THE DEATH OF A DISAPPOINTED IDEALIST

George Carlin, 1937-2008. R.I.P.

I don't have many heroes, but George Carlin is one of them.

When I first watched Jammin' in New York, his 1992 HBO special, I was instantly infected with his love of language and artfully crafted rants.

Even though he presented himself as an apolitical grump with "major psychotic" hatred for everyone and everything around him, I always picked up on an underlying set of morals and principles.

Carlin liked to repeat this expression, when asked to explain his work: "Scratch any cynic, and underneath you'll find a disappointed idealist." This resonates with me in ways that I'm still realizing. Anytime I become too cynical, I try to remind myself that it's only my idealism crying out.

To me, George Carlin was a political and cultural agitator masked as a comedian. And that's something I've always admired and often tried to emulate.

Take this Carlin quote:

We have to declare war on everything. We have the war on crime, the war on poverty, the war on litter, the war on cancer, the war on drugs.

But did you ever notice, we got no war on homelessness? You know why? There's no money in that problem! No money to be made off of the homeless. If you could find a solution to homelessness where the corporate swine and the politicians could steal a couple of million dollars each, you'd see the streets of America begin to clear up pretty god-damned quick, I'll guarantee you that!

I don't even see a joke in there. But people were laughing. And people paid him to hear him say that! And HBO aired that ... repeatedly! Pretty amazing, I thought to myself. I'd like to do that one day.

I didn't always agree with what he said and, sometimes, I was downright offended. But I loved the way he crafted it together. His work was poetry.

--Junichi