Not to be confused with globalization.

Globalism can have at least two different and opposing meanings. One meaning is the attitude or policy of placing the interests of the entire world above those of individual nations.^[1] Another is viewing the entire world as a proper sphere for one nation to project political influence.^[2]

American political scientist Joseph Nye, co-founder of the international relations theory of neoliberalism, argues that globalism refers to any description and explanation of a world which is characterized by networks of connections that span multi-continental distances; while globalization refers to the increase or decline in the degree of globalism.^[3]

In his 2005 book The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World, Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul argued that, far from being an inevitable force, globalization is already breaking up into contradictory pieces and that citizens are reasserting their national interests in both positive and destructive ways.

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Globalism/Antiglobalism: a survey and a view

v t e Global governance and identity Proposals United Nations Parliamentary Assembly World government Theories Cosmopolitanism Democratic globalization Global governance Transnational governance Global citizenship Globalism Internationalism World citizen World currency world taxation system Organisations Democratic World Federalists Global citizens movement World Federalist Movement World Service Authority

John Ralston Saul CC
John Ralston Saul delivers a lecture at the University of Alberta on 17 November 2006
Born	(1947-06-19) 19 June 1947 (age 65) Ottawa, Ontario
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Novelist, essayist

John Ralston Saul, CC (born June 19, 1947) is a Canadian author, essayist, and President of PEN International.

As an essayist, Saul is particularly known for his commentaries on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of manager-, or more precisely technocrat-, led societies; the confusion between leadership and managerialism; military strategy, in particular irregular warfare; the role of freedom of speech and culture; and his critique of contemporary economic arguments.

Biography[link]

Born in Ottawa, Saul studied at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and at King's College London where he wrote his thesis on the modernization of France under Charles de Gaulle, and earned his Ph.D in 1972. After helping to set up the national oil company Petro-Canada in 1976, as Assistant to its first Chair, Maurice F. Strong, he published his first novel The Birds of Prey in 1977. Through the late 1970s and 1980s, he travelled regularly with guerrilla armies, spending a great deal of time in North Africa and South East Asia. Out of this time came his novels, The Field Trilogy. It was during those extended periods in Northwest Africa and Southeast Asia that he witnessed fellow writers there suffering government suppression of freedom of expression, which caused him to become interested in the work of PEN International[1]. In 2009 he was elected president of PEN International, only the second North American to hold the position since its creation in 1921, the other being Arthur Miller.

As a novelist[link]

The Birds of Prey, a political novel based in Gaullist France, was an international best seller. He then published The Field Trilogy, which deals with the crisis of modern power and its clash with the individual. It includes Baraka or The Lives, Fortunes and Sacred Honor of Anthony Smith, The Next Best Thing, and The Paradise Eater, which won the Premio Letterario Internazionale in Italy. De Si Bons Americains is a picaresque novel in which he observes the life of modern nouveaux riches Americans.

As an essayist[link]

[edit] Voltaire's Bastards, The Doubter's Companion and The Unconscious Civilization

His philosophical essays began with the trilogy made up of the bestseller Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West, the polemic philosophical dictionary The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense, and the book that grew out of his 1995 Massey Lectures, The Unconscious Civilization. The last won the 1996 Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction Literature.

These books deal with themes such as the dictatorship of reason unbalanced by other human qualities, how it can be used for any ends especially in a directionless state that rewards the pursuit of power for power's sake. He argues that this leads to deformations of thought such as ideology promoted as truth; the rational but anti-democratic structures of corporatism, by which he means the worship of small groups; and the use of language and expertise to mask a practical understanding of the harm this causes, and what else our society might do. He argues that the rise of individualism with no regard for the role of society has not created greater individual autonomy and self-determination, as was once hoped, but isolation and alienation. He calls for a pursuit of a more humanist ideal in which reason is balanced with other human mental capacities such as common sense, ethics, intuition, creativity, and memory, for the sake of the common good, and he discusses the importance of unfettered language and practical democracy.

[edit] Reflections of a Siamese Twin

He expanded on these themes as they relate to Canada and its history and culture in Reflections of a Siamese Twin. In this book, he coined the idea of Canada being a "soft" country, meaning not that the nation is weak, but that it has a flexible and complex identity, as opposed to the unyielding or monolithic identities of other states.

He argues that Canada's complex national identity is made up of the "triangular reality" of three nations that compose it: First Peoples, francophones, and anglophones. He emphasizes the willingness of these Canadian nations to compromise with one another, as opposed to resorting to open confrontations. In the same vein, he criticizes both those in the Quebec separatist Montreal School for emphasizing the conflicts in Canadian history and the Orange Order and the Clear Grits traditionally seeking clear definitions of Canadian-ness and loyalty.

[edit] On Equilibrium

Saul's next book, On Equilibrium (2001), is effectively the conclusion to his philosophical trilogy. He identifies six qualities as common to all people: common sense, ethics, imagination, intuition, memory, and reason. He describes how these inner forces can be used to balance each other, and what happens when they are unbalanced, for example in the case of a "Dictatorship of Reason".

[edit] The Collapse of Globalism

In an article written for Harper's magazine and published in the magazine's March 2004 issue under the title The Collapse of Globalism and the Rebirth of Nationalism, he argued that the globalist ideology was under attack by counter-movements. Saul rethought and developed this argument in The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World (2005). Far from being an inevitable force, Saul argued that globalization is already breaking up into contradictory pieces and that citizens are reasserting their national interests in both positive and destructive ways. Following the economic collapse he had predicted, The Collapse of Globalism was re-issued in 2009 with a new epilogue that addressed the current crisis.

