“No matter how you care to define it, I do not identify with the local group. Planet, species, race, nation, state, religion, party, union, club, association, neighborhood improvement committee; I have no interest in any of it. I love and treasure the individuals as I meet them, I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to.”
- George Carlin
7 Comments
March 19, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Well said. On a side note, I heard a new George Carlin the other day and I almost pissed myself from laughing so hard.
March 29, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Time to check the laundry label on your undergarments?
But seriously, Carlin has always been dead on ~ pun intended if you saw his most recent bit about the way people talk to those mourning the passing of a loved one (he lost his wife last year). I loved his bit about someone saying “if there is anything I can do, seriously, just ask” and his response was something about painting his house, fixing the plumbing, along those lines…
Yep, ya gotta love Georgie Boy!
March 29, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I don’t know about not associating oneself with groups..take, for example, a sceptical group of thinkers I hang out with; it’s fun to identify oneself as one of them as the general publiuc can get a bit of a surprise when they learn I am a memeber (especailyl if they have been quoting them and I then tell them I’m one of that gang!) also if you happen to be in a martial arts group, funny and silly preconceptions come out (and more surprised looks; apparently the image of a karate person doesn’t contain moi!! Surprise!!). Then there’s the dance club; everyone thinks that if you can dance you are skinny and gorgeous so I’m happy to bathe in that reflected glory.
The joy of aligning oneself with a group is that you can use their existing ethos to either reinforce your own values, or you can work within the group to change it (tho this is not as easy as it sounds) or you can figure them out and adopt them as friends, or walk off if you don’t like them. Groups give us a place to belong in, whch is necessary these days, with relationships so thin; they are a defacto family, and can be used as such to define or redefine one’s identity. And they can be a lot of fun too.
Philosophically yours
Kat
April 22, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Great quote! It would be nice if we all lived this way.
April 22, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Hey, are you ok?
April 27, 2008 at 10:45 am
Carlin always puts things so well (otherwise known as the refreshing truth)
May 10, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Howdy