How do you feel about this video?

[Ballpark]

American Dream

Does it reflect the reality of american society?

[Flatchett]

GkPWFupNHhs

[pesquisa]

Does it reflect the reality of american society?

It correctly refects that in America, "education sucks," at least a significant portion of public primary and secondary education.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4pN-aiofw&playnext=1&list=PL1671559C672F6F24&index=1

[mthomps]

I love Carlin and that video. I think if he ran and were elected for office he would have disappeared. He was a comedian but that speech isn't comedy. It's brutal and direct but it works because he is right.

[Ballpark]

I was thinking more about Businessmen and capitalists controlling all the wealth and power, and people are being dumbed down to working slaves for the rich. Is this the reality of America?

[puzzled-observer]

I was thinking more about Businessmen and capitalists controlling all the wealth and power, and people are being dumbed down to working slaves for the rich. Is this the reality of America?

That's the reality of the world in general. People with money have the power to ensure they get more money at the expense of everyone else. Not that anyone is necessarily actively crushing the educational system, but it's not something that promotes the wealth of the wealthy.

[pesquisa]

There were a lot of dumbed down people in that audience. Maybe it's a comfort for them to think that it's not their fault that they're stupid. It's just the "owners'" design. Or maybe they think they're the smart exceptions in on the joke on the rest of the masses. Any way they got their laughs and Carlin got their money. Capitalism and free speech are wonderful things. I preferred Carlin's video mocking saving the planet.

EDIT: The OP video strikes a similar theme as Tenderfoot's thread -How is this Slavery thing working out for you? Is you a happy slave fo yo massah? (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?43561-How-is-this-Slavery-thing-working-out-for-you-Is-you-a-happy-slave-fo-yo-massah)

[eyebyte_atWork]

Looks about right.

[giegs]

Yea, he's really just describing power systems. It's not really all that profound, but it's a good populist position to take. Given the choice I'd have Kurt Vonnegut for President and George Carlin for VP.

ZOMBIE ADMINISTRATORS!

[ACow]

Does it reflect the reality of american society?

Pretty much. I've never really felt comfortable that people are laughing in it...

[Chunes]

Not sure why he even cared, given his stance on "engagement." His observations were certainly something, but there was obviously a lot of emotion behind his words that a non-participant of the world such as he was shouldn't have had.

[composer]

Populist tripe.

Society always has winners and losers. The U.S. had a brief illusion of economic equality in the period 1950-1970, but now it's gone back to a more usual unequal system. Statistically this should be expected, there are far more of the 'unequal' states than the 'equal'. It takes a special set of conditions for the equal.

Complaining about the erosion of pensions and lower end jobs is dumb. I love to hear about the erosion of the 1950's blue collar American worker, OK sure, do you want to pay an extra $5k for your car? An extra $150 for your clothes washer, or how about tacking on a few dollars to every toy you buy your kid? Blame it on our corporate masters, but they are just slaves to their customers - you. If people wanted high quality, expensive made in America goods by Americans with pensions and benefits, you bet they would provide, in a heartbeat.

My wife got a Tom Bihn bag for $120, but decided she didn't like it and gave it to me for my electronics stuff. I also got a $15 Case Logic bag, which beats the Bihn bag by a mile. It costs 1/10 the price, is better designed and better built. The Bihn bag is made in Seattle by all Americans, and is shipped to me in a 'zero carbon' UPS shipment (bah! another joke).

People in other countries can do it better/cheaper/faster and so took your jobs.

[rainfall]

I love Carlin and that video.

I do too, and he makes a lot of sense to me. I believe in things he says in the video. I was really sad when he died. There was one guy who could live longer.

[Kleptocracy]

Does it reflect the reality of american society?

It's an accurate description of global society and the global power structure, not just American society.

Murdoch media is largely responsible for the dumbing down of people worldwide, promoting cultural hatred, useless wars, corporate interests, and underplaying the importance of the environment amongst other things.