[edit] A Fair Country

A Fair Country (2008) is Saul's second major work on Canada. It is organized into four subsections.

"A Métis Civilization"

This section picks up on the argument that Saul makes in Reflections of a Siamese Twin about the 'triangular reality of Canada'. Drawing on the work of scholars like Harold Innis and Gerald Friesen,^[1] Saul argues that contemporary Canada has been deeply influenced and shaped by Aboriginal ideas and the experience of both Francophone and Anglophone immigrants over the 250 years, from 1600 on, during which Aboriginals were either the dominant force in Canada, or equal partners. He argues that Aboriginals are making a rapid “comeback”, and that their fundamental influence needs to be recognized in order for non-Aboriginal Canadians to understand themselves.

"Peace, Fairness, and Good Government"

In this section Saul argues that instead of the phrase "peace, order, and good government", which appears in and has become a touchstone of the 1867 Canadian Constitution, the phrase that dominated previous Canadian documents was "peace, welfare, and good government". Saul suggests that the ensuing emphasis on "order" has not truly represented Canadian origins.

"The Castrati"

This sections echoes Saul's more general critiques of technocratic and bureaucratic regimes. He also suggests that while current Canadian elites reflect a "disturbing mediocrity" this was not always the case.^[2]

"An Intentional Civilization"

Saul uses the final section of the book to argue for a return to an understanding of Canada as a unique response to particular historical circumstances.

[edit] Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin

Saul's contribution to Penguin Canada's Extraordinary Canadians series, of which he serves as General Editor, is a double biography of Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. In it, he argues that Canada did not begin in 1867, but that in fact its foundations were laid by LaFontaine and Baldwin much earlier. The two leaders of Lower and Upper Canada, respectively, worked together after the 1841 Union to lead a reformist movement for responsible government run by elected citizens instead of a colonial governor. But it was during the "Great Ministry" of 1848—51 that the two politicians implemented laws that Saul argues created a more equitable country. They revamped judicial institutions, created a public education system, made bilingualism official, designed a network of public roads, began a public postal system, and reformed municipal governance. Faced with opposition, and even violence, Saul contends that the two men united behind a set of principles and programs that formed modern Canada.

Speaker[link]

In addition to his selection as the 1995 Massey lecturer, Saul has delivered other notable lectures. He gave the Harold Innis Lecture in 1994. In 2000 he gave the inaugural LaFontaine-Baldwin Lecture. Saul delivered the J.D. Young Memorial Lecture “A New Era Of Irregular Warfare?” at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario on February 4, 2004.^[3] He gave the 2005 IDEAS lecture in Brisbane, Australia, the 2007 Captive Mind Lecture in Kraków, Poland, and in 2008 gave the 33rd Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture in Barbados. He also delivered the 2009 McGill Law Journal Annual Lecture at the McGill Faculty of Law in Montreal on February 3, 2009.^[4]

Activities[link]

John Ralston Saul is co-Chair of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, which encourages new Canadians to become active citizens.. He is Patron and former president of the Canadian Centre of PEN International. He is also Founder and Honorary Chair of French for the Future, which encourages bilingual French-English education, Chair of the Advisory Board for the LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium lecture series, and a Patron of Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN — a cutting edge organization tied to people with disabilities). A Companion in the Order of Canada (1999), he is also Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France (1996). His 14 honorary degrees range from McGill University and the University of Ottawa to Herzen University in Saint Petersburg, Russia. From 1999 until 2006 when his wife Adrienne Clarkson was Governor General of Canada he was Canada's vice-regal consort, during which he devoted much of his time to issues of freedom of expression, poverty, public education and bilingualism.

PEN International[link]

Saul was elected as the International President for a three year term at the PEN Annual Congress in Linz, Austria in October 2009. He campaigned on the need to pay attention to smaller and endangered languages and cultures, arguing that the ultimate removal of freedom of expression was the loss of a language. He put a specific emphasis on endangered indigenous languages. He called for a further decentralization of PEN, which has 144 centres in 102 countries. He argues that literature and freedom of expression are the same thing; that you cannot have one without the other. Saul has testified before the European Parliament Human Rights Commission on the loss of freedom of expression in Tunisia, has spoken before European Council on Refugees in Exile, and has published an essay on writers in exile, which has been translated into several languages.

Bibliography[link]

Fiction[link]

• The Birds of Prey (1977)
• Baraka (1983)
• The Next Best Thing (1986)
• The Paradise Eater (1988)
• De si bons Américains (1994)

Non-fiction[link]

• Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West (1992)
• The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense (1994)
• The Unconscious Civilization (1995)
• Le Citoyen dans un cul-de-sac?: Anatomie d'une société en crise (1996)
• Reflections of a Siamese Twin: Canada at the End of the Twentieth Century (1997)
• On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism (2001)
• The John W. Holmes Memorial Lecture (2004)
• The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World (2005)
• Joseph Howe and the Battle for Freedom of Speech (2006)
• A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada (2008)
• Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin (2010)

Honours[link]

• Italy's Premio Letterario Internazionale, for The Paradise Eater (1990)
• Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres de France (1996)
• Gordon Montador Award, for The Unconscious Civilization (1996)
• Governor General's Literary Award for Non-fiction, for The Unconscious Civilization (1996)
• Gordon Montador Award, for Reflections of a Siamese Twin (1998)
• Companion of the Order of Canada (1999)
• Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002)
• Pablo Neruda International Presidential Medal of Honour (2004)
• Manhae Literary Prize (2010)

