I normally wouldn’t actually write about the death of another human, largely because I don’t respect many enough to do so. But George Carlin is in a league of his own. His stand up comedy is utter brilliance, his routine could make anyone with a sense of humor laugh. His books, albums, and HBO specials were really something unique and incredibly good. Anyone who discusses religion as bluntly as Carlin did, while still remaining on air is worthy of praise. In honor of Mr. Carlin, I’ll post a few great quotes and videos (out of a massive library of thousands).
Quotes
“Atheism is a non-prophet organization.”
“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.“
“I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don’t have as many people who believe it.“
“I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me - they’re cramming for their final exam.”
“I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood.“
“Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.“
“The reason I talk to myself is that I’m the only one whose answers I accept.
“When someone is impatient and says, “I haven’t got all day,” I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day?“
“You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.“
I live in a culturally Christian Nation, America. This great nation was founded by secular intellectuals, but it was populated by religious fools. That of course is something we all have to live with. Most modern businesses all market toward the Christian year, and working at a Target store lets one view this first hand. The entire store changes based on the next holiday, and for the most part, only for the Christian Holidays. But being raised in a culturally Christian nation has its perks. Take for example, Peeps. What a great creation, anyone who has ever ate one knows exactly what I am talking about. You couldn’t get far without noticing the nice pastel colored designs of bunnies, rabbits and such. I have absolutely no problem with such festivities, rather, I enjoy egg hunts very much. However, the Christianity based reasons behind Easter are disgusting and immoral.
What exactly is Easter celebrating?
The point behind Easter is a two part answer. First, it is in celebration of the sacrifice of Jesus. Most Christians believe that Jesus died for the original sin (Adam and Eve) and now for all the sins they will commit in the future. Simply keeping faith in Jesus will guarantee one’s place in heaven alongside Jesus. Secondly, it is in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion. Now that we have that part settled, let us move onto why it is disgusting and immoral.
Most Christians regard Jesus’ sacrifice as the greatest one can make. There would be no point to Christianity if Jesus did not die for the sins of the people. It implies first, that people are born with the guilt of the original sin. The original sin is what caused Adam and Eve to be removed from the Garden of Eden. By them merely disobeying god, they were removed from paradise. This is something I struggle with understanding how someone could come to terms with this. What does original sin have to do with anyone except those who committed with it? Why is anyone else guilty for a crime they were never alive for, had no chance to either commit themselves or prevent it. How is it even possible for such guilt to go through each generation of humanity? The answer is indeed rather simple, it doesn’t. Adam and Eve could have been pedophiles who raped babies and committed genocide, but their sins are their own and are only their responsibility. Such is the same with a modern case. If my parents were frauds and charlatans who took the hard earned money of others and spent in wastefully on their own whims, and then they went on a mass murder spree, what does that have to do with me? In our modern systems of justice, nowhere is it found that if, a parent can’t serve their own sentences, that their child is thus responsible due to them being descendants of them. This sort of teaching is immoral, and unjust, the only sins I should be responsible for are the ones I commit or have the chance in preventing, nothing more and nothing less.
Now, to the issue of resurrection. It is physically impossible from someone to rise from the dead. Such does not even need to be pointed out. There are laws of nature that no one can control, they are there, regardless of the beliefs and faith, they are never suspended in your favor. They exist to exist and its simple as that. This is all obvious to anyone modern person with a functional and logical brain. How can Jesus absolve me of my future sins? How can he absolve me of my former sins? Let us examine this doctrine. If you commit a crime, I may pay your legal fees. If you have been awfully nice to me, maybe even serve your sentence for you. Though obviously no justice system would allow that. But that aside, I could do everything except, absolve you of your sin. I could not change the fact that you committed them. I could not forgive you for them, especially not the sins you are going to commit. Also what morally sound person would accept this? How is it moral to allow someone to die for you.
In conclusion, there is no need to be born again to Christianity, you just need to grow up, and become a mature adult. Take responsibility for your action, and only yours. Easter might be a fun holiday to celebrate culturally, but the reasons behind it are as I have established above, disgusting and immoral.
