A Reminder From George Carlin- "The Real Owners of America"

[Orwellian_Ghost]

George Carlin -
The Real Owners Of America

"It's Called the American Dream Because You Have To Be Asleep to Believe It"

"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying ­ lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else."

"But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

"You know what they want? Obedient workers ­ people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."

"This country is finished."

George Carlin- "Owners Of This Country"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-771488600376041822

[AndrewP]

1. I miss George Carlin

[No.23]

2. Ditto. Very much too. RIP, George.

[inna]

3. fucking A!! rec #7! and.... this needs to go all the way to the top!! nt

[rrneck]

4. A great sage of our time nt

[leftstreet]

5. K&R

Love it!

[Spoon]

6. Spot on

and incredibly Depressing.

There were only a handful of congressman who rejected the repeal of Glass-Steagall. Wellstone who was most likely murdered, and Dorgan who has been muted...

There has to be a way out, right?

[zeemike]

7. There is a way out ut it won't be easy

And that is to take it all back. But it will require people coming together in mass numbers.
And they are counting on keeping us all divided and quarreling among ourselves over small potatoes and never getting together for our own common good.
And the key to it all is the land, because that is where the real wealth is and they intend to hold on to it and get even more of it.
For them there vision is to own all their real estate and have us all rent it from them and work for them in order to live.
It is feudalism for the 21st century.

[TBF]

10. Along with Monsanto controlling the food supply & I'm sure there's a way they

are planning to control water as well. And you are absolutely right that this involves taking to the streets - there is no way any politician is going to do this. It's up to us to band together and do this.

[zeemike]

12. I see it more like taking to the land

Let them have the streets...they are worthless without the land.
If I were engining it it would be squatters moving on to farm land owned by corporations in mass numbers...there should be plenty of homeless people for that plus people that were just fed up with the city.
It would be difficult to arrest them all but I am sure some would have to go to jail and some may even die but it is the only way we are ever going to extract ourselves from the belly of the beast.

[rosesaylavee]

14. Did you read H2OMan's thread on this earlier this week?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5333317

Wonder what it will take for the American people to take to the streets in large numbers?

[zeemike]

23. I did miss it and thanks for pointing it out

I always love his posts and hate when I miss a good one like that.

[agent46]

30. I agree

You're talking about making the kind of noise they aren't equipped to ignore. It has to be very very loud.

[zeemike]

33. Not loud or violent in any way

But persistent, peacefully,and non violent with many willing to go to jail and die if necessary.
Just being loud gets us no where except on the news where they will make fun of you.

[agent46]

46. I meant that metaphorically

Loud as in "unable to ignore". Persistence makes that kind of noise. I'm with you on this.

[zeemike]

55. Gotcha n/t

[truedelphi]

61. Our local, really teeny tiny, PBS TV channel

has been playing the number one, slam-dunk video of how awful Monsanto is all this week.

It has offered me a real chance to explain to my Obama-loving husband how awful Obama's appointments are.

He now gets it. But most of our population is never going to see this video - and they
are going to continue to believe that 'GMO food is good because it has added vitamins" or because it is the "best thing the scientific community has ever come up with."

Carlin understood the most important thing about our life inside a modern day Banana Republic - "We are not part of their club"

[BrklynLiberal]

42. Back to pitchforks and flaming torches in the night...

[Tangerine LaBamba]

63. Don't forget Molly Ivins -

she was adamant that Glass-Steagall stay in place, but its demise was engineered by Phil Gramm, who was characterized by Molly as the most evil man who ever lived.

I don't doubt for one moment that Paul Wellstone was murdered.

I am with Kurt Vonnegut on this one - when asked about the campaign to reverse climate change, he replied, "It's too late. We did such a good job, it can't be fixed."

Same with government. We can hope for the best, but, the truth is, it's broken and will never be fixed again.

[malaise]

8. Perfect

K & R

[RagAss]

9. ....it's as if God himself spoke these words through him....RIP George !

[L0oniX]

11. Nail hit on head.

[antimatter98]

13. Exactly right. More of us are awake to this, but how...

do we translate our knowledge into action to take the country back from
the corporate thugs before we get totally locked down and bankrupted?