References[link]

1. ^ Friesen, Gerald. Citizens and Nation: An Essay on History, Communication, and Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.
2. ^ Saul, John Ralston. A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada. Toronto: Viking, 2008 : 174
3. ^ His Excellency John Ralston Saul J.D. Young Memorial Lecture “A New Era Of Irregular Warfare?” Lecture Delivered To Faculty And Cadets Royal Military College Kingston, Ontario
4. ^ The McGill Law Journal Annual Lecture

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Ralston Saul

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Ralston Saul

• PEN International
• Institute for Canadian Citizenship
• Interview with Mother Jones, 9 November 2005
• John Ralston Saul's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia

• Interview with Stuart Jeffries The prophet of anti-globalism, The Guardian, 9 June 2005
• Good governance as the Key to Gross National Happiness, keynote speech by John Ralston Saul at Rethinking Development (GNH2) in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, June 23, 2005.
• A review of Saul's book "The Doubter's Companion"
• Inaugural Joseph Howe Lecture, by John Ralston Saul at University of King's College School of Journalism, Halifax, Nova Scotia, March 20, 2004
• The Collapse of Globalism MP3, 11 June 2005
• Saul's Harper's Magazine Essay: The Collapse of Globalism March 2004 (index only, not full text)
• Interview with Scott London from the radio series "Insight and Outlook"
• Full text and streaming audio and another transcript of Citizenship vs the Reigning Linear Trap, a public lecture given at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, 29 August 1999
• Full text and streaming audio and another transcript of Globalisation and Democracy, a public lecture given at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, January 1999
• French for the Future / Le Français Pour L'Avenir
• The Annual LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium Lecture
• PEN Canada

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

George Carlin
Carlin in Trenton, New Jersey on April 4, 2008
Birth name	George Denis Patrick Carlin
Born	(1937-05-12)May 12, 1937 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	June 22, 2008(2008-06-22) (aged 71) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, books, radio
Nationality	American
Years active	1956–2008
Genres	Character comedy, observational comedy, wit/word play, satire/political satire, black comedy, surreal humor, sarcasm, blue comedy
Subject(s)	American culture, American English, everyday life, atheism, recreational drug use, death, philosophy, human behavior, American politics, parenting, children, religion, profanity, psychology, anarchism, race relations, old age, pop culture, self-deprecation, childhood, family
Influences	Danny Kaye,[1][2] Jonathan Winters,[2] Lenny Bruce,[3][4] Richard Pryor,[5] Jerry Lewis,[2][5] Marx Brothers,[2][5] Mort Sahl,[4] Spike Jones,[5] Ernie Kovacs,[5] Ritz Brothers[2] Monty Python[5]
Influenced	Chris Rock,[6] Jerry Seinfeld,[7] Bill Hicks, Jim Norton, Sam Kinison, Louis C.K.,[8] Lewis Black,[9] Jon Stewart,[10] Stephen Colbert,[11] Bill Maher,[12] Denis Leary, Patrice O'Neal,[13] Adam Carolla,[14] Colin Quinn,[15] Steven Wright,[16], Mitch Hedberg,[17] Russell Peters,[18] Jay Leno,[19] Ben Stiller,[19] Kevin Smith[20]
Spouse	Brenda Hosbrook (August 5, 1961 – May 11, 1997) (her death) 1 child Sally Wade (June 24, 1998 – June 22, 2008) (his death)[21]
Notable works and roles	Class Clown "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" Rufus in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey Narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and "Mr. Conductor" on Shining Time Station The George Carlin Show
Signature
Website	www.georgecarlin.com
Grammy Awards Best Comedy Recording 1972 FM & AM 2009 It's Bad For Ya (posthumous) Best Spoken Comedy Album 1993 Jammin' in New York 2001 Brain Droppings 2002 Napalm & Silly Putty American Comedy Awards Funniest Male Performer in a TV Special 1997 George Carlin: Back in Town 1998 George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy 2001

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, actor and writer/author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.^[22]

Carlin was noted for his black humor as well as his thoughts on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and various taboo subjects. Carlin and his "Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves.

The first of his fourteen stand-up comedy specials for HBO was filmed in 1977. In 1988, the 1990s and 2000s, Carlin's routines focused on socio-cultural criticism of modern American society. He often commented on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture. His final HBO special, It's Bad for Ya, was filmed less than four months before his death.

In 2004, Carlin placed second on the Comedy Central list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, ahead of Lenny Bruce and behind Richard Pryor.^[23] He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live. In 2008, he was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Early life[link]

Carlin was born in Manhattan,^[24][25] the second son of Mary (Beary), a secretary, and Patrick Carlin, a national advertising manager for the New York Sun.^[26] Carlin was of Irish descent and was raised a Roman Catholic.^[27][28][29]

Carlin grew up on West 121st Street, in a neighborhood of Manhattan which he later said, in a stand-up routine, he and his friends called "White Harlem", because that sounded a lot tougher than its real name of Morningside Heights. He was raised by his mother, who left his father when Carlin was two months old.^[30] He attended Corpus Christi School, a Roman Catholic parish school of the Corpus Christi Church, in Morningside Heights.^[31][32] After three semesters, at the age of 15, Carlin involuntarily left Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx and briefly attended Bishop Dubois High School in Harlem.^[33] Carlin had a difficult relationship with his mother and often ran away from home.^[2] He later joined the United States Air Force and was trained as a radar technician. He was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana.

