WHAT WOULD GEORGE SAY?
Well, we know what they [politicians] want. I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests.
They want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. They want your fuckin’ retirement money, and you know something? They’ll get it from you sooner or later cause they own this fuckin’ place. It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.
–George Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008)
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Remember George (“THE SEVEN WORDS YOU CAN’T SAY ON TELEVISION”) Carlin? I was reminded of him by this May 11 comic strip in the local paper:
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2016/05/11
….while on the very next day (Carlin’s birthday), my erstwhile friend Richard “Ricardo” Cahill posted this piece on his blog:
http://www.richardcahill.net/home/donald-trump-appreciation-day
Those two items combined to make me wonder what Carlin, who died before Barack Obama was elected President, would say about today’s politics in general/Donald Trump in particular. Judging by the opening quote, I don’t think we have to wonder long.
So, using the comb I no longer need to part the hair which parted ways with my skull years ago, I combed through the Carlin legacy to come up with these ever-apt ‘by George’ quotes:
When you’re born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat (from which I gather that a Trump by any other name would spiel as P. T. Barnum).
In America, anyone can become President. That’s the problem. (George, I doubt that even you appreciated how true that may prove to be.)
By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. [I talk, therefore I lie.]
Have you ever wondered why Republicans are so interested in encouraging people to volunteer in their communities? It’s because volunteers work for no pay [yes, but it’s for a great cause]. Republicans have been trying to get people to work for no pay for a long time.
Now, there’s one thing you might have noticed I don’t complain about: politicians. [Really?] Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don’t fall out of the sky. They come from American parents and American families, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re going to get selfish, ignorant leaders.
Good honest hard-working people continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about you. [Lucky for George, this isn’t TV.] They don’t care about you at all. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
So, it seems the title question has been answered. George would say today what he said then – he’d just have even more clowns to laugh at. The Donald alone is an absurdist’s dream, not to mention such other relative newcomers to the national stage (aka The Theater of the Absurd) as Sarah Palin. But that’s show business….and, in the immortal words of P. T. Barnum, it’s still THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.
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P.S. Memo to Hillary: This post contains classified information. Please handle appropriately.
Cynthia Jobin 12:28 am on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
I loved George Carlin as a humorist and a philosopher and just plain original thinker. Once he got into commenting on politics, however, I didn’t find him funny anymore, just bitter, and boring.
Now I’m thinking of his “Weather Forecast for tonight: Dark. Continued dark overnight with widely scattered light by morning….” and his “no one knows what’s next, but everybody does it.” I always thought his monologue comparing baseball and football was brilliant!
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mistermuse 4:17 am on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
There’s no denying he was bitter about politics….but the older I get, the more I don’t disagree with his bitterness, though how he expressed it could be off-putting to some.
Among his many memorable quotes are the two you cited and, I think, this one: “I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed.” 🙂
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ladysighs 6:21 am on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
I suppose you either like him or love him. I still laugh when I replay his videos. Like I’ve never heard them before. I am sure he would provide a fresh view of what’s going on today. Just when we think we’ve heard it all, he could come up with something new.
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mistermuse 8:20 am on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
Perhaps the comic closest to Carlin today (wit-wise, not style-wise) is Steven (the) Wright(stuff). Here’s an example (speaking of “stuff”): “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?”
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ladysighs 9:09 am on May 15, 2016 Permalink
You would be amazed at what gets stuffed under the bed at my house. 🙂
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mistermuse 1:51 pm on May 15, 2016 Permalink
Ladysighs, I think I’d only be amazed at what gets stuffed under your bed if it included your hubby….in which case, I’d wonder why you don’t just put him in the doghouse like most wives do! 🙂
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Carmen 7:04 am on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
Not only was the acerbic George Carlin funny; he was almost always right. 🙂
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mistermuse 8:23 am on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
You got that right, Carmen! 🙂
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Midwestern Plant Girl 8:26 am on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
I bet George is rolling in his grave about now!