More education of the public? Meetings? Demonstrations?

I don't know what the process should be. Any experienced organizers want to
give us some advice?

We are at a tipping point I think, but need to push beyond that and how is this done?

(remember how Joe the Plumber became a working man spokesman for the GOP, and sort
of the same for Palin? What can we do that is similar but gets our message out
to the men and women on Main Street?)

[TBF]

15. That is the ironic thing isn't it -

that the repubs are out playing "populism" and doing their tea parties. There is a lot of anger out there right now, thousands of people being laid off, and more terrified that they will be next.

I guess the difficulty on DU is getting people to see that this anger does not have to be directed at Obama specifically, but rather a system of government that is not working for most of us. If we can get past that, and realize that Obama is just an administrator and that WE need to be the change agent (as a group) we can get something done.

As far as logistics, look to the posts from David Swanson who is doing some of this stuff now, and I think all of us are going to have to do it one way or another in our communities. I'm in the heart of red, south of houston, and I can find common ground when I talk to my neighbors (while I have an Obama sticker on my car and they have Ron Paul)... Obama is right about that element - talking to our neighbors is where we start.

[scarletwoman]

70. I want DUers to realize that Obama is working for Owners, not for us.

It's not that I dislike Obama, he's charming and smart, and it's possible that he genuinely does care a bit about the fate of the proles. But we should never forget who he actually works for, and which side of the Class War he's aligned with.

Until enough people get over their starry-eyed celebrity worship of Obama, we won't be able to effectively organize for REAL change -- not the empty campaign rhetoric of faux populism.

sw

[TBF]

73. I absolutely agree -

He is the administrator doing the bidding of the owners. It doesn't matter how "nice" Obama seems, the bottom line is to watch his behavior. The most recent and blatant was sidestepping single-payer. He has even said on occasion that it would be the best way to go, yet he is making it clear it is not what he is prepared to do.

[Freeusfromthechurch]

21. I feel you...But...ponder this view...

If we oppose them, we become them. We have to take a different path to defeating those that want to control others. Because we give them control of our emotions when we are in opposition to their ideas. We need to be aware of their need to control us by getting us off balance with our anger, fear and anxieties about what is happening on our planet. We are creating all of the emotions I just mentioned, from reacting to their power (or the illusion of their power). Its only perceived power and we feed it with our opposing it. We need to allow them to have their illusive power and no longer react to it.

It is here only that we become empowered...we become liberated from our fear, anxiety and anger. It is here, at this moment, we find out that we all along are the powerful ones...already liberated...and no man or country or corporation can take that from us.

The old paradigm of I must defeat(oppose) you in order to win, must become a thing of the past.

[TBF]

34. Sure, but they still own everything, and therefore own us. How do we liberate that? n/t

[OwnedByFerrets]

31. I will be asking that very question at a Move.org meeting

this afternoon in Mobile Al. If I get an acceptable answer, I will report back.

[sakabatou]

16. Spot on, George. Spot on.

[C......N......C]

17. Off the subject.

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. All true.

:evilfrown:

[WillyT]

19. I've Always Loved George Carlin's Definition Of The Classes:

If I'm remembering correctly...

George Carlin's definition of the classes:

The rich do none of the work, and make all of the profit.

The middle class does all of the work, and pays all of the taxes.

And the poor?

They're just there to scare the shit out of the middle class.

:shrug:

[winyanstaz]

69. I was born poor and after being Bushed it looks like I may die poor...

But its just plain bullshit lies that the poor don't work.
My momma raised five kids alone on 50 cents an hour, (yes she was married and a decent woman) 6 days a week, 12 hour shifts... working in a laundry that beat the women up for daring to ask for railings for the upstairs floor so that women wouldn't faint and fall into the hot presses below.
I raised three kids by myself, (yes I was married but he was a liar and a cheat)..and I washed toilets and worked at health care and cleaned houses and worked in the fields and the orchards..and many other low paying jobs, often two or three at a time to keep a roof over my children's head.....because I never had the money or time to go to school and yes..I was still poor.
I have news for those that like to stick their noses up in the air over the poor.
The poor work and work hard.
The poor also love their children.
The poor like to take baths and be clean when they can.
The poor like to eat same as you and have a roof over their heads.
It's just not always possible when you are running at full speed just to stay where you are without falling down to even think about getting ahead. There is always something that comes up when you have a family that needs taking care of or health problems of your own.
Walk a mile in my shoes... .or shut the fuck up about the poor.

