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> Ah, yeah. We're gonna go to Mars. And then of course we're gonna colonize deep space. With our microwave hot dogs and plastic vomit, fake dog shit and cinnamo

> Ah, yeah. We're gonna go to Mars. And then of course we're gonna colonize deep space. With our microwave hot dogs and plastic vomit, fake dog shit and cinnamon dental floss, lemon-scented toilet paper and sneakers with lights in the heels. And all these other impressive things we've done down here. But let me ask you this: what are we gonna tell the intergalactic council of ministers the first time one of our teenage mothers throws their newborn baby into a dumpster? How are we gonna explain that to the space people? How are we gonna let them know that our ambassador was only late for the meeting because his breakfast was cold and he had to spend half an hour punching his wife around the kitchen? And what are they gonna think when they find out, its just a local custom, that over 80 million women in the Third world have had their clitorises forcibly removed in order to reduce their sexual pleasure so they won't cheat on their husbands? Can't you just sense how eager the rest of the universe is for us to show up? -- George Carlin Our material wealth and our industrial capabilities just make our failings so much more shameful in my books.

spywaregorilla 5y ago
This quote seems really pathetic to me personally. One because it feels defeatist and ignores bounds of progress made against a problem that is simply difficult. Two because it highlights specific problems for which carlin has no personal culpability. Organizing civilization is hard. I have no doubts the council of intergalactic ministers had a difficult run as well. That is the nature of nature.
- scrollaway 5y ago
  Completely agreed with you. It's one thing to acknowledge humanity's faults, another to just be defeatist to the point of ignoring all good things we have done as a species just because we've done bad ones too.
  - iNane9000 5y ago
    Self improvement requires not falling into the mindset of blame. It’s “them” destroying the planet, rather than “us” solving the hard problems together. I think only human understanding and mastery of ego will determine the fate of the planet. We can do it, if we work on ourselves first.
- lapp0 5y ago
  The problem is agrarian society itself. It is by definition, a sort of cancer that converts the environment into a food surplus, leading to an increase in population, leading to more food being produced, to more population, to... I think you see the point. No other species on our planet does this, because the food chain system has constraints to prevent feedback loops- it's why apex predators are very low in population. We're a unique type of predator because while, we are not immune to death from any number of sources, our sheer ability to increase our population thanks to exploiting the environment outweighs any defenses the global ecosystem has been able to muster so far. Nonetheless, things seem to be heading in the direction of (population) collapse, but to what extent and how soon, it is hard to tell.
- howaboutnope 5y ago
  What's defeatist about it? "This fucking sucks" is to social progress what "this is odd" is to science. Furthermore, "This sucks" implies room for improvement, whereas "This is impressive" implies no great need for improvement. Being defeatist would be to not even criticize such shoulder patting because nothing can possibly change and this is the best we can do. > Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. -- Franz Kafka I don't know who said it, but "Those who think they are something have ceased to become something" also springs to mind.
  - spywaregorilla 5y ago
    That quote says nothing that evokes "room for improvement" to me. It demeans modern civilization's achievements to plastic vomit and microwave hotdogs. It also mocks hope for the future of our ability to change by then. Which is pretty bullshit because the rate of all those things is declining. Kafka's quote there is also pretty shit. Progressive sociological and technological change is difficult. We have made significant progress. We have a long way to go. Crying that we have achieved nothing diminishes large achievements that you take for granted.
    - howaboutnope 5y ago
      We treat people the same way. If someone can sing very well or is very rich, but is also a murderer or rapist, those negative traits tend to be how we categorize them. And that's even if they don't murder or rape for 364 days per year. > It also mocks hope for the future of our ability to change by then. Which is pretty bullshit because the rate of all those things is declining. If you really think this quote is just about sneakers with lights in the heels, I can't help you. > If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality. -- Stephen Hawking > Don't be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there's no poverty to be seen because the poverty's been hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you and even if it seems to you that you never had so much, that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don't be taken in when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there's no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they'll send you out to protect their gold in wars whose weapons, rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces. -- Jean-Paul Marat > The frightening coincidence of the modern population explosion with the discovery of technical devices that, through automation, will make large sections of the population 'superfluous' even in terms of labor, and that, through nuclear energy, make it possible to deal with this twofold threat by the use of instruments beside which Hitler's gassing installations look like an evil child's fumbling toys, should be enough to make us tremble. -- Hannah Arendt If someone, rather than trembling, speaks of how it's better than it ever was.. I frankly couldn't care less what they consider "shit".