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mistermuse 1:29 pm on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
No doubt he would be rolling if he had a grave, but George was cremated and had his ashes strewn in front of various nightclubs he’d played (I guess that’s what you might call ‘giving back’ to those who supported you). 🙂
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arekhill1 11:07 am on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
Whaddaya mean, “erstwhile?”
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mistermuse 1:38 pm on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
As far back as I can remember, I thought “erstwhile” was akin to “estimable.” Now that I look it up after all these years, I find that it actually means “past” or “former.” That’s what I get for living in the past. Sorry about that, my estimable friend.
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arekhill1 2:30 pm on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
No problem, Sr. Muse. I thought maybe I had offended you unintentionally, as I sometimes display that gift with people. It was only when my first novel was being proofed that I discovered that the term “hoi polloi” meant the exact opposite of what I usually used it for.
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Don Frankel 4:36 pm on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
When I first saw the headline I was thinking of George Steinbrenner as things have not been going so well for my Yankees. And, I’ve been thinking that if he were still around he would have fired and rehired and fired the manager. Fired at least 3 or 4 pitching coaches and 2 or 3 hitting coaches.
But we’re talking about George Carlin and I actually saw him live in Vegas. He was hysterical. He was a great comedian. I think there are only three or four words still on that list. I know you can say tits and piss. I think you can say cunt. But the rest are still no no’s, although they’ve been blurted out on live TV from time to time.
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Carmen 4:58 pm on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
NOt to mention that they get blurted out on blogs, too… 🙂
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mistermuse 11:24 pm on May 15, 2016 Permalink |
I’m tempted to say that obscenity may always be vulgar, but vulgarity isn’t always obscene. Many more things are obscene than the most vulgar of words, although in many cases, that’s faint praise for vulgar words (depending on the way they’re used). I’d say more, but I don’t want to sound like a #*%*#*ing preacher.
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Don Frankel 8:48 am on May 16, 2016 Permalink |
Carmen you’re right but certainly not mistermuse your’s truly. We’d never do such a thing.
Muse, words are just sounds or symbols. They mean what we think they mean. We could say the vulgarity lies not in the words but in ourselves.
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Carmen 8:55 am on May 16, 2016 Permalink |
I agree! 🙂
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mistermuse 10:15 am on May 16, 2016 Permalink |
Perhaps the best measuring stick of such words is whether or not they’re used gratuitously, which to me is a pretty sure sign that the writer or speaker resorts to their use out of a lack of educated vocabulary, sophistication of language, and/or wit. It’s not for me to judge crudity of expression in a moral sense (unless, of course, I think the writer or speaker is an a-hole — ha ha).
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D. Wallace Peach 10:45 am on May 17, 2016 Permalink |
I remember sitting in the living room, playing board games with my brothers and listening to Carlin “albums.” He was a funny man with a wit based on the absurdity of our modern culture. Would George be laughing today or rolling over in his grave? I don’t know how to respond to the insanity in the US. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cringe, but deep down I have to cry.
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mistermuse 11:16 am on May 17, 2016 Permalink |
The thing about people like Trump is that they are so full of themselves, they don’t know when to stop. Even if he tries to paper over the lies, insults, ignorance and grandiosity that he got away with in the Republican primaries, it’s too late — it’s all on the record, and the Democrats will not only give him a taste of his own medicine, they’ll pound him with it non-stop. His act simply won’t cut it with the country as a whole. At least, that’s my prediction, and if I’m wrong, you won’t be the only one to cry.
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BroadBlogs 4:47 pm on May 17, 2016 Permalink |
“In America, anyone can become President. That’s the problem.”
The Donald is bringing out a lot of new voters. Unfortunately, these folks are low information voters — explaining why they aren’t typically politically involved. So they don’t understand what’s going on, or the issues. Scary stuff!
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mistermuse 8:50 pm on May 17, 2016 Permalink |
Scary indeed. If Hillary were a less flawed candidate, Trump wouldn’t have the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of being elected. Hopefully she will soon start displaying more of her human side and less of the political animal that she can’t seem to help being.
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