[TBF]

74. Excellent post and should be required reading.

I grew up in a rural area, where folks did ok but they mostly were farmers, small business, or worked in factories. My dad worked in a foundry. I never felt especially poor, but a house for them in our little town cost less than my first new car.

And that is how many people in this country live, do the best for their kids, and try to hold on. As far as I'm concerned we should be hearing from many more poor americans. Obama should not only invite single-payer "reps" to his "meetings" on health care, he should invite some homeless folks and/or uninsured folks to talk about their experiences as well. That holds true for all other areas of policy as well, not just health care.

Right now we've got a government of the rich people, by the rich people, and for the rich people.

[amborin]

20. like, how come everyone's shocked? 1000s of bks & articles written on this, for over a century

starting with Marx

C Wright Mills,

many, many, many, many, many others...........

[Butch350]

25. Name one.

[amborin]

35. C.Wright Mills: "The Power Elite": spells it all out....

the triangle of power

and of course Marx said the gov't just takes orders from the ruling class

but literally 1000s and 1000s of bks and articles on this

[bertman]

38. If it wasn't on TeeVee it doesn't exist. That's how come.

[Kurovski]

44. That's true, and that's the way it is.

Carlin never backed down from telling us how stupid we are, and why.

Reading serious books is not a 21st century pastime.

[valerief]

80. Every new generation is born illiterate. nt

[AzDar]

22. Miss you, Mr. Carlin.

O8)

[G_j]

24. ouch!!

beautifully said

[acmavm]

26. George Carlin was one of the most potent, informed, and intelligent men

of my generation. And people called him a 'comic'. I suppose he was a comic in the same way Lenny Bruce was a comic. Beneath the surface of every 'joke' they told was an ugly truth than needed to be brought out in the open.

[DKRC]

58. "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you." — Oscar Wilde

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3565.Oscar_Wilde

People are receiving more real information today from the comedy of Jon Stewart, Letterman, Colbert, SNL, etc than all the corporate media combined.

[Fumesucker]

27. What's really depressing is that it takes a comedian to tell the truth in America..

Carlin and Jon Stewart..

And let's not leave out Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor as well as a host of others.

George Carlin was a prophet, he turned out to be completely right when he said " They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."

The big club got it and you and I got screwed and didn't even get a cigarette.

[Webster Green]

37. Add Bill Hicks to that list..

He had it figured out as well. :smoke:

[BrklynLiberal]

43. Did you see the David Letterman show a few weeks back when he had

Bill Hicks' Mom on...and played the tape of an appearance by Bill on his show that had never been aired.
Letterman apologized very sincerely and fervently to Hicks' Mom for his own lack of insight at the time.
He said that now he could see no reason why that routine was cut from his show, and deeply regretted it.

[Webster Green]

45. Nah, I got rid of my TeeVee service altogether..

I got so pissed at the propaganda that I canceled my Comcast and told them I was sick of all the right wing bullshit.

I'll look for it online. I would like to see it.

I sure miss Bill Hicks. :-(

[BrklynLiberal]

47. uTube videos about the Hicks performance and Letterman's apology

This was Hicks response to the censorship at the time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkptz2YfZik


He performed the same set again...his last live appearance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnnzMERGuiY&feature=related

This is the show where Letterman apologized to Hicks' Mom and showed the tape
Pt1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUbB_D-dYp8&feature=related
Pt2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yTVDoSRKq0&feature=related

[Webster Green]

49. Hey, Thanks!

:yourock:

[BrklynLiberal]

50. NoProblem. They are important enough to make sure they are seen.

[truedelphi]

62. I had never heard of Bill Hicks. Thank you for posting these

What a great talent.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

64. Wasn't that amazing?

I was warned of it by a pal, and I watched, spellbound. Mrs. Hicks didn't let Dave off, not for a moment, but she was gracious.