Articles like this, where Fox expresses a one sided promotion of extending the Bush tax cuts based on the fact that it will help some small businesses while completely ignoring that it will also allow the extremely rich to continue avoiding to pay taxes at the expense of the people:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/12/10/tax-facts-dems-ignore/

Then you get people like composer (post #12 above) who is typical of the dumbed down society that George Carlin is speaking of who will actually take the time to defend "these rich cocksuckers" against everybody else's interests, including their own because they have been fooled by the corporate propaganda that Fox news and the like throw at them every day.

What George Carlin is saying is just a generally unspoken fact of life.

[avolkiteshvara]

Carlin's sage words have changed society for the better. But whether its him or chompsky, they give this ultra simple explanation of how the "man" or the rich are keeping everyone down. And its always vague generalities, nothing specific. They've identified a piece of the puzzle, but its not the whole pie.

[DocHolliday]

I could listen to Carlin all day. Thankfully I don't because I would likely have a heart attack from being so fired up.

[Tlalocone]

2CCxd7E7A84

This Video depicts a metaphore, in which we can see that after many months of dissidences between me and YHWH, we finally got to get to know each other better and love each other better. :wub::highfive:
(Legend: Tiger: Tlalocone; Leopard: YHWH). I am happy that we don't fight anymore YHWH.

:devil::banana::hug::cheers:

[Chunes]

People in other countries can do it better/cheaper/faster and so took your jobs.

Maybe we don't want to make "earning a living" into a competition. :crazy:
It's something that everyone should be able to do—not just the "winners."

[Roger Mexico]

Populist tripe.

Society always has winners and losers. The U.S. had a brief illusion of economic equality in the period 1950-1970, but now it's gone back to a more usual unequal system. Statistically this should be expected, there are far more of the 'unequal' states than the 'equal'. It takes a special set of conditions for the equal.

Complaining about the erosion of pensions and lower end jobs is dumb. I love to hear about the erosion of the 1950's blue collar American worker, OK sure, do you want to pay an extra $5k for your car? An extra $150 for your clothes washer, or how about tacking on a few dollars to every toy you buy your kid? Blame it on our corporate masters, but they are just slaves to their customers - you. If people wanted high quality, expensive made in America goods by Americans with pensions and benefits, you bet they would provide, in a heartbeat.

My wife got a Tom Bihn bag for $120, but decided she didn't like it and gave it to me for my electronics stuff. I also got a $15 Case Logic bag, which beats the Bihn bag by a mile. It costs 1/10 the price, is better designed and better built. The Bihn bag is made in Seattle by all Americans, and is shipped to me in a 'zero carbon' UPS shipment (bah! another joke).

People in other countries can do it better/cheaper/faster and so took your jobs.

I don't really think it's that simple. First you've got the fact that a lot of "winners" got (or stayed) rich by profiting from assets that are subsidized by everyone else's taxes. Second, I would point out that the desperate quest for cheaper prices on basic consumer goods would be less of an issue if most people's inflation-adjusted income hadn't been dropping for 40+ years. Saving a few dollars on tube socks could conceivably be less important than making socially beneficial purchasing decisions if you could get a 40K salary without taking on tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.

I'm admittedly an economics illiterate, but I had my first real exposure to Keynes in a very short-and-sweet survey course last summer. His explanation for the Depression--concentration of wealth led to rich people investing more money in the production of consumer goods that fewer people could afford to buy, then the financial sector attempted to remedy the demand shortfall by flooding the market with cheap/easy credit, creating a "toxic asset" bubble that promptly collapsed--seems like a no-brainer to me. And bears a certain resemblance to the present recession.

And Carlin tended not to let the public off the hook. His riffs on voting and politics are equally unsparing toward the masses. I'm paraphrasing, but:

"So if all politicians are crooks, where are the bright, talented people of conscience willing to step up and make a difference?... We don't have people like that in America. Everyone's at the mall, buying sneakers with lights in them."

[Roger Mexico]

And those people in other countries frequently "do it cheaper" because American taxpayers are subsidizing governments that arrest, torture, or "disappear" them when they try to form unions or otherwise organize themselves for better working conditions.

[Chunes]

Not to mention that everything is sickeningly more expensive here, from toilet paper to property. I would not be too surprised if the average American's true purchasing power was on the lower end of the 'developed' countries.

Consider: the world median salary is 10,000 USD/yr. That won't get you very far in America. It'll get you very far in some countries.