George Carlin Not Responsible for Recycled New Age Pablum
| Jun 24, 2008
Comedian George Carlin died this past weekend. This morning, I got an email with an essay attributed to George Carlin — actually, expressing surprise that a comedian would “so very eloquent…and so very appropriate.” You can read the substance of the email on this page (spoiler alert: he didn’t really write it!)
Thankfully, it is falsely attributed to Carlin, as he stated on his website in 2004. That page is not on his site anymore, but you can find it here in the Internet Archives.
About that email in particular, he writes something much much more characteristic of his comedy:
One of the more embarrassing items making the internet/e-mail rounds is a sappy load of shit called “The Paradox of Our Time.” The main problem I have with it is that as true as some of the expressed sentiments may be, who really gives a shit? Certainly not me.
I figured out years ago that the human species is totally fucked and has been for a long time. I also know that the sick, media-consumer culture in America continues to make this so-called problem worse. But the trick, folks, is not to give a fuck. Like me. I really don’t care. I stopped worrying about all this temporal bullshit a long time ago. It’s meaningless…
Another problem I have with “Paradox” is that the ideas are all expressed in a sort of pseudo-spiritual, New-Age-y, “Gee-whiz-can’t-we-do-better-than-this” tone of voice. It’s not only bad prose and poetry, it’s weak philosophy. I hope I never sound like that.
And as anybody who has listened to anything by George Carlin knows, that is his philosophy. Comedians are some of the wise people of our time and we should celebrate them for the commentary and criticism they actually make, not the recycled material of others.
The actual author of the piece should be given to Dr. Bob Moorehead, former pastor of Seattle’s Overlake Christian Church. It is from his 1995 book, Words Aptly Spoken. More information on the urban-legend-busting ubersite, Snopes.com.
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