During this time he began working as a disc jockey at radio station KJOE, in the nearby city of Shreveport. He did not complete his Air Force enlistment. Labeled an "unproductive airman" by his superiors, Carlin was discharged on July 29, 1957. During his time in the Air Force he was court martialed three times, and also received many disciplinary punishments.^[34]

Career[link]

In 1959, Carlin and Jack Burns began as a comedy team when both were working for radio station KXOL in Fort Worth, Texas.^[35] After successful performances at Fort Worth's beat coffeehouse, The Cellar, Burns and Carlin headed for California in February 1960 and stayed together for two years as a team before moving on to individual pursuits.

1960s[link]

Within weeks of arriving in California in 1960, Burns and Carlin put together an audition tape and created The Wright Brothers, a morning show on KDAY in Hollywood. The comedy team worked there for three months, honing their material in beatnik coffeehouses at night.^[36] Years later when he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Carlin requested that it be placed in front of the KDAY studios near the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street.^[37] Burns and Carlin recorded their only album, Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight, in May 1960 at Cosmo Alley in Hollywood.^[36]

In the 1960s, Carlin began appearing on television variety shows, notably The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. His most famous routines were:

• The Indian Sergeant ("You wit' the beads... get outta line")
• Stupid disc jockeys ("Wonderful WINO...")—"The Beatles' latest record, when played backwards at slow speed, says 'Dummy! You're playing it backwards at slow speed!'"
• Al Sleet, the "hippie-dippie weatherman"—"Tonight's forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely scattered light towards morning."
• Jon Carson—the "world never known, and never to be known"

Variations on the first three of these routines appear on Carlin's 1967 debut album, Take Offs and Put Ons, recorded live in 1966 at The Roostertail in Detroit, Michigan.^[38]

Carlin with singer Buddy Greco in Away We Go. The summer replacement show also starred drummer Buddy Rich.

During this period, Carlin became more popular as a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show, initially with Jack Paar as host, then with Johnny Carson. Carlin became one of Carson's most frequent substitutes during the host's three-decade reign. Carlin was also cast in Away We Go, a 1967 comedy show that aired on CBS.^[39] His material during his early career and his appearance, which consisted of suits and short-cropped hair, had been seen as "conventional," particularly when contrasted with his later anti-establishment material.^[40]

Carlin was present at Lenny Bruce's arrest for obscenity. As the police began attempting to detain members of the audience for questioning, they asked Carlin for his identification. Telling the police he did not believe in government-issued IDs, he was arrested and taken to jail with Bruce in the same vehicle.^[41]

1970s[link]

Eventually, Carlin changed both his routines and his appearance. He lost some TV bookings by dressing strangely for a comedian of the time, wearing faded jeans and sporting long hair, a beard, and earrings at a time when clean-cut, well-dressed comedians were the norm. Using his own persona as a springboard for his new comedy, he was presented by Ed Sullivan in a performance of "The Hair Piece" and quickly regained his popularity as the public caught on to his sense of style. In this period he also perfected what is perhaps his best-known routine, "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", recorded on Class Clown. Carlin was arrested on July 21, 1972, at Milwaukee's Summerfest and charged with violating obscenity laws after performing this routine.^[42] The case, which prompted Carlin to refer to the words for a time as "the Milwaukee Seven," was dismissed in December of that year; the judge declared that the language was indecent but Carlin had the freedom to say it as long as he caused no disturbance. In 1973, a man complained to the Federal Communications Commission after listening with his son to a similar routine, "Filthy Words", from Occupation: Foole, broadcast one afternoon over WBAI, a Pacifica Foundation FM radio station in New York City. Pacifica received a citation from the FCC that sought to fine the company for violating FCC regulations that prohibited broadcasting "obscene" material. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC action by a vote of 5 to 4, ruling that the routine was "indecent but not obscene" and that the FCC had authority to prohibit such broadcasts during hours when children were likely to be among the audience. (F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978). The court documents contain a complete transcript of the routine.)^[43]

The controversy only increased Carlin's fame. Carlin eventually expanded the dirty-words theme with a seemingly interminable end to a performance (ending with his voice fading out in one HBO version and accompanying the credits in the Carlin at Carnegie special for the 1982-83 season) and a set of 49 web pages^[44] organized by subject and embracing his "Incomplete List Of Impolite Words."

It was on-stage during a rendition of his "Dirty Words" routine that Carlin learned that his previous comedy album FM & AM had won the Grammy. Midway through the performance on the album Occupation: Foole, he can be heard thanking someone for handing him a piece of paper. He then exclaims "Shit!" and proudly announces his win to the audience.

Carlin hosted the premiere broadcast of NBC's Saturday Night Live, on October 11, 1975, the only episode as of at least 2007 in which the host had no involvement (at his request) in sketches.^[45] The following season, 1976–77, Carlin also appeared regularly on CBS Television's Tony Orlando & Dawn variety series.

Carlin unexpectedly stopped performing regularly in 1976, when his career appeared to be at its height. For the next five years, he rarely performed stand-up, although it was at this time that he began doing specials for HBO as part of its On Location series. He later revealed that he had suffered the first of three heart attacks during this layoff period.^[5] His first two HBO specials aired in 1977 and 1978.

