Sir Carlin the Elitist

George Carlin on the Dennis Miller Show, Summer 2001

I agree with a great deal of what carlin said.  He is right to say that "the people" are in general overestimated.  But only in the sense that their potential, something no more evenly distributed than intellegence, is not being met.  If people were to get into the habit of performing at least a cursory examination of what they believe, (whether the belief oringinates from faith or observation), there would be a great deal less one could accomplish through deception. 

Which brings me to something else Carlin said.  He implied that there is a conspiracy to indoctrinate young children into "primative" belief systems.   Whether this conspiracy is among members of society at large or an individual institution is not clear, but considering Carlin's long history of commentary on the Catholic church, an institutional one seems likely.  Either way, he would be right about the indoctrination, but wrong in his implication that this is somehow an unnatural or unhealthy thing. 

The development of established ways of life, which - at their best - is what most institutional religions are.  Such templates for achieveing a prosperous existance took thousands upon thousands of generations to evolve.  How can a child be expected to acquire such wisdom in the course of a few hormone driven, high activity years?  When an unindoctrinated child asks, "Why are we here?", or "What happens when we die?",  are we to hand them a library card and hope for the best?  Or perhaps we should take no biased action at all and let the schools or the media or George Carlin answer for us? 

As an elitist - and I say this in the best sense of the word - Carlin, (and Miller for that matter), believes that there is a minority of people best suited to run things, and should do in the best interest of everyone else.  This was Plato's view.  In many situations it is a perfectly reasonable position.  It is, in fact,  the very position the Christian church took during the dark ages.  With only a few people literate enough to know what anyone beyond earshot was up to, those people were best suited to educate the rest of the rabble.  It is in the vacuum of ignorance that rumor and superstition take hold.  In that vacuum is where angels were born.  People were told to think of a man when they think of God, because as a concept, it is beyond even the most thoughtful of the rabble.  The greatest philosopher in any era will tell you that sharing experience among a collective conscience such as ours is an imperfect endevour indeed.  And when the experience is enough to fill a thousand lifetimes, such an endeavor becomes impossible.  Which is why we give people a head start. 

This is the case in all areas of experience.  When the rabble experiences light, it is as a thing.  But what kind of a thing?  They feel its effects, but do not understand it's nature.  Many of the elite have over the centuries made observations, written them down, explained them, tested them, refined them, abstracted laws, tested them, refined them.  We take this fact for granted now, and we should.  That is why we do it in the first place.  So people not yet born can understand what we have learned.