Foundation Interviews: George Carlin- On Why It's Important To Not Care At All

Source:Foundation Interviews- George Carlin, being interviewed in 2007

Source:The New Democrat 

"George Carlin on why "It's important not to give a shit" - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG" 

From Foundation Interviews

Would like to hear more from George Carlin on why he believes it's not important to give a shit ( as he put it ) because that can be interpreted in multiple ways which is exactly what I'm going to do here and lay out what he might be talking about here.

"Nihilism (/ˈnaɪ(h)ɪlɪzəm, ˈniː-/; from Latin nihil, meaning 'nothing') is the philosophical viewpoint that suggests the denial or lack of belief towards the reputedly meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism, which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.[1] Moral nihilists assert that there is no inherent morality, and that accepted moral values are abstractly contrived. Nihilism may also take epistemological, ontological, or metaphysical forms, meaning respectively that, in some aspect, knowledge is not possible, or reality does not actually exist.

The term is sometimes used in association with anomie to explain the general mood of despair at a perceived pointlessness of existence that one may develop upon realising there are no necessary norms, rules, or laws.[2]

Nihilism has also been described as conspicuous in or constitutive of certain historical periods: for example, Jean Baudrillard and others have called postmodernity a nihilistic epoch;[3] and some religious theologians and figures of religious authority have asserted that postmodernity[4] and many aspects of modernity[5] represent a rejection of theism, and that such rejection of theistic doctrine entails nihilism."

From Wikipedia

Is this what George Carlin meant when he said that it's important to bot give a shit? That he's someone who believed: "That a person who believes that life is meaningless and rejects all religious and moral principles.

dogmatic atheists and nihilists could never defend the value of human life"

synonyms: skeptic, negativist, cynic, pessimist; More

historical

a supporter of an extreme Russian revolutionary party c. 1900 which found nothing to approve of in the established social order."

If that's the case, then George Carlin and Donald Trump have plenty in common. They believe there's no such thing as a truth or at least one truth that nothing is real and everything is subjective to what the person at the time says or believes it is. If this is the case as far as what Carlin believes when he said it's important to not give a shit, then I can't respect him for that. Because are such things as rights and wrongs.

I get skepticism and I'm a skeptic myself and alway take the word of reason or the word of faith and trust only what I know and understand including people. Trust people and things that have earned my trust based on their records and my interactions with them. Not looking into their eyes and claiming to read their souls and saying that I trust this person or that person because I've claimed to viewed their soul and see that they are a good person.

George Carlin: 'Balance The Budget'

Source:HBO- Part of George Carlin's 1996 HBO special. 

Source:The New Democrat 

"George Carlin's brilliant idea on how to balance the budget by eliminating prisons...  

From Feral Boy

George Carlin's comedic approach ( that's right, I don't actually think he's serious here ) to balancing the budget reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode where Jack Warden, plays a convicted murderer who is sentenced to life without parole to another planet. A life of isolation where he's sent to another livable planet where he'll have all the food, water, housing, everything that he would need to survive for the rest of his natural life. The catch being that he'll live there in complete isolation without anyone to talk to, but with the freedom to do whatever he wants to on that planet all by himself. For example, he could have sex on this far away distant planet, just by himself.

George Carlin's solution to criminal violence

Put all the violent criminals together in one state after you forcefully removed all the decent people there and let the violent criminals beat the hell out of each other and even kill each other, just as long as they're not hurting or killing anyone else. Which is sort of like my liberal approach to personal freedom which is allowing for people to do whatever they want to, just as long as they're doing it to them self or to another consenting adult.

I'll give Carlin an A for interesting ( or should that be a I for interesting, me and my spelling ) the problem is that we have a Fourth, Fifth, and 8th amendments to our Constitution. As much as Carlin and I'm sure some of his supporters at least also disagree with this, people in Kansas or whatever rural state you want to use are not just people, but also Americans and therefor have the same constitutional rights as people from San Francisco, Boston or New York. Even if they're farmers and their parents gave them two first names, because they couldn't decide on a single first name to give them.

