George Carlin: Who Really Controls America?

[KramerDSP]

An oldie, but a goodie. George Carlin rants on who really controls America (hint hint, it's not "We The People"). I tried to tie in his rant with the hypocrisy of those on the left and the right, depending on which political party is in power, to illustrate how the American People are being played like a fiddle by the special interests.

http://deafronpaul.blogspot.com/2009/09/george-carlin-on-who-really-controls.html

[cbc58]

good vid. he tells it like it is.

my contention has always been that the system will never get fixed until everyone comes together to demand it. unfortunately it will be too late by that time because most people are short sighted and only care about themselves. it will happen when food gets scarce and prices go through the roof.

why wait for it to get to that point ?? we need to be proactive instead of reactionary.

[james1906]

This should be required viewing in schools, not Obama's bullshit.

[KramerDSP]

I did read somewhere in a Carlin article (http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/331953) that he had this to say:

"Let's suppose we all just materialized on Earth and there was a bunch of potatoes on the ground, okay? There's just six of us. Only six humans. We come into a clearing and there's potatoes on the ground. Now, my instinct would be, let's everybody get some potatoes. "Everybody got a potato? Joey didn't get a potato! He's small, he can't hold as many potatoes. Give Joey some of your potatoes." "No, these are my potatoes!" That's the Republicans. "I collected more of them, I got a bigger pile of potatoes, they're mine. If you want some of them, you're going to have to give me something." "But look at Joey, he's only got a couple, they won't last two days." That's the fuckin' difference! And I'm more inclined to want to share and even out," he explained in an interview several years ago with The Onion.

"I understand the marketplace, but government is supposed to be here to redress the inequities of the marketplace," Carlin continued. "That's one of its functions. Not just to protect the nation, secure our security and all that shit. And not just to take care of great problems that are trans-state problems, that are national, but also to make sure that the inequalities of the marketplace are redressed by the acts of government. That's what welfare was about. There are people who really just don't have the tools, for whatever reason. Yes, there are lazy people. Yes, there are slackers. Yes, there's all of that. But there are also people who can't cut it, for any given reason, whether it's racism, or an educational opportunity, or poverty, or a fuckin' horrible home life, or a history of a horrible family life going back three generations, or whatever it is. They're crippled and they can't make it, and they deserve to rest at the commonweal. That's where my fuckin' passion lies."

Was Carlin misguided here, or is he dead on here, too ? It sounds something close to redistrubution of wealth in what he is saying here.

[devil21]

I think he's right in principle however he glosses over the effect that the lazy, the leeches, the incompetent, the slackers, the cheaters, etc have on the rest of the people that actually deserve some help.

As we've seen already, the leeches take the system over and effectively shut out the people that actually deserve help. It's apparent when the crack head with 5 kids from different fathers (none of which are around) gets $500 from the gov't for food and practically free housing and a welfare check that gets bigger with every new child, while a disabled person gets a paltry SS disability check for $600 a month that they actually paid into while they were physically fit and working. Carlin's view works only IF the leeches are left to fend for themselves and natural selection takes over and eventually weeds them out.

[ctiger2]

BUMP

YouTube - George Carlin -"Who Really Controls America" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI)

[BillyDkid]

I did read somewhere in a Carlin article (http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/331953) that he had this to say:

"Let's suppose we all just materialized on Earth and there was a bunch of potatoes on the ground, okay? There's just six of us. Only six humans. We come into a clearing and there's potatoes on the ground. Now, my instinct would be, let's everybody get some potatoes. "Everybody got a potato? Joey didn't get a potato! He's small, he can't hold as many potatoes. Give Joey some of your potatoes." "No, these are my potatoes!" That's the Republicans. "I collected more of them, I got a bigger pile of potatoes, they're mine. If you want some of them, you're going to have to give me something." "But look at Joey, he's only got a couple, they won't last two days." That's the fuckin' difference! And I'm more inclined to want to share and even out," he explained in an interview several years ago with The Onion.

"I understand the marketplace, but government is supposed to be here to redress the inequities of the marketplace," Carlin continued. "That's one of its functions. Not just to protect the nation, secure our security and all that shit. And not just to take care of great problems that are trans-state problems, that are national, but also to make sure that the inequalities of the marketplace are redressed by the acts of government. That's what welfare was about. There are people who really just don't have the tools, for whatever reason. Yes, there are lazy people. Yes, there are slackers. Yes, there's all of that. But there are also people who can't cut it, for any given reason, whether it's racism, or an educational opportunity, or poverty, or a fuckin' horrible home life, or a history of a horrible family life going back three generations, or whatever it is. They're crippled and they can't make it, and they deserve to rest at the commonweal. That's where my fuckin' passion lies."

Was Carlin misguided here, or is he dead on here, too ? It sounds something close to redistrubution of wealth in what he is saying here.The distinction to be made is that between voluntarily sharing - which most people are inclined to do - being compelled to do so by some sort of governing authority. This is what so many people get wrong. Those on the left assume that those of us who have would simply let those who do not have starve without some authority making us share. It's bullshit and Carlin himself proves my point when he says that his instinct is to share his potatos. Most of us would share our potatos. Americans are still extremely generous givers even after the government has garnished our wages in order to force us to share the wealth with those who have less. This idea that libertarians are greedy and self serving completely misses the mark. In general people are inclined to be generous and cooperative and they would be that way naturally if the government didn't intervene to compell them to be generous and cooperative and only in those ways that the government wants them to be.