1980s and 1990s[link]

In 1981, Carlin returned to the stage, releasing A Place For My Stuff and returning to HBO and New York City with the Carlin at Carnegie TV special, videotaped at Carnegie Hall and airing during the 1982-83 season. Carlin continued doing HBO specials every year or every other year over the following decade and a half. All of Carlin's albums from this time forward are from the HBO specials.

In concert at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

He hosted SNL for the second time on November 10, 1984, this time appearing in several sketches. Carlin's acting career was primed with a major supporting role in the 1987 comedy hit Outrageous Fortune, starring Bette Midler and Shelley Long; it was his first notable screen role after a handful of previous guest roles on television series. Playing drifter Frank Madras, the role poked fun at the lingering effect of the 1960s counterculture. In 1989, he gained popularity with a new generation of teens when he was cast as Rufus, the time-traveling mentor of the titular characters in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and reprised his role in the film sequel Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey as well as the first season of the cartoon series. From 1991 to 1995, he narrated the American version of the children's show Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, and played "Mr. Conductor" on Shining Time Station from 1991 to 1993. Also in 1991, Carlin had a major supporting role in the movie The Prince of Tides, which starred Nick Nolte and Barbra Streisand.

Carlin began a weekly Fox sitcom, The George Carlin Show, in 1993, playing New York City taxicab driver George O'Grady. The show, created and written by The Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon, ran 27 episodes through December 1995.^[46]

In his final book, the posthumously published Last Words, Carlin said about The George Carlin Show, "I was incredibly happy when the show was canceled. I was frustrated that it had taken me away from my true work."^[47]

In 1997, his first hardcover book, Brain Droppings, was published. The book sold nearly 900,000 copies and spent 40 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. ^[48] Carlin was honored at the 1997 Aspen Comedy Festival with a retrospective, George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy, hosted by Jon Stewart.

In 1999, Carlin played a supporting role as a satirical Roman Catholic cardinal in filmmaker Kevin Smith's movie Dogma. He worked with Smith again with a cameo appearance in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and later played an atypically serious role in Jersey Girl as the blue-collar father of Ben Affleck's character.

2000s[link]

In 2001, Carlin was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 15th Annual American Comedy Awards. In December 2003, California U.S. Representative Doug Ose (Republican), introduced a bill (H.R. 3687) to outlaw the broadcast of Carlin's "seven dirty words,"^[49] including "compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms)." (The bill omits "tits," but includes "asshole," which was not part of Carlin's original routine.) This bill was never voted on. The last action on this bill was its referral to the House Judiciary Committee on the Constitution on January 15, 2004.^[49]

For years, Carlin had performed regularly as a headliner in Las Vegas, but in 2005 he was fired from his headlining position at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, after an altercation with his audience. After a poorly received set filled with dark references to suicide bombings and beheadings, Carlin stated that he could not wait to get out of "this fucking hotel" and Las Vegas, claiming he wanted to go back east, "where the real people are." He continued to insult his audience, stating:

People who go to Las Vegas, you've got to question their fucking intellect to start with. Traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to essentially give your money to a large corporation is kind of fucking moronic. That's what I'm always getting here is these kind of fucking people with very limited intellects.

An audience member shouted back that Carlin should "stop degrading us," at which point Carlin responded, "Thank you very much, whatever that was. I hope it was positive; if not, well, blow me." He was immediately fired by MGM Grand and soon after announced he would enter rehab for alcohol and prescription painkiller addiction.^[50][51]

He began a tour through the first half of 2006 following the airing of his thirteenth HBO Special on November 5, 2005, entitled Life is Worth Losing,^[52] which was shown live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City and in which he stated early on: "I've got 341 days of sobriety," referring to the rehab he entered after being fired from MGM. Topics covered included suicide, natural disasters (and the desire to see them escalate in severity), cannibalism, genocide, human sacrifice, threats to civil liberties in America, and how an argument can be made that humans are inferior to other animals.

On February 1, 2006, during his Life Is Worth Losing set at the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California, Carlin mentioned to the crowd that he had been discharged from the hospital only six weeks previously for "heart failure" and "pneumonia", citing the appearance as his "first show back."

Carlin provided the voice of Fillmore, a character in the Disney/Pixar animated feature Cars, which opened in theaters on June 9, 2006. The character Fillmore, who is presented as an anti-establishment hippie, is a VW Microbus with a psychedelic paint job whose front license plate reads "51237," Carlin's birthday and also the Zip Code for George, Iowa. In 2007, Carlin provided the voice of the wizard in Happily N'Ever After, along with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Andy Dick, and Wallace Shawn, his last film.

Carlin's last HBO stand-up special, It's Bad for Ya, aired live on March 1, 2008, from the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, California.^[53] The themes that appeared in this HBO special included "American Bullshit," "Rights," "Death," "Old Age," and "Child Rearing." In his routine, he brought to light many of the problems facing America, and he told his audience to cut through the "bullshit" of the world and "enjoy the carnival." Carlin had been working on the new material for this HBO special for several months prior in concerts all over the country.

Personal life[link]

In 1961, Carlin married Brenda Hosbrook (August 5, 1936 - May 11, 1997), whom he had met while touring the previous year. The couple's only child, a daughter named Kelly, was born on June 15, 1963.^[54] In 1971, George and Brenda renewed their wedding vows in Las Vegas. Brenda died of liver cancer a day before Carlin's 60th birthday, in 1997.

