George’s comedy specials helped raise me from a young age when no one else was doing any raising. I consider him to be one of the greatest minds, social commentators, and philosophers of the 20th century, and I’ve yet to recognize a contemporary near his level. I’ll always be grateful to have had the honor to see him twice before he died.
I see a lot of people enjoy his brilliant bits, but with the way the world is and where its going, imho in the name of enthusiastic greed, I personally find a lot of peace, and a lot less depression when I choose to aspire to George’s genuine divorce and detachment from “caring about the outcome.”
Enjoy the freakshow, folks!
Bonus: I’ve seen so many comments in his bit videos wishing for George’s perspective on smartphones, well this was near his end (2008), smartphones were just arriving, and his opening words briefly address in passing what he thought about the latest tech obsession.
People always frown and say I’m being cynical or pessimistic whenever I tell them I’m a misanthrope. They assume I’m bitter and I irrationally hate my fellow human. Couldn’t be further from the truth. I actually like most people I meet. I just have a very low opinion of us as a species. If you look at the track record, I’m many of the most important aspects, it’s really abysmal. We have undoubtedly accomplished many great things, but we’ve also committed uncountable horrors—and both patterns will continue—but I’m not impressed in the final analysis. In fact, I’m pretty disgusted.
Anyone interested should briefly study individual psychology vs. group psychology. Specifically, why individuals are often better problem solvers than groups. There are reasons groups tend to make worse decisions overall than individuals. In a nutshell, it’s because the loudest voices prevail in groups, not the most intelligent, educated, insightful, etc. On a grand scale, that translates to those who want power the most are the ones who wind up in the positions that wield it. And this isn’t due to any social system or set of laws or constitution; it’s due to simple human psychology.
“Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.”
There’s always a disconnect between “Our nature is destroying us” and the people that chime into say “then be the change you want to see!”
Seriously, if cobbling enough technology together to generate MORE food than every human needs couldn’t change our nature, it can’t be done.
And What did we do with that miraculous technological revolution in post-scarcity?
Well, a tiny percentage can now glut themselves to the point of then getting outpatient surgery to manually remove the excess fat so they can do it all again tomorrow, while we also throw heaps of food away…with lots of people still starving! Gotta maintain that artificial scarcity to keep prices up after all.
That’s why AI and Fusion, things that many propose could save us from our demons, won’t. They’ll just be turned into another tool the few own and use as leverage against the many for literally nothing more than a boost to their ego scores, more gold on the hoard that will have no bearing on their daily lives.
We could decide it’s wrong and cut them down to size, but then we as a species would have to give up the ridiculous dream/fantasy of being the fuckers punching down. And we won’t do that, even as we’re on the ass end of it and have no rational hope of it changing under the current system.
No way to cure this mindset. A global plague couldn’t put a dent in this mindset.
The only way we’ll save ourselves is if we’re lucky enough to have some no name genius be born that somehow makes off world colonization possible. Our existing structures will not accomplish this.
Humanity has, in my opinion, only lasted as long as it has because every so often people were able to just walk away from a failed, corrupt society and start over somewhere else. Now that we’ve basically claimed the entire planet, that’s no longer possible. Only by being able to colonize other worlds do we regain that.
Existing human biology/neurology doesn’t seem to scale properly for governing existing populations. It just doesn’t work and the failure rate keeps accelerating.
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Thank you for explaining your thinking process.
Great insight, I learned something new today!
I still think it’s honestly weird in today’s age that we still have war. That we still resort to killing each other over disagreements. That when diplomacy fails we don’t just take a breather and head back in, that we send our family members and friends to go die.
Such a stupid waste of life that really hasn’t evolved since we walked out of caves
still find it strange that he was a voice actor for Thomas the tank engine children’s tv show.
The fact that he was willing to do that on a regular basis seems to contradict his bitter fuck-everything cynicism about the world.
Fun fact, the UK version was voiced by Ringo Starr from The Beatles
Ringo Starr and George Carlin were also both The Conductor of Shining Time Station, which incorporated clips from Thomas the Tank Engine in its programming.
That was my only experience with Thomas at all when I was a kid.
He wasn’t a religious prophet, he was a digital prophet. He saw all this digital enshittification coming just before he passed.
RIP Mr Carlin, we miss your words of wisdom.
he was a digital prophet
Reminds me of his “I’m a Modern Man” bit
https://youtu.be/MfYPqlt7EEw?si=dzkUTpP9njBF13ZM
(the link is the better version from a tonight show performance, I think he was having a rough night when he performed it in his last special)
Damn yo, totally on point!
You can tell that not only did he write all that, he totally memorized all that as well!
A true late legend… ☹️
He not only wrote and memorized it, but timed it to the minute. His specials didn’t have cuts like other comedians have and you see the full show every time.
He truly was a legend
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What a legend.
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I utterly adore humans for what they could be, I mean we have the capacity to reach for the stars, literally. But we never will cos in reality we’re just too dumb. Peaks are sublime, the average not so much.
I did too.
Choose to laugh about it, it was never in your power to fix the human race.
You just twirled up out of the dust near the end of the party, and you’ll be back down there soon. Tap a keg, watch the other dust clouds do funny, self-destructive shit, and laugh.
If I may spend my two cents in this discussion I’d like to also propose Mr. Hicks as one of the true thinkers and philosopher of the last century. He had a lot in common with George from a social analysis standpoint and he also saw us humans as bi-faced entities capable of producing both the nastiest and the most beautiful acts while recognising that usually the lowest and most destructive instincts were the one guiding our choices.
As George did for you he also helped me forming my vision of the world and its current state of affairs while also making me laugh manically.
A huge thanks to both these men for helping some of us finding a way to navigate through this sensless journey, you’ll not be forgotten
Where can I find this whole interview?
https://youtu.be/Nm4YnDl5hOk?si=Is2Vzjs6SnIKHzBQ
Enjoy his (in effect) 3 HOUR oral autobiography friend!
fuckin’a, tyvm for this link.
If you haven’t, read his books - braindroppings, napalm and silly putty, class clown, when will jesus bring the porkchops, and last words. they’re all fantastic.
