The jesus pill

[motherengine]

george carlin amoung many other comedians to me seems to serve the purpose of placating his audience with similar views phrased in a biting sardonic manner. in other words he seems to me to be preaching to the converted. satire does the same thing. like a drug that makes someone feel better about being out of control of sociopolitical issues because other people feel the same way about things and can artuclate their outrage well. not only satire and political comedy but music [rage against the machine comes directly to mind] can give people a way to feel good or justified about their concerns. but do these things help or do they just give one the excuse to lay back and do nothing because 'at least somebody is talking about the issues'? specifically carlin's standup seems like alot of trite reductionaism that can validate a rift people feel between themselves and the government that may encourage them to not want to be actively involved. [this is not to suggest that comedy or music directly causes negative action or inaction but rather encourages]. when i think of religion as a drug (although it is quite different from herion in that it does not directly eat away at your body) i think of the thing it is helping one deal with and for the most part to me this thing is death. unlike comedy and angry music swaying people from things they can manipulate there really is nothing to be done about death. come to terms with it? how? i really find it hard to believe anyone who tells me that they are not afraid of dying (unless they are quite old). seems to me they are just doing a good job of distracting themselves. and obviously this is an argument for the jesus pill but not really against comedy or music as much as the connection between the two things and marxist philosophy. is this all nonsense? is there a point here?

 

and yes i do have a personal interest in this line of conversation but as opposed to being religous oriented it has to do with a social cynicism i feel is related to the issues at hand.

[sanctus]

I don't know Carlin.

 

I think every drug if you rely upon it becomes bad. So yes the Jesus pill is there and there are racists that think they are alright because they go to church, the jesus pills poisons their conscience; they think they do something for the comunity because they think to be part of a movement that makes something.

 

Another thing, as you talked about Rage Against the Machine (one of my favorite bands), the question is how much can you trust your pill? Tom Morello (RATM guitar) has been arrested in a demo in Los Angeles, but when in Austria Haider,a right extremist (not like bush, more like mussolini) has been elected (in 2000) Ratm had a concert in Switzerland (the second and last in history) and they didn't even say something about it....

[Buffy]

Not sure why George became the target of your wrath, but obviously he got to you enough to provoke a response! ...which of course is exactly the point. Most stand up comedy in its modern sense has been social commentary going back to Lenny Bruce, Nichols & May and even Bob Newhart. It has always expressed a particular point of view (Newhart's interesting because he tends to say the opposite of what he means, and is thus a lot more effective IMHO), and to provoke a reaction, either "right on!" or "you must be a commie, fag, junkie!" (to borrow a line from Carlin) Both reactions happen, and they can come from either side: check out Dennis Miller, who's on the opposite end of the political spectrum from George. The best way to get people jumping up and down--for OR against something--is to take an extreme position: it works! At the same time, I think all of these comedians do a lot less damage than the real hate-promoting invective from the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Alexander Cockburn (well, he's as close a well-known example to it I can find on the left, although he's no Rush or Ann Coulter).

 

Unfortunately, if anything, extremism is winning around the world, so if you're middle-of-the-road on any topic, politics or religion, you're gonna be attacked from all sides. Time for Nixon's "silent majority" to come out again...

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[motherengine]

sorry i gave the impression that george carlin bothered me. i do think his anti-establishment shtick shows a kind of naivete though. i used to love his rantings back when i believed the government (usa) was evil and that timothy leary was cool. time and experience have taught me that questioning authority is not enough though. sometimes i think questioning one's peers is more important. carlin is a smart guy and a great 'street linguist' if you will but i am not sure most his audience question anything he says. and don't get me started on dennis miller :)

[motherengine]

Another thing, as you talked about Rage Against the Machine (one of my favorite bands), the question is how much can you trust your pill? Tom Morello (RATM guitar) has been arrested in a demo in Los Angeles, but when in Austria Haider,a right extremist (not like bush, more like mussolini) has been elected (in 2000) Ratm had a concert in Switzerland (the second and last in history) and they didn't even say something about it....

 

as a gutairist i am not a big fan myself (aside from the hooks there's really nothing there) but what gets me about the screaming head guy (zack) is that probably ninety percent of his fans are not even registered to vote.