Carlin later married Sally Wade on June 24, 1998, and the marriage lasted until his death, two days before their tenth anniversary.^[55]

Carlin often criticized elections as an illusion of choice.^[56] He said the last time he voted was 1972, for George McGovern who ran for President against Richard Nixon.^[57]

Religion[link]

Although raised in the Roman Catholic faith, which he describes anecdotally on the albums FM & AM and Class Clown, religion, God, and particularly religious adherents were frequent subjects of criticism in Carlin's routines. He described his opinion of the flaws of organized religion in interviews and performances, notably with his "Religion" and "There Is No God" routines as heard in You Are All Diseased. His views on religion are also mentioned in his last HBO stand up show It's Bad for Ya where he mocked the traditional swearing on the Bible as "bullshit,"^[58] "make believe," and "kids' stuff." In It's Bad for Ya, Carlin noted differences in the types of hats religions ban or require as part of their practices. He mentions that he would never want to be a part of a group that requires or bans the wearing of hats. Carlin also joked in his second book, Brain Droppings, that he worshipped the Sun, one reason being that he could see it.

Themes[link]

Carlin's material falls under one of three self-described categories: "the little world" (observational humor), "the big world" (social commentary), and the peculiarities of the English language (euphemisms, doublespeak, business jargon), all sharing the overall theme of (in his words) "humanity's bullshit," which might include murder, genocide, war, rape, corruption, religion and other aspects of human civilization. He was known for mixing observational humour with larger social commentary. His delivery frequently treated these subjects in a misanthropic and nihilistic fashion, such as in his statement during the Life is Worth Losing show:

I look at it this way... For centuries now, man has done everything he can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers... so when nature strikes back, and smacks him on the head and kicks him in the nuts, I enjoy that. I have absolutely no sympathy for human beings whatsoever. None. And no matter what kind of problem humans are facing, whether it's natural or man-made, I always hope it gets worse.

Language was a frequent focus of Carlin's work. Euphemisms that, in his view, seek to distort and lie and the use of language he felt was pompous, presumptuous, or silly were often the target of Carlin's routines. When asked on Inside the Actors Studio what turned him on, he responded, "Reading about language." When asked what made him most proud about his career, he said the number of his books that have been sold, close to a million copies.

Carlin also gave special attention to prominent topics in American and Western Culture, such as obsession with fame and celebrity, consumerism, conservative Christianity, political alienation, corporate control, hypocrisy, child raising, fast food diet, news stations, self-help publications, blind patriotism, sexual taboos, certain uses of technology and surveillance, and the pro-life position,^[59] among many others.

George Carlin in Trenton, New Jersey April 4, 2008

Carlin openly communicated in his shows and in his interviews that his purpose for existence was entertainment, that he was "here for the show." He professed a hearty schadenfreude in watching the rich spectrum of humanity slowly self-destruct, in his estimation, of its own design, saying, "When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front-row seat." He acknowledged that this is a very selfish thing, especially since he included large human catastrophes as entertainment. In his You Are All Diseased concert, he elaborated somewhat on this, telling the audience, "I have always been willing to put myself at great personal risk for the sake of entertainment. And I've always been willing to put you at great personal risk, for the same reason!"

In the same interview, he recounted his experience of a California earthquake in the early 1970s, as "[a]n amusement park ride. Really, I mean it's such a wonderful thing to realize that you have absolutely no control, and to see the dresser move across the bedroom floor unassisted is just exciting."

A routine in Carlin's 1999 HBO special You Are All Diseased focusing on airport security leads up to the statement: "Take a fucking chance! Put a little fun in your life! Most Americans are soft and frightened and unimaginative and they don't realize there's such a thing as dangerous fun, and they certainly don't recognize a good show when they see one."

Along with wordplay and sex jokes, Carlin had always included politics as part of his material, but by the mid 1980s he had become a strident social critic in both his HBO specials and the book compilations of his material, bashing both conservatives and liberals alike. His HBO viewers got an especially sharp taste of this in his take on the Ronald Reagan administration during the 1988 special What Am I Doing In New Jersey?, broadcast live from the Park Theatre in Union City, New Jersey.

Death and legacy[link]

Carlin had a history of cardiac problems spanning several decades, including three heart attacks (in 1978 at age 41, 1982 and 1991), an arrhythmia requiring an ablation procedure in 2003, and a significant episode of heart failure in late 2005. He twice underwent angioplasty to reopen narrowed arteries.^[60] In early 2005 he entered a drug rehabilitation facility for treatment of addictions to alcohol and Vicodin.^[61]

On June 22, 2008, Carlin was admitted to Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica after experiencing chest pain, and he died later that day of heart failure. He was 71 years old.^[62] His death occurred one week after his last performance at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. There were further shows on his itinerary.^[21][63][64] In accordance with his wishes, he was cremated, his ashes scattered, and no public or religious services of any kind were held.^[65][66]

In tribute, HBO broadcast eleven of his fourteen HBO specials from June 25–28, including a twelve-hour marathon block on their HBO Comedy channel. NBC scheduled a rerun of the premiere episode of Saturday Night Live, which Carlin hosted.^[67][68][69] Both Sirius Satellite Radio's "Raw Dog Comedy" and XM Satellite Radio's "XM Comedy" channels ran a memorial marathon of George Carlin recordings the day following his death. Larry King devoted his entire June 23 show to a tribute to Carlin, featuring interviews with Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, Roseanne Barr and Lewis Black, as well as Carlin's daughter Kelly and his brother, Patrick.