George Carlin's solution to sex crimes

I gotta go along with George Carlin's solution when it comes to sex crimes. If these assholes need to have sex so much in a nonconsensual way, put them all together in some institution and let them do that. They can screw each other until their dicks fall off and even rape each other. Just as long as they're not screwing or raping our women and girls. I could go along with that.

George Carlin's solution to drug addiction

How about we deport all of them to Holland or Portugal and they can get as high as New York skyscrapers all they want to and drive while they're high and drunk, just as long as they're not able to hit anyone who isn't high or drunk and by enlarge lives a responsible life. I could see why Holland or Portugal would have a problem with us sending them our drug addicts, but it might be worth looking into.

George Carlin's solution to crazy people

How about we send all of our mental patients to that planet that Jack Warden was sent to on that Twilight Zone episode, which might just be Arizona or New Mexico and they can live out of this world as much as they want, just as long as they can't hurt anyone who is not also crazy. The problem with that is we have a lot of crazy people who aren't in mental institutions or even in prisons because our mental institutions are already overcrowded and a lot of these people already vote.

Balancing the Federal budget in Washington is like swimming to London from New York, because you're too cheap to buy a plane ticket or take a boat, I'll believe it when I see it. And when that happens peace will have broken out between Israel and Palestine and people will be flying pigs because they don't want to buy plane tickets. 

Washington right now doesn't have much ability to even do the simple things that they're currently required to do by statue and by the Constitution like passing a budget and appropriations bills, so why they would they be able to balance a budget when borrowing money from China is so much easier politically. 

Glenn Beck: 'Comedy Has Been Taken Over by Insanely Self-Important People Like Stephen Colbert'

Source:The Blaze- The real Glenn Beck. 

Source:The New Democrat

"America's comedians seem to have lost their sense of humor." 

From The Blaze TV

My counterpoint to Glenn Beck here is going to sound like an impression of Captain Obvious and perhaps put me in contention for the World Championship of obvious statements and yet Glenn Beck seems to miss this here..

Comedians like anyone else in our great, vast, liberal democracy, we call America, with our guaranteed constitutional liberal right to free speech, don't live in vacuums. Everything that any of us say in this country is opened to interpretation and reaction. 

The best comedians in America and everyone else go where the material is and joke about not only what they believe is funny, but more importantly to their bottomline what their viewers and audience believes is funny. The reason why comedians are more political now and Glenn Beck is right that we've seen more comedy in politics in the last twenty years or so, but the reason for this is that the country is more political now.

If comedians tell jokes and do material that only they believe is funny or the people they work with believe is funny, their performances and writings will be as humorous as a preacher giving a sermon on Sunday and they'll either sound like they have no comedic timing or that they're dead serious. 

Thanks to the internet and now social media, new technology Americans are more engage now with politics and their government, as well as entertainment and what comedians are saying about our politics and government. And they see so much (to be frank) bullshit and corruption in our politics, as well as partisanship that they want to laugh and perhaps need to laugh about it to avoid having to check into some rest home and having to go under medication to treat their depression.

If a lot of our politicians weren't so stupid, dishonest, corrupt, and partisan and everyday life in politics was like a day in Pleasantville and Pleasantville was the capital of the United States instead of Washington, comedians wouldn't be joking so much about politics in this country because everyday life in politics wouldn't be so funny and they would find other things to do with their time and material. 

We live in a liberal democracy with a private market economy. If people here want to hear jokes about politics and their government, that's exactly what they're going to get. Because successful comedians go where the material and jokes are. 

And my point about what Glenn Beck and what he said about the so-called Left in comedy and them making fun of people on the Right: as Glenn Beck said, the Right is in power in America right now. The Left is out-of-power, so of course you are going to see a lot of comedians making fun of the people who are in power in America today. If Democrats were in-charge in Washington, especially left-wing Democrats, the Glenn Beck's of the world would have no issues with comedians taking on Democrats. 

George Carlin: On Some Cultural Issues

Source:Anders Jacobson- The Great George Carlin in 1996. 

Source:The New Democrat

"Masterful performance of George Carlin taken from his 9th HBO special "Back in Town". Taped live at the Beacon Theater in New York City, March 1996. [I don't own any rights]"

From Anders Jacobson

I like George Carlin's point about motivation because it would be one thing if you had someone advising to do the right thing because of these reasons and they know what they're talking about because they work in that field and you're a narcissistic, egotistical, arrogant asshole, who believes the planet evolves around you and you're so damn smart you see things in the future that no one else does. ( Take Donald Trump to use as one example )

Source: I Am Awake- The Great George Carlin 

And let's say you're being sued or are under criminal investigation and your lawyer is telling you: "You know what Joe, I really don't think it would be a good idea if you testify and go under oath. Sometimes I'm not sure if you're telling me the truth and I'm your damn lawyer, for God sake! Hell, I'm not even sure if you're being honest with me." And your lawyer motivates you to do the right thing and not take the stand. 

But it's another thing if you're a pro athlete (lets say) and you're in a big game perhaps even playing for the championship and you know exactly what the consequences are if your team wins or loses. Someone in that position will either play their best game or play very well or not. It depends if they're good enough to win the game or not and how badly they want to win that game.

As far as religion

I'm an Agnostic, so don't even think about thinking that you can blame me for either the religious fundamentalism in America from the Christian-Right or Islamic fundamentalism from the Middle East and other places around the world, because I'm Agnostic and I simply don't give a damn about religion.

As a Liberal I believe free choice, free will, free speech, free thinking, individuality, individualism, personal responsibility, the opposites of what even a moderate or social democratic religion would believe in, because religion almost by definition is very collectivist: "This is what's right and wrong, this is how you should live your life, and this is what you should believe." I'm just not down with that ( to use a 1990s expression ) and my idea of morality is about how people treat each other, not about how people treat themselves and live their own personal lives. Those are my moral values which is about treating people the way you want them to treat you.

Stupidity

I just wish this George Carlin performance was ten years later instead of coming out in 1996 and we could see what Carlin thinks about our reality TV and celebrity culture, well culture and seeing reality TV and celebrity culture not just dominate American culture, but now have invaded our politics and government. 

I believe a lot of stupidity in America comes from faddism and the need to feel like you're cool ( I'm sorry, I mean awesome ) that need to be popular and hip consumes practically everything else even our morality. My point earlier about morality being about how we treat each other, instead of what we do personally. Sometimes its considered cool to bully people that you believe are inferior. We see that in high school everyday.

Thanks to celebrity TV (which is what reality TV really is, or perhaps nasty TV is a better term) being nasty and stupid is considered cool and is rewarded everyday. The only smart people that are rewarded are business executives who run companies that produce the products that are considered cool in America. Fashion, new technology, coffee house coffee (to use as examples) but if you're simply just trying to make the world better or at least your small part of it better and you're a very intelligent person, unless you're considered hip and communicate with young people very well, you'll be looked down upon as a nerd who reads too much, spent too much time in school. Love to know what George Carlin would bet saying about our over consuming reality TV culture today.

Baby Boomers

Not a boomer obviously being born in the mid 1970s and I'm not even a son of one. Both of my parents were born in the 1930s and had kids relatively late in life, so I don't have much personal experience with at least who I would call Baby Boomers ( people born in the 1940s and 1950s ) but I've worked with people from this generation and most of my teachers were Boomers. I like to look at them as the entitled generation.

Being born during or just after World War II ( depending on how you define the generation ) and growing up in the 1950s and 60s, as a generation they're like your typical Connecticut Anglo-Saxon Protestant family who've been in this country since the 1700s, who live in the suburbs and started out in life with a million dollars thanks to their father's. They're the spoiled brat generation would be a way to look at them. Growing up during the economic booms of the 50s and 60s and not having to worry about how they were going to pay for college or if they were even going to be able to get into college. But I'll give them credit for taking advantage of every opportunity ever given them and becoming one of if not our most productive American generation's.

