George Carlin - a Firestorm of Words

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200404/20040408....

Tavis: What I cannot juxtapose is how you can be so brilliant at critiquing American life, politically that is, socially, economically, and not vote.

George: Yeah.

Tavis: You don't vote, and I've seen you try to explain this a thousand times, and I thought I'd sit with you, right across from you, face to face, and maybe this one time, I'm gonna get this.

George: I don't think it's that you don't understand it, 'cause that wouldn't be true of you. I think it's that it's hard for you to accept my explanation. It's a little facile. Um, first of all, the short answer, which has a laugh in it, is I think if you vote, you have no right to complain.

Tavis: Ha ha ha!

George: I always turn that around.

Tavis: Exactly.

George: And I say, listen, here's the deal. If you vote and you put someone in office and they become dishonest or incompetent and they turn out these bad bills and they sign these bad bills and they create a mess, you helped create it. You voted for them. I, on the other hand, who didn't even get out of bed on election day, had nothing to do with it. I have every right to complain about the mess you created.

Tavis: Yes, sir.

George: So that's the easy, facile answer. My answer, specifically, is I don't want to participate in this. I opted out some time ago. I sort of gave up on my species and my culture here in America--the species, human, the culture, American--because I think they have each squandered their gifts. I think we have made wrong turns all along the line, both as a species and as, in this case, the American people. I think people blame politicians when it is their fault. It is their own fault. Where do you think these politicians come from? They come from American homes and schools and churches and universities and clubs, and they're Americans, and this is the best we can do. People say, "they're all--where are the smart people? Where are they?" They're making attack submarines. They're building better bombs. They're building better jet fighters, the smart people. Or they're trying to get a cure to cancer. But smart people aren't attracted to public life. We don't honor public life. Uh, I gave up because, first of all, I didn't see a future for either of these things. I don't see a future for this species. I really don't. And I don't see a species--uh, a future for the way this culture is drifting and the kind of--the kind of interest in the world that we show and that we pursue. And I think we're both headed for a big, big, big fall. But a long time ago, besides that, I said, you know, it's better for me artistically, as a writer, as a person who's gonna criticize, to not participate. It's better to sit out here on a platform somewhere near Jupiter and just say, "Look at that. Oh, isn't that interesting?" 'Cause I know I can't fix it, Tavis, and I don't think it gets fixed anyway, even if I could.