On June 24, The New York Times published an op-ed piece on Carlin by Seinfeld.^[70] Cartoonist Garry Trudeau paid tribute in his Doonesbury comic strip on July 27.^[71]

Four days before his death, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had named Carlin its 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honoree.^[72] The prize was awarded in Washington, D.C. on November 10, making Carlin the first posthumous recipient.^[73] Comedians honoring him at the ceremony included Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Lily Tomlin (a past Twain Humor Prize winner), Lewis Black, Denis Leary, Joan Rivers, and Margaret Cho.

Louis C.K. dedicated his stand-up special Chewed Up to Carlin, and Lewis Black dedicated his entire second season of Root of All Evil to him.

For a number of years, Carlin had been compiling and writing his autobiography, to be released in conjunction with a one-man Broadway show tentatively titled New York City Boy. After his death Tony Hendra, his collaborator on both projects, edited the autobiography for release as Last Words (ISBN 1-4391-7295-1). The book, chronicling most of Carlin's life and future plans (including the one-man show) was published in 2009. The audio edition is narrated by Carlin's brother, Patrick.^[74]

The text of the one-man show is scheduled for publication under the title New York Boy.^[75]

The George Carlin Letters: The Permanent Courtship of Sally Wade,^[76] by Carlin's widow, a collection of previously-unpublished writings and artwork by Carlin interwoven with Wade’s chronicle of the last ten years of their life together, was published in March 2011. (The subtitle is the phrase on a handwritten note Wade found next to her computer upon returning home from the hospital after her husband's death.)^[77]

In 2008 Carlin's daughter Kelly Carlin-McCall announced plans to publish an "oral history", a collection of stories from Carlin's friends and family,^[78] but she later indicated that the project had been shelved in favor of completion of her own memoir.^[79]

Works[link]

Discography[link]

Main

• 1963: Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight
• 1967: Take-Offs and Put-Ons
• 1972: FM & AM
• 1972: Class Clown
• 1973: Occupation: Foole
• 1974: Toledo Window Box
• 1975: An Evening with Wally Londo Featuring Bill Slaszo
• 1977: On the Road
• 1981: A Place for My Stuff
• 1984: Carlin on Campus
• 1986: Playin' with Your Head
• 1988: What Am I Doing in New Jersey?
• 1990: Doin' It Again / Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics
• 1992: Jammin' in New York
• 1996: Back in Town
• 1999: You Are All Diseased
• 2001: Complaints and Grievances
• 2006: Life Is Worth Losing
• 2008: It's Bad for Ya

Compilations

• 1978: Indecent Exposure: Some of the Best of George Carlin
• 1984: The George Carlin Collection
• 1992: Classic Gold
• 1999: The Little David Years (1971-1977)
• 2002: George Carlin on Comedy

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

• The Kraft Summer Music Hall (1966)
• That Girl (Guest appearance) (1966)
• The Ed Sullivan Show (multiple appearances)
• The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (season 3 guest appearance) (1968)
• What's My Line? (Guest Appearance) (1969)
• The Flip Wilson Show (writer, performer) (1971–1973)
• The Mike Douglas Show (Guest) (February 18, 1972)
• Saturday Night Live (Host, episodes 1 and 183) (1975 & 1984)
• Justin Case (as Justin Case) (1988) TV movie directed Blake Edwards
• Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (as American Narrator: Series 3-4\redubbed Series 1-2) (1991–1995)
• Shining Time Station (as Mr. Conductor) (1991–1993)
• Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales (1996-1997)
• Storytime with Thomas (1998)
• The George Carlin Show (as George O'Grady) (1994-1995) Fox
• Streets of Laredo (as Billy Williams) (1995)
• The Simpsons (as Munchie, episode "D'oh-in in the Wind") (1998)
• Caillou (Caillou's Grandpa) (1998-2008)
• The Daily Show (guest on February 1, 1999; December 16, 1999; and March 10, 2004)
• MADtv (Guest appearance in episodes 518 & 524) (2000)
• Inside the Actors Studio (2004)
• Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales (as Fillmore) (archive footage) (2008)

• In 1998, Carlin had a cameo playing one of the funeral-attending comedians in Jerry Seinfeld's HBO special I'm Telling You For The Last Time. In the funeral intro (the only thing being buried is Jerry Seinfeld's material) Carlin learns that neither friend Robert Klein nor Ed McMahon ever saw Jerry's act. Carlin did, and enjoyed it, but admits "I was full of drugs."

HBO specials[link]

Bibliography[link]

Audiobooks[link]

• Brain Droppings
• Napalm and Silly Putty
• More Napalm & Silly Putty
• George Carlin Reads to You
• When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

Internet hoaxes[link]

Since the birth of spam email on the internet, many chain-forwards, usually rantlike and with blunt statements of belief on political and social issues and attributed to being written (or stated) by George Carlin himself, have made continuous rounds on the junk email circuit. The website Snopes, an online resource that debunks historic and present urban legends and myths, has extensively covered these forgeries. Many of the falsely attributed email attachments have contained material that runs directly opposite to Carlin's viewpoints, with some being especially volatile toward racial groups, gays, women, the homeless, etc. Carlin himself, when he was made aware of each of these bogus emails, would debunk them on his own website, writing: "Nothing you see on the Internet is mine unless it comes from one of my albums, books, HBO specials, or appeared on my website," and that "it bothers me that some people might believe that I would be capable of writing some of this stuff."^{[88][89][90][91][92][93]}

See also[link]

biography portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: George Carlin

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Carlin

• Official website
• George Carlin at the Internet Movie Database
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• George Carlin on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about George Carlin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• George Carlin collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• George Carlin at the Rotten Library
• Interview at Archive of American Television

