Mocking Earth Day
WE LOVED GEORGE CARLIN, FOR HE WAS AN ACID CRITIC OF CAPITALISM, A BRILLIANT OBSERVER OF AMERICAN SOCIETY’S IDIOCIES AND ITS ARROGANT BUSINESS CULTURE…BUT WITH THIS ONE HE FUCKED UP.
PATRICE GREANVILLE
He was right in his legendary misanthropy, but he dropped the ball badly with the problem of biotic, human-triggered ecocide. For planetary ecocide is wholesale murder.
Yet here on this routine on environmentalism he’s simply blind to it, and to the implications of deriding such a cause, which he obviously must have realized was objectively benefitting the status quo—all those rightwing assholes and corporations and politicians he relentlessly attacked and ridiculed for most of his career. His piercing intellect seems to have temporarily short-circuited in a mean-spirited, self-destructive, almost tragic manner. The cause we can only speculate about, and we won’t go into it, for George was, like many comedians, a tortured, often unaccountably contradictory individual, a caustic enfant terrible with few peers in his generation.
Sure, there are a lot of whiny environmentalists—this subculture is after all generally populated with white middle and upper-middle class liberals, and their record, especially when we look at the dismal job done by the largest groups which have adopted a corporate lifestyle is simply disheartening. But there are also many environmentalists doing a great and often heroic job against ludicrous odds. Thus, it was wrong for him to mock this cause, and in so doing not only dismiss the scarring of the earth for the vilest of motives, but also poke fun at the incalculable suffering of countless helpless animals in a world tyrannically dominated by humans. But as usual, Carlin is an intelligent man, so he’s right about some things: like the planet will survive…albeit as a dead, polluted, lifeless and disfigured rock in a universe also hurtling toward its own implacable end. For a man who was at heart a compassionate human being, this is perhaps his greatest and ugliest contradiction.
It pains me to write these lines. But they must be written. Carlin will always deserve respect and affection as a great and supremely original artist. This strange episode I suppose only proves that he was capable of great errors, and in that he was simply human.
—Patrice Greanville is The Greanville Post’s editor in chief.
SELECT COMMENTS
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John Cousino you really didn’t “get” that bit did you?8 hours ago ·
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John Cousino The main point of the bit was that if we keep doing what we are doing the earth will still be here, we will all be gone….he got a little sassy getting to the point. He was a comedian and very good with sarcasm.Watch it again and look for the point where he threw in the twist. I think this was one of his best bits.8 hours ago · -
Joseph P. TimperioPlastic did not come out of the earth. The litany of things Carlin lists as happening to the planet as opposed to us are all natural occurances, not our interference.
Carlin is using the same selfish accusation for the planet that he accuses liberals. He attaches agency to the planet, as if it had intention, to heal itself, cleanse itself. The planet does not ”see us” at all.
Carlin is personalizing the planet, giving it human motives. This is ridiculous, and yet another concept of human vanity. This is Carlin’s ruse- the ”higher wisdom” he refers to. The ”giant electron.”
Magical thinking in a comic routine. It’s laughable, but for all the wrong reasons.
And don’t get me started on temporal reality. The length of our existence here, nor the existence of the planet itself, has any bearing on our effect on the planet.3 hours ago · -
Patrice Greanville replies: When I critique something concerning “extremely serious subjects”, among which I must put the depredations of the environment and earth in general by humans, I do not aim my critique according to what a handful of highly perceptive people will see but what the masses, the ordinary person will see. We live in a world crowded with messages, and people sort them out in a hurry, on the basis of little thinking and often less information. That’s what makes things of this nature a bit dangerous,This routine has been used in many rightwing sites to mock environmentalism, and was featured prominently several years ago at a rock concert sponsored, among others, by Exxon. I believe it was in New Mexico or Colorado.
As a great fan and admirer of Carlin I have followed his career closely and even met him several times when I lived in NYC a few blocks from his place. In most skits he was pretty straightforward—even when using irony—Carlin style, with a machete—to take something apart, like business ethics, a great oxymoron that he turned into a hilarious routine.
But here his aim was a bit unsteady, his irony far too subtle, and the end result confusing.
A friend I respect, writes this morning the following:
“Carlin looks to me to be poking fun at his own, much as black comedians can make fun of blacks, or Jewish comedians can take apart Jews while no gentile saying the same words would be considered funny. He strikes me as a man who has held onto the workings of his mind, but who has fundamentally given up on any hope of having an influence. He has embraced nihilism, seeing that humans are on a bee line to self destruction. Will Obama authorize the pipeline from Canada to Texas, to deliver to our carbon emitting furnaces tar sands fuel — the most environmentally destructive fossil fuel yet? Of course he will. Because the industry demands it, and the populace, being fearfully addicted to cheap liquid energy, will raise only marginal protest.
In the end, Carlin is not entirely wrong — at least about his conclusion. Aren’t humans destined for self destruction? His unkind words towards environmentalists were not necessary, and play into the hands of those championing a world free of compassion. The audience sat in silent horror until the end, not finding the skit especially funny…”
Of course, we could all be totally wrong.
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