The questions, “Are you a Communist?” “Why are you a Marxist?”, are often posed to me. Usually in some sort of condescending and disgusted tone, as if automatically assuming that I am either an idealist, or some sort of Stalinist. I must begin by saying, just about everything that Stalin, Mao, and Castro did in their regimes is in opposition to what I believe. I will not defend anything they have done because I do not support them whatsoever. What I am more concerned with is the sheer ignorance most people have to the actual philosophy and mode of thought that is Marxism.
To begin we must define what Marxism is. Marxism is a firstly, a “way of thinking.” That means, Marxists can disagree on conclusions, but often use the same process to arrive at their conclusions. Here are the principles of Marxist thought.
Capitalism relies on exploitation to operate
Class struggle is the driving force of history
Dialectics as process of thought
Now, to defend such positions. Capitalism is a system based on private ownership and privately operated business. What are the foundations of modern Capitalism? Exploitation. Take for example the case of either England or America, the two nations at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. You couldn’t have a successful modern Capitalistic nation without some sort of industrialization. This is where private ownership, business and labor come into play. In the case of England, the exploitation of people is clear and obvious, millions of Irish can testify to such. How did England become a modern superpower in the 20th century? Imperialism. Their conquest of India, China, Africa and Canada is exactly how they built their power and wealth as a nation. Truly, I don’t believe anyone could actually deny this. Their ability to extract natural resources and rare goods at cheap prices is what gave them such a high profit margin. They did this through exploitation of the cheap labor and of their situation. With the case of America, the exploitation is even more blunt and obvious. America is built on top of what use to be a nation of Native Americans tribes. The purposeful extermination of at the very least millions upon millions of Native Americans is what gave them the land to begin with. So it began with the exploitation of Native Americans. It then carried over to the exploitation of African slaves (which is a common trend throughout most nations in the world in this time). Once this ended, how exactly did the Northern States become a force? Mass immigration. Again, cheap labor, which could be easily replaced. In the 20th century it is certainly the case that much of the Northern states used this immigration to their advantage. Again we see that the foundations of two of the stronger and well developed nations is built on exploitation of others. It couldn’t have existed without such. And this is what Capitalism relies on to this day in America, the exploitation of cheap labor in Asia, and the cheap labor of illegal immigrants.
The second position couldn’t be articulated better than by Marx. So I won’t try. I will however direct you to the opening chapter to the Communist Manifesto. And provide some quotations as well.
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
“Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.
Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — bourgeoisie and proletariat.”
What is Dialectics? There are two answers to this question. Both of which I fully support and use in practice. First, the Greek method. Defined as, “A philosophical term applied to methods of debate or argumentation that seek to prove or disprove the truth of something by the rules of logic or the laws of reasoning.” and “an exchange of propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses) resulting in a synthesis of the opposing assertions, or at least a qualitative transformation in the direction of the dialogue.” Then there is the Marxist method, which is slightly different, “describes the process of change: the struggle of opposing ideas (thesis and antithesis) produce synthesis.” To me, this is the proper, and an extremely useful method to either eliminate the impossible answers (reductio ad absurdu) and to possibly result with a conclusion that is both logical and practical.
As promised, here is the blog outlining my stances, (and why I believe what I do) on the various major issues that confront us Americans.
Stem Cell Research:
I begin with stem cells because I feel most strongly regarding this issue. Religious nonsense has retarded and plagued our societies for way too long, and it is time we put an end to it. The entire argument against the use and research of stem cells comes from the “religious right” (a contradiction in terms). Stem cell research is probably the most promising field in all of biology. It could actually put an end to much of the suffering currently taking place. However, due to the power of religious lobbies, Washington has chosen not to federally fund it. The religious argue on the basis of faith, or in other words, without any evidence…and if we wish to progress as a society, and make breakthroughs in the field of science. We must let go of these stone age myths.
Abortion:
Why, in modern times is this even an issue? Of course females should be given the right to make decisions with regards to their body. It is their body, and their child (if you could even call it that). How can one possibly be against abortion, I could understand if you personally disagree with abortion…but thats just it! That is YOUR decision, and your judgment. What people do with their body is none of your business unless it harms other citizens. The common argument that the “pro-life” folk take is, “you can’t kill life”…well just what do we define as “life”…surely life is an ambiguous term. By scratching your arm you kill millions of epidermis cells which will never see the light of the again. The male masturbator is a genocidal maniac under the same terms. We can see such is unreasonable, and simply this is not an issue that should be even debated, as the government shouldn’t be making such a decision for its citizens.