What's very strange is Dave taking the fall for that, because, if you read John Lahr's account of it and you do some homework, it was a production/NBC decision because a pro-life sponsor objected to Bill's routine about storming the cemeteries on behalf of the pre-dead.

But, it was an elegant and proper thing to do. I hope it turned a lot more people onto Bill Hicks. I am so afraid he will be forgotten.

[BrklynLiberal]

66. Yes. Letterman was very gracious.

Perhaps he took the blame because he did not stand up to the folks who censored Hicks.

[winyanstaz]

28. George Carlin was a true Patriot

and he tried to open our eyes. He truly tried and for that he shall be remembered as one of the all time great good guys.

[Fire1sKid]

29. Hilarious,but sadly true

[LWolf]

32. I'd love to hear

what he would have done with current events.

[nradisic]

36. God bless you heart George...

I hope you are in a happy place.

[bertman]

39. BRILLIANT!!! The All-Suicide Channel. I'm still laughing. Carlin was a genius.

[BrklynLiberal]

40. To say that Mr. Carlin was a genius and soothsayer is understating the facts.

You are sorely missed George Carlin. Your shoes will never be filled again.

[Kurovski]

41. K&R.

The funnyman had it right, where thousands of pols ignored it. (or served the master, eh?)

Carlin and Eisenhower, two peas in a pod. ;-)

[maryf]

48. K&R so glad to see this again,

It should be played about once a month lest we forget.

"You know what they want? Obedient workers ­ people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it."

Why the military looks like a great job!!!

And can you say "NCLB? Push for critical thinking skills development and creative problem solving skills from your schools, demand it get fit in despite the teaching to the tests mandates...

[madfloridian]

51. Thanks. Great Carlin words.

:hi:

[originalpckelly]

52. What was America is over, what will be America has just begun.

And it's going to be an interesting ride. We are on the verge of a real economic revolution.

[freemarketer6]

72. Not in a millon years. We are in the beginning of the end. Go watch

tv. Does anything you see suggest anything has or will change? Are Betty and Bill still deciding on whether to put in a third bathroom with pastel wallpaper, or is little Billy still going to piano practice that he hates? Are they still killing people gratuitously on CSI, with the gorgeous pretend people figuring out everything? Pfffth.

[caseymoz]

53. George Carlin = Mark Twain?

[bluesmail]

54. The ever prescient George Carlin. eom

[road2000]

56. And in Minnesota,

voters were told by the RW not to take Al Franken seriously because what does he know? He's just a comedian.

[rhett o rick]

57. R & K for George..... Carlin that is. nm

[Echo In Light]

59. Funny thing is, if anyone besides Carlin points out the obvious, it's considered "Obama bashing"

...or the nutball rantings of "conspiracy theorists."

K&R for Carlin - I've actually posted this specific clip on a few different forums lately.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

60. That point is crucial

Criticisms of the status quo are easily sidestepped by killing the messenger, avoiding the facts and what Carlin is pointing out is the obvious.

[1badjedi]

65. I miss carlin.

But I'm also glad he is not here to see what is going on right now and our lame reaction to it all. Sure pissing and moaning on the internet might relieve some personal tension but it does nothing to change the status quo. Every single american should be standing on pennsylvania avenue DEMANDING accountability of our government and their wall street masters. Short of that we are pissing in the wind.

To me, carlin got out while the getting was still good. The rest of us look proper fucked.

[Crunchy Frog]

67. A prophet. eom

[blindpig]

68. Fuckin' Bravo

Of all of his rants that ain't the funniest but it's as true as can be.

k&r

[davidwparker]

71. Mods, take this down. OBAMA IS IN CHARGE !!!!!!!

:sarcasm:

[lonestarnot]

75. And he was and still is right!

[Shelob]

76. And yet, he refused to vote.

He could identify the problem for us, and point us to it, but had no interest in actively doing anything about it.

I guess because it really can't be fixed.

But I can still dream, can't I?

[TBF]

77. You assume voting changes anything.

"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." Emma Goldman

Enjoy your stay.

[earth mom]

78. Truer words have never been spoken.

Wish George Carlin was still here. We need him now more than ever. :cry:

[valerief]

79. KICK!

:kick: