Come Back George! Come Back!
So, last night I watched George Carlin's latest on HBO. I am also in the middle of reading "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops". I am disappointed.
Another one of these guys that I thought was smarter than the rest has proved himself to have flimsy logic piecing together misguided theories in order to maintain a victim status. Look, I'm not saying that the picture he paints of an elite ownership society that stomps on the rest of us is wrong. I'm just saying that the manner in which he poses his arguments has big, gaping, ignorant holes in it.
One of his bits is based around the assumption that the human species is the only species that kills it's own kind for personal gain. Well, that's just not true. Chimps have been known to do that. I'm sure if that example exists, there are others to disprove his theory. Which, knowing that, makes his whole argument fall apart. Should I just let that overstatement slide? Maybe, but I hold George to a higher standard. His bits used to be air tight, but over the last few years his general distastes have overshadowed any real exploration of a subject. I don't mind him picking on me and "my kind" if he has a viewpoint that takes all factors into consideration and he STILL finds an issue- THAT is what I want to hear. That's what made him smarter than the rest. Now he's just older, crazier and darker than the rest.
I also don't mind dark. He did a few minutes on suicide- which is a subject I have a dark fascination with myself. Most of the bit was just...sad. The part that was actually funny was when he detailed the writing of a suicide note (territory that is not exactly uncharted, but fertile none the less) that got to the meat of what suicide really is. Suicide is a self destructive (obviously) and aggressive act really meant to be a giant "FUCK YOU" to the world or those who have driven you to this act. George got this part right, but only for a brief moment in a 10 minute bit.
For the most part, his crazy, angry, cynical old man routine is, dare I say, tired. He rails that only stupid people vote and that one person cannot make a difference. So he actively encourages smart people NOT to vote. But if he doesn't believe that a person speaking out can change anything, how does he reconcile a 50 year career of soical and political material? Material that has changed the way I've thought about language and the status quo! Hypocrite! Jackass! How dare you feed me a steady diet of obscene comic wisdom and then slap me down for listening.
Another one of these guys that I thought was smarter than the rest has proved himself to have flimsy logic piecing together misguided theories in order to maintain a victim status. Look, I'm not saying that the picture he paints of an elite ownership society that stomps on the rest of us is wrong. I'm just saying that the manner in which he poses his arguments has big, gaping, ignorant holes in it.
One of his bits is based around the assumption that the human species is the only species that kills it's own kind for personal gain. Well, that's just not true. Chimps have been known to do that. I'm sure if that example exists, there are others to disprove his theory. Which, knowing that, makes his whole argument fall apart. Should I just let that overstatement slide? Maybe, but I hold George to a higher standard. His bits used to be air tight, but over the last few years his general distastes have overshadowed any real exploration of a subject. I don't mind him picking on me and "my kind" if he has a viewpoint that takes all factors into consideration and he STILL finds an issue- THAT is what I want to hear. That's what made him smarter than the rest. Now he's just older, crazier and darker than the rest.
I also don't mind dark. He did a few minutes on suicide- which is a subject I have a dark fascination with myself. Most of the bit was just...sad. The part that was actually funny was when he detailed the writing of a suicide note (territory that is not exactly uncharted, but fertile none the less) that got to the meat of what suicide really is. Suicide is a self destructive (obviously) and aggressive act really meant to be a giant "FUCK YOU" to the world or those who have driven you to this act. George got this part right, but only for a brief moment in a 10 minute bit.
For the most part, his crazy, angry, cynical old man routine is, dare I say, tired. He rails that only stupid people vote and that one person cannot make a difference. So he actively encourages smart people NOT to vote. But if he doesn't believe that a person speaking out can change anything, how does he reconcile a 50 year career of soical and political material? Material that has changed the way I've thought about language and the status quo! Hypocrite! Jackass! How dare you feed me a steady diet of obscene comic wisdom and then slap me down for listening.
posted by Bree O'Connor at 12:40 PM
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