PoliGazette » George Carlin has died

George Carlin has died

Filed under: Feature, General News — Claudia, Assistant Editor on June 23, 2008 @ 12:14 pm CEST

Comedian George Carlin died of a heart-attack yesterday, at age 70. It may sound young, but given his drug past and history of drug problems, he actually lived to a relatively ripe old age.

George Carlin is most remembered for his routine of “7 words you can’t say on TV” (WARNING: VERY foul language) and has always been known for “pushing the envelope” (more like destroying it) on the kinds of things you can and cannot say.

Lots of people hated Carlin, because of his views. He has been considered an extreme leftist, but that’s not entirely a precise definition. Oh he’s far more to the left than to the right, but I’d wager that he was more libertarian than liberal. He hated the “establishment” and his single minded passion for not letting anything be “off limits” for ridicule made him an enemy of anyone who thinks speech codes are ok.

I found myself often disagreeing with Carlin, especially with his dark conspiracy theories of how “the system” had us all set up and his apocalyptic attitude towards humanity. But as much as I often disagreed and sometimes recoiled at some of his jokes (Bill Cosby, he was not) I appreciated that we need his kind. He wasn’t trying to cause pain with his commentary, he wanted to constantly remind us to not limit ourselves, to question everything and to consider nothing sacred or above analysis. The world would not be functional if everyone was George Carlin, but I think free societies are enriched by having a few of them around.

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