George Carlin: R.I.P.
The adulations are pouring in. A man of “genius” has passed away. A real countercultural hero has died, a man who “pushed the boundaries.” George Carlin is dead at the tender age of 71. What can one say about it who contributes to a Catholic weblog that is largely based on the theology of the body? I am tempted to mock and scorn the man, just as he did religious people and “conservatives” for an entire lifetime. After all, he was just an overgrown juvenile, with a 15 year old boy’s sense of humor, who never grew in his social and political views, and who had an equally juvenile understanding of science and technology. He blamed most of the evils in the world on religion. This is a remarkably stupid outlook for one to have who has grown up in a century where tens-of-millions of people have been slaughtered by their own atheistic governments worldwide.
His main claim to fame is that he helped make obscenity publicly acceptable. How does this help the world? He himself claimed that rules and norms regarding obscenity stem from a religious hatred of the body. He did not understand, as all of the greatest philosophers in history have, that public virtue is for the good of the body. Perhaps he’s a symbol of the final reaction of our culture against its Calvinist past. Perhaps he’s important on that level.
Of course, he denied the immortality of the soul. This is a common outlook among pseudo-intellectuals and libertines generally. That would be the easiest point of derision to level at the newly deceased George Carlin. Now he knows that heaven is not a “titty bar down by the airport” (as his character once said on a television skit). Now he knows the sting of absence from God, even moreso than he did in his own lifetime. But I won’t press the point. I shall simply send up a prayer for him: Father of Mercies, who desires not the death of sinners, look upon all us all, we wretched sinners, and heal us from all that keeps us from knowing and loving you. We ask this for ourselves, for those who have died in spiritual dispositions known to you alone, and for those who will die today.
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I have to admit I found Carlin hysterically funny, right up until my conversion. It is amazing the way things change when something gains value. Much of what I found amusing & important before have changed as I become closer to the truth that is God. I suspect he is in awe of Our Lord & regretting much of what made him popular. May peace & mercy come to him from Our Lord. CLS
Comment by Chris — June 25, 2008 @ 12:11 PM
I’m young enough to have not known him very well/much, and that’s probably a good thing. All of what I had known of him has come in the three days since his death through the media, and although he was well known and liked, even the media didn’t paint the most favorable picture.
As I mentioned in my own blog he did, however, have a few valid points about society. He made some insightful comments about literacy in the world and although he was an atheist, he sounds almost pro-life concerning abuse and abortions (“If there’s ever a golden age of mankind, it will not include men over two hundred pounds beating children who are less than one hundred pounds, and it will not include the deliberate killing of people in a formal setting.”). The last part may or may not be about abortions. For all I know, he could have been talking about the death penalty, but he did have a stand against whatever practice he was referring to.
Relevant Radio this morning talked shortly about him, and although they reaffirmed he wasn’t the best role model to look up to, he did try to help people in need. They mentioned that after his battle with drugs he would call and talk with friends into the night about their problems and try to help them out. I guess all I can say, no one can say for sure if anyone is going to Hell or not, and though we may think someone surely will be, we can always pray that God can have mercy on them.
Comment by Adam — June 25, 2008 @ 11:59 PM