number of popularly held, sacrosanct positions during the night. He questioned why tragedies are somehow worse when they befall children as opposed to adults. He compared people who claim to have seen UFOs with believers of organized religion. And he wondered why firefighters who died inside the World Trade Center towers were automatically labeled heroes. Some heroic deed must have actually been performed, he said. "You're not a hero because you show up to work," he added.
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When the more mundane topic of politics came up, Carlin usually discussed it in conspiratorial overtones. While describing himself as left of center and someone who would have preferred to see Sen. John F. Kerry elected, he said it all didn't really matter anyway.
"They" - American corporations - control events. Oh, yes, "they" would back off slightly, said Carlin, if pushed hard enough as during the civil rights movement or the Vietnam War, but the idea of the people determining events is naive.
Even the environment is a lost cause at this point, he said. Polluted and destroyed beyond hope. In fact, the human record on Earth should argue against any colonization attempts on other planets like Mars.
"Let's keep this infection local," he said.