Civil Rights/Same-Sex Marriages:
Again, we have another non-issue in the forefront. This election season a major discussion will take place on gay rights, and their right to marry. Similar to the abortion issue, what difference does it make to you personally that your neighbor is gay, or gay and married. Since the 80’s, our society has become increasingly tolerant to the gay society, and well it should be. Continuing on the same note as the last issue, the government simply does not, or atleast should not have the power to make such decisions for its citizens.
Drugs:
Forgive me if I sound too much like Mike Gravel…but this war on drugs is absolute non-sense. I personally will agree that drugs that obviously lead to an individual harming another should be outlawed. However, drugs such as marijuana simply do not fall under that kind of category. We are wasting billions of tax dollars and not achieving a single thing in the war on drugs. Actually, the only thing we are doing is making criminals out of those who aren’t. Three “non-issues” in a row…the government simply shouldn’t have a role in making these kind of decisions for its citizens…and if they are going to…outlaw cigarettes and alcohol while our at it.
Iraq War:
I don’t support the immediate withdrawal whatsoever. I believe we should cut down on troops, but maintain a certain presence to assist in creating a two state solution, Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq. Oil should be shared between the two, based on population. If we leave Iraq purely because of public dissent and disagreement we will completely destroy any progress or possible progress that will be made in Iraq. Also, we will betray those who trusted us with their lives…and those American supporters would be swiftly executed. Don’t forget the business interests and our own oil interests…I don’t care what people say…we must make sure Iraq doesn’t fall into the hands of some sort of religious fundamentalist…like it or not, we rely heavily on oil, and the possibility of such riches in oil being going to the wrong hands is unthinkable…and if you think oil is expensive now, just think about what it will be when a country like Iraq falls into utter chaos (we provide the little stability they have).
Immigration:
This is possibly the most pointless issue in this entire election season and quite possibly the most stupid. Capitalism relies on exploitation, this is a simple fact. Mexican labor is cheap labor, and thus easily exploited. This is not to say you wouldn’t have those things you love most for cheap prices, but it would cost a decent amount more for them. While this may sound heartless, you can’t have it a la carte. We thrive on exploitation of others, and while it may be unfortunate, it is a fact of life. Many will not agree with me on this issue, but just about all of us are some shade of materialist. Cheap labor Mexicans taking the jobs that no one else will want to do is great for the economy in quite a few ways, and does effect your day to day life. America is a nation built on immigration, (in other words exploitation) and so it will be if it wishes to thrive.
Universal Health Care:
Health Care reform is one of the more (if not the most) important issues currently facing America. I believe just about everyone agrees that the current health care system is indeed a failure. I am not certain but I am pretty sure just about every potential candidate supported some sort of reform, some obviously more liberal and well thought out than others. If, you believe that the Health Care system in America is not broken, I would ask you watch SICKO by Michael Moore. Moore exposes in true journalistic form, the injustice of the current system. What he does however do is address two major issues, otherwise it is a great documentary and I highly recommend it. One, the difference in population from America to Canada and the Western European nations, and two, how exactly should we (no solution works universally) reform our system. With that settled lets continue onto the injustice aspect. My father a few years back had a little accident while doing some working outside, and essentially chopped off a good deal of the tip of his finger. Now, the doctors did do a great job and his finger is more or less in the same condition as before the accident. What did it cost him? $8000. That covered give or take an hour stay at the hospital, one or two visits to a specialist and nothing else. We have insurance, and also have the ability to pay for it…but what about the other America. The America where $8000 is almost one fourth of an average annual salary, and most are in tens of thousands of dollars in debt. This system works perfectly for the “haves” and not at all for the “have-nots.” The problem, as previously stated, with instituting a universal health care system is the major population difference. All of the countries which have a functional universal system, also have a population at the very least well under a third of our population and on average quite a lot more of a difference. What I currently support for Health Care Reform is HR676, I believe that it addresses the problems I have highlighted and would be a great Health Care System.
Yes I know I am a bit late on this topic, but I still think it is worthy of note. Al Gore, the man who made global warming and the climate issues confronting the world famous is now also a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. So here’s to the 45th Vice President and the 43rd President of the United States…Al Gore!
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