George Carlin gets it - just in time for Earth Day

[GliderGuider]

George Carlin - Saving the Planet

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eScDfYzMEEw

Why are we here? To make plastic...

[zanne]

1. He sounds more like a conservative old windbag every day.

He doesn't "get it". He's not as popular as he used to be for good reason.

[GliderGuider]

2. It's tough to make such a downbeat message funny, all right

He does understand the predicament that humanity is in, and its fundamental insolubility. He tends to take a rather long-term view of planetary history, though.

He also seems to think the destruction we've caused was inevitable, given the nature of our species. He might be right, but I suspect it has less to do with our DNA and more to do with the culture we have been weaving for the last 10,000 years. We were a pretty sustainable species until the day somebody decided to plant rows of millet and then try to keep the birds and squirrels from eating it (read Daniel Quinn).

In the long run, he's right - Gaia doesn't give a rat's ass one way or the other about us. We do, though, and Carlin tends to ignore the contributions of human conscience and consciousness to the memetic environment we're living in.

[klook]

3. What a relief. Now I can quit losing sleep over snail darters and spotted owls

...since George Carlin says environmentalists are self-centered, Volvo-driving assholes!

You know, the assholes who get all wrought up over conditions in places like Love Canal, Emelle, or Bhopal.

Another thing these latte-swilling tree-huggers never point out is the beneficial effects of toxic waste dumps on real estate prices! Hell, you can buy a house in Emelle, Alabama, for only $55,000! Come on, George, put your money where your mouth is! You could buy that whole fucking town! You could even build your own comedy club there!!

[GliderGuider]

4. I think I'm going to start an organization dedicated to the protection of the gadfly...

[losthills]

5. He's a comedian.

The real kind: a satirist. It's his job to shine a light on hipocrisy. When the light is shined on you, it's not supposed to feel good. There are very few who dare to do satire any more, because when it's done right it makes people angry. That's why Saturday Night Live sucks. Saturday Night Live did a spoof on Chris Mathews, and he played it on his show the next day. If Lenny Bruce had spoofed him, he would have been on the phone to his attornies. Will Farrell did his Bush routine with Bush in the audience, and the president laughed it up and gave him a hug. When Lenny Bruce mocked the president they sicced the FBI on him. Real satire is supposed to show people their hipocrisy. It should make you laugh, but it should also make you think, and if you're the one that's caught in the beam of light it should make you squirm...

I think that Carlin "gets it," but I'm not sure that the audience did. But I bet they thought about some of the things he said for a long time after they got home, though. Yeah, he's always been savage, and he's getting more savage in his old age. He's got nothing to lose. Lenny was destroyed for his savagery. Carlin is not world leader or a policy maker. He's a satirist. His going to shine his light on pomposity wherever he sees it, and stick a pin in it and let some of the air out. If he only shined his light in one direction, he would just be a propagandist....

[Boomer]

6. Brilliant as always

He made me wince more than once, and laugh often. His edge is as cutting and sharp as ever.