spywaregorilla 5y ago

This quote seems really pathetic to me personally. One because it feels defeatist and ignores bounds of progress made against a problem that is simply difficult. Two because it highlights specific problems for which carlin has no personal culpability. Organizing civilization is hard. I have no doubts the council of intergalactic ministers had a difficult run as well. That is the nature of nature.

scrollaway 5y ago
Completely agreed with you. It's one thing to acknowledge humanity's faults, another to just be defeatist to the point of ignoring all good things we have done as a species just because we've done bad ones too.
- iNane9000 5y ago
  Self improvement requires not falling into the mindset of blame. It’s “them” destroying the planet, rather than “us” solving the hard problems together. I think only human understanding and mastery of ego will determine the fate of the planet. We can do it, if we work on ourselves first.
lapp0 5y ago
The problem is agrarian society itself. It is by definition, a sort of cancer that converts the environment into a food surplus, leading to an increase in population, leading to more food being produced, to more population, to... I think you see the point. No other species on our planet does this, because the food chain system has constraints to prevent feedback loops- it's why apex predators are very low in population. We're a unique type of predator because while, we are not immune to death from any number of sources, our sheer ability to increase our population thanks to exploiting the environment outweighs any defenses the global ecosystem has been able to muster so far. Nonetheless, things seem to be heading in the direction of (population) collapse, but to what extent and how soon, it is hard to tell.
howaboutnope 5y ago
What's defeatist about it? "This fucking sucks" is to social progress what "this is odd" is to science. Furthermore, "This sucks" implies room for improvement, whereas "This is impressive" implies no great need for improvement. Being defeatist would be to not even criticize such shoulder patting because nothing can possibly change and this is the best we can do. > Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. -- Franz Kafka I don't know who said it, but "Those who think they are something have ceased to become something" also springs to mind.
- spywaregorilla 5y ago
  That quote says nothing that evokes "room for improvement" to me. It demeans modern civilization's achievements to plastic vomit and microwave hotdogs. It also mocks hope for the future of our ability to change by then. Which is pretty bullshit because the rate of all those things is declining. Kafka's quote there is also pretty shit. Progressive sociological and technological change is difficult. We have made significant progress. We have a long way to go. Crying that we have achieved nothing diminishes large achievements that you take for granted.
  - howaboutnope 5y ago
    We treat people the same way. If someone can sing very well or is very rich, but is also a murderer or rapist, those negative traits tend to be how we categorize them. And that's even if they don't murder or rape for 364 days per year. > It also mocks hope for the future of our ability to change by then. Which is pretty bullshit because the rate of all those things is declining. If you really think this quote is just about sneakers with lights in the heels, I can't help you. > If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality. -- Stephen Hawking > Don't be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there's no poverty to be seen because the poverty's been hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you and even if it seems to you that you never had so much, that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don't be taken in when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there's no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they'll send you out to protect their gold in wars whose weapons, rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces. -- Jean-Paul Marat > The frightening coincidence of the modern population explosion with the discovery of technical devices that, through automation, will make large sections of the population 'superfluous' even in terms of labor, and that, through nuclear energy, make it possible to deal with this twofold threat by the use of instruments beside which Hitler's gassing installations look like an evil child's fumbling toys, should be enough to make us tremble. -- Hannah Arendt If someone, rather than trembling, speaks of how it's better than it ever was.. I frankly couldn't care less what they consider "shit".