Politicians

If you order a cheeseburger and are served a cheeseburger, do you really have any right to expect your cheeseburger to taste like a tunafish sandwich? With politicians it's the same thing you get what you voted for or at least elected. You vote for and elect crooks and liars, don't expect to get Saints instead. 

And this whole deal about not knowing how crooked and lazy the politician was before you voted for that person, is like someone complaining about the apples or oranges that they bought at the store not being ripe enough and being old. If you bothered to look at the fruit that you were buying before you bought that, you would've seen that it wasn't fresh fruit and maybe you should buy something else. 

You don't do your homework when it comes to voting, you end up voting for people you don't know very well and get screwed by them in the process.

Life is what you make out of it. You get yourself a good education, you apply yourself, do the work, make learning and daily thing for yourself and always looking to do things better and make yourself as productive as possible, do your homework to go back to my point about politicians and life in America will be very good for you. At the very least doing these things for yourself and again treating people the way you want to be treated, taking responsibility for your actions to get to my point about morality and that will be your best offense and game plan for success in this country. 

But you don't do these things and expect success and happiness to be given to you and you'll spend a lot of your life waiting for success and happiness.

Carlin Fan: George Carlin- Dumb Slogans

Source:Carlin Fan- Not a fan.

Source:The New Democrat

I get George Carlin's point about ethnic or national pride that we shouldn't look at them as being accomplishments even though I'm sure that there are some Anglo-Saxon ( people of English ethnicity ) families in Manhattan and New England who would disagree with that. For them being born in America is like winning the Super Bowl during your rookie season. Winning a 20 million dollar lottery the first time you ever played the lottery. A lot of these families tend to be born rich to the point they never even have to worry about college or even finishing it because they'll probably have a million dollars or more by the time they hit 21 in life.

But for the 90-99% of us that have to work for a living from the time that we're probably teenagers and looking to buy our first car and not sure how we're going to pay for college because we know our parents can't just write a check to finance that for us and buy us our own car, ethnicity is just about who we're born to, who our biological parents are. Passing the bar exam, or graduating college, getting a promotion at work that we deserve, perhaps becoming an executive, those are real accomplishments in life.

Being born English, Italian, Jewish, Japanese, Latino, African, etc, in America that's just about who our parents are that we have no control over who were given to us. Not something that we ever worked for in life. It's not like we can decide before we're are born that we want to be Italian or Chinese in America and decide that's who we're going to be. As a German-American, I'm all in favor of people being proud of their ethnic people. ( Let's say ) And being proud of what they're community has accomplished in America. And being a member of the largest ethnic group in America as a German, I'm proud of what Germans have accomplished in America. But I'm not proud to be German just because I'm German, but because of what we've done in America and the country that Germany has become post-World War II as one of the greatest liberal democracies in the world.

As far as God Bless America, I'm an Agnostic myself not Lutheran or Catholic as Germans trend to be, so I'm not a fan of that expression. Especially when it comes from politicians especially career politicians who believe they can do whatever the hell they want to ( but I do believe in hell ) because they represent a deeply religious community and believe that if their voters believe they're devoutly religious and moral, that's all they'll need to do get reelected .

But I believe in free speech which covers religion and other personal beliefs and as voters if we don't like hearing that or believe we're getting played by some slick Willy politician who when they say that, we can always hold them accountable and look to see if that politician actually lives by the religion that they claim and doesn't have a handful of mistresses on the side and a fixer to pay them to keep them silent, while they bitch about the so-called immorality of others and then act accordingly.

Pride, whether it's ethnic, national or anything else, should be about what people accomplish themselves or what others have accomplished for themselves that people around them are proud of. Parents being proud their son or daughter graduated college, got married to someone they love and respect, had kids that made them grandparents. Things that we accomplish or that others accomplish around us that make us proud for them. Instead of being proud because of how we born or buying one of the first 5 new I-Phones, or getting 1000 friends on Facebook, when maybe we only personally know 100 of those people and are only in contact we maybe 50 of them. And as far as God Bless America, again we have a First Amendment and that means hearing things we don't like and that doesn't even make sense in many cases.
Source:Carlin Fan