Johan Norberg
Born	(1973-08-27) 27 August 1973 (age 38) Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation	Author
Subjects	Globalization, History of ideas, Economics
Influences John Locke, Frédéric Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman
www.johannorberg.net

Johan Norberg (born 27 August 1973) is a Swedish author and historian, devoted to promoting economic globalization and liberal positions. He is arguably most known as the author of In Defense of Global Capitalism. Since March 15, 2007 he has been a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

Early life and education[link]

Johan Norberg was born in Stockholm, the son of former Swedish National Archivist Erik Norberg and his wife Birgitta. He grew up in the suburb of Hässelby in northern Stockholm. In his youth, Norberg was active as a left-anarchist but later abandoned those views and became a classical liberal. According to the biography given at his personal website, Norberg was disillusioned with the anarchist view of liberty when he discovered the collectivist themes in the major anarchist works, and was unable to sympathize with the pre-industrial society which its anarcho-primitivism promoted. This realization made him embrace classical liberalism, which he felt "took freedom seriously".^[1] He studied at Stockholm University from 1992 to 1999 and earned a M.A. with a major in the history of ideas. His other subjects included philosophy, literature and political science. During his time at Stockholm University he was active in the libertarian network Frihetsfronten ("the Liberty Front") and was the editor of its journal Nyliberalen ("The Neoliberal"/"The Libertarian") from 1993 to 1997.

Career[link]

In 1997, Norberg was contacted by the Swedish liberal think tank Timbro, who invited him to write a book about the Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg. The book, Motståndsmannen Vilhelm Moberg, sold well and sparked much debate which allowed him to write another book, on the history of Swedish liberalism. This book, Den svenska liberalismens historia, also became a success and in 1999 Norberg joined the permanent staff of Timbro. From 1999 to 2002 he was assistant editor-in-chief of the webzine Smedjan.com. In 1999 he started the website Frihandel.nu to put the case for free trade and open economies.

Having participated in a number of debates against the Swedish anti-globalization movement, in May 2001 he released the book In Defense of Global Capitalism (Swedish: Till världskapitalismens försvar) where he assembles his arguments for globalization and free trade. In 2002 the book was selected for the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and in 2003 Norberg was awarded the gold medal of the German Hayek Stiftung (an award shared with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the German economist Otmar Issing). The British Channel 4 also invited him to present the documentary film Globalisation is Good (released in 2003), which is based on his book.

From 2002 to 2005, Norberg was head of political ideas at Timbro. From 2006 to 2007 he was a Senior Fellow with the Brussels-based think tank Centre for the New Europe.

Since March 15, 2007 he has been a Senior Fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Cato Institute. He is also a member of the international Mont Pelerin Society.

Personal life[link]

Norberg is married to Sofia Nerbrand, with whom he has two children.

Awards and honors[link]

• Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, for the book In Defense of Global Capitalism (2002).^[2]
• Prize of the Sture Lindmark Foundation for Public Debate, for opinion formation for free trade (May 2002).
• Gold medal of the Friedrich August von Hayek Stiftung, shared with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and ECB Chief Economist Otmar Issing (2003). [1]
• Voted Sweden's best blogger by the readers of the magazine Internetworld (2005).^[3]
• Curt Nicolin Memorial Award from the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (2006).^[4]
• James Joyce Award (2007) from the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin^[5]

Bibliography[link]

• Norberg, Johan; Bejke, Henrik (ed.) (1994). Nyliberalismens idéer. Stockholm: Frihetsfrontens förlag. ISBN 91-88216-03-9.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan (1997). Motståndsmannen Vilhelm Moberg. Stockholm: Timbro. ISBN 91-7566-340-6.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan (1998). Den svenska liberalismens historia. Stockholm: Timbro. ISBN 91-7566-377-5.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan (1999). Fullständiga rättigheter : ett försvar för de 21 första artiklarna i FN:s deklaration om de mänskliga rättigheterna. Stockholm: Timbro. ISBN 91-7566-419-4.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan; Berggren, Niclas (ed.) (2000). Stat, individ & marknad. Stockholm: Timbro. ISBN 91-7566-441-0.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan (2001). Till världskapitalismens försvar (In Defense of Global Capitalism). Stockholm: Timbro. ISBN 91-7566-491-7.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan; Vera Zavala, America (2001). Global rättvisa är möjlig. Skarpnäck: Pocky/Tranan. ISBN 91-88420-86-8.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan; Bengtsson, Mattias (ed.) (2003). Frihetens klassiker : texter. Stockholm: Timbro. ISBN 91-7566-404-6.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan (2006). När människan skapade världen. Stockholm: Timbro. ISBN 91-7566-554-9.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan; Vera Zavala, America (2006). Ett annat Sverige är möjligt. Stockholm: Rocky. ISBN 91-85011-31-2.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan (2009). En perfekt storm: Hur staten, kapitalet och du och jag sänkte världsekonomin. Stocksund: Hydra Förlag AB. ISBN 978-91-86185-03-9.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan (2009). Financial Fiasco: How America's Infatuations with Homeownership and Easy Money Created the Economic Crisis. Cato Institute. ^[6]
• Norberg, Johan (2009). Den eviga matchen om lyckan: Ett idéhistoriskt referat. Natur & Kultur. ISBN 91-27-18899-X.  (Swedish)
• Norberg, Johan (2010). Fragment och argument 1990-2010. Hydra Förlag. ISBN 91-86185-07-1.  (Swedish)