BOOK CORNER
January 26, 2003
Carlin on War
A while back an e-mail with a lot of mean-spirited right wing dogma was circulated around the Internet under the name of George Carlin. Carlin put a notice on his website that the thing was a fraud. But here are some things that can be attributed to Carlin. You can find them in his book Napalm & Silly Putty, copyright 2001, published by Hyperion Press.
Carlin's comments are neither right wing or left wing. They are sane, which is always very funny in stark contrast to all the insane garbage we are fed every day in the official culture.
In "Rockets and Penises in the Persian Gulf", Carlin gives some of his regarded opinions about the previous Gulf War under the previous George Bush.
I'd like to talk a little about that "war" we had in the Persian Gulf. Remember that? The big war in the Persian Gulf? Lemme tell you what was goin' on.
Naturally, you can forget all that entertaining fiction about having to defend the model democracy those lucky Kuwaitis get to live under. And for the moment you can also put aside the very real, periodic need Americans have for testing their new weapons on human flesh. And also, just for the fun of it, let's ignore George Bush's obligation to protect the oil interests of his family and friends. There was another, much more important, consideration at work.
Dropping a Load for Uncle Sam
The simple fact is that America was long overdue to drop high explosives on helpless civilians; people who have no argument with us whatsoever. After all, it had been awhile, and the hunger gnaws. Remember that's our specialty; picking on countries that have marginally effective air forces. Yugoslavia is another, more recent, example ...
A Disobedient American
Now, you folks might've noticed, I don't feel about the Gulf War the way we were instructed to feel about it by the United States government. My mind doesn't work that way. You see, I've got this real moron thing I do, it's called "thinking." And I guess I'm not a very good American, because I like to form my own opinions; I don't just roll over when I'm told. Most Americans roll over on command. Not me. There are certain rules I observe.
Believe You Me
My first rule: Never believe anything anyone in authority says. None of them. Government, police, clergy, the corporate criminals. None of them. And neither do I believe anything I'm told by the media, who, in the case of the Gulf War, functioned as little more than unpaid employees of the Defense Department, and who, most of the time operate as an unofficial public relations agency for government and industry.
There's a lot more where this came from in Napalm & Silly Putty.