I have always been a George Carlin fan. I've enjoyed his body of work over the years, especially his 1968-1972 and his work from the 1990's until his death. The documentary is done very well, so far. A great amount of detail and research went into it. However, what struck me is that the things he was saying in 1972 still is current in 2022.
I was quite amazed at how little our society and the world has changed in some respects. I sat there with my wife watching this thinking, "OMG, was he ahead of his time or was it that we just haven't moved forward as a society?"
As an autistic here on this forum, I often read about the difficulties I, and others, have with masking vs. being true to one's self. George had this epiphany, sort of stimulated by a bad acid trip, but non-the-less, he totally changed his persona and became who he really was at his core. Despite the backlash and trouble because of it, he became quite successful. Perhaps there is a lesson in that for some of us, I don't know.
Furthermore, it was noticed that he never had friends. People never saw him with anyone but his wife and child. He never "hung out" with anyone. Yet, he never seemed lonely. I guess I can relate to that. His later career was about "non-conformity": not listening to the mainstream, questioning authority, observing the world around him, seeing things in a way others didn't. He loved playing with words and language, and the importance of context and perspective. I think this type of neurodiversity is also somewhat relatable to many of us.
I think as an "older person", he was part of my life and certainly, part of the "baby boomer" generation, but his work influenced some of my thought processes and the way I see things even now. If there are any of you out there reading this and you are in your 20's and 30's, trying to grasp onto what your beliefs are, your political beliefs, how you perceive your government, authority, freedom of speech, climate change, or whatever,even who you are as an autistic individual, I think you need to look back at some of the work of George Carlin. A bit funny, a bit dark, but very real and sometimes deep and it makes you think "how very relatable." For the past 50 years, looking back at those old videos, you realize that things haven't changed. My parents and grandparents have seen this before and nothing has been done about it. Sure, the topics have been updated with fancy new language, but it's the same old thing with a fancy new wrapper around it, make no mistake.
Highly recommend George Carlin's American Dream on HBO.
I was quite amazed at how little our society and the world has changed in some respects. I sat there with my wife watching this thinking, "OMG, was he ahead of his time or was it that we just haven't moved forward as a society?"
As an autistic here on this forum, I often read about the difficulties I, and others, have with masking vs. being true to one's self. George had this epiphany, sort of stimulated by a bad acid trip, but non-the-less, he totally changed his persona and became who he really was at his core. Despite the backlash and trouble because of it, he became quite successful. Perhaps there is a lesson in that for some of us, I don't know.
Furthermore, it was noticed that he never had friends. People never saw him with anyone but his wife and child. He never "hung out" with anyone. Yet, he never seemed lonely. I guess I can relate to that. His later career was about "non-conformity": not listening to the mainstream, questioning authority, observing the world around him, seeing things in a way others didn't. He loved playing with words and language, and the importance of context and perspective. I think this type of neurodiversity is also somewhat relatable to many of us.
I think as an "older person", he was part of my life and certainly, part of the "baby boomer" generation, but his work influenced some of my thought processes and the way I see things even now. If there are any of you out there reading this and you are in your 20's and 30's, trying to grasp onto what your beliefs are, your political beliefs, how you perceive your government, authority, freedom of speech, climate change, or whatever,even who you are as an autistic individual, I think you need to look back at some of the work of George Carlin. A bit funny, a bit dark, but very real and sometimes deep and it makes you think "how very relatable." For the past 50 years, looking back at those old videos, you realize that things haven't changed. My parents and grandparents have seen this before and nothing has been done about it. Sure, the topics have been updated with fancy new language, but it's the same old thing with a fancy new wrapper around it, make no mistake.
Highly recommend George Carlin's American Dream on HBO.
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