My Favorite Quotation

“I could never understand ethnic or national pride. Because to me, pride should be reserved for something you achieve or attain on your own, not something that happens by accident of birth. Being Irish isn’t a skill, it’s a f***ing genetic accident. You wouldn’t say “I’m proud to be 5’11”. I’m proud to have a predisposition for colon cancer.” So why the f*** would you be proud to be Irish, or proud to be Italian, or American or anything?”

— George Carlin

Carlin in the 70's

This is one of my favorite quotes, and one of many that I enjoy from George Carlin. Carlin is definitely one of my heroes, and a person I've always looked up to and wanted to mold myself after. This quote exemplifies the exact reason I love him and his work so much. He has such a sarcastic and truthful humor, that almost everything he says has validity to me, and I have shaped my own identity around some of his ideas in many ways. He was a pioneer of his time, and to me his most admirable quality was the fact that he was so outspoken and didn't care what you thought of what he had to say. He simply stated what he believed, and if you didn't agree it was OK because he would just move on. 

This quote is so comical to me because you hear this sort of thing so much nowadays. You always see a bumper sticker, or shirts with these sayings on them. Although it is very patriotic and nice of you to represent your country, it is simply the wrong choice of word. The logic behind his words just makes too much sense to be ignored in my honest opinion, and it's quite comical that people say these things all the time without realizing that it doesn't make any sense. 

Carlin During His Last Special

I believe that it's good to be patriotic, but a better way of saying it would be, "Happy to be an American." Or even better, "Lucky to be an American." Because we all are very lucky to be living where we are living given all the famine and death in the world today. I think people look past this luck a lot, and focus on trivial problems that are not as important as others.  From now on, when I hear someone say this particular statement, I'm going to make sure I correct them, even if they don't like it. Like George says a few seconds after this quote, "Pride goeth before the fall. Know your proverbs." This was very amusing because Carlin is a very well known critic of religion, and the fact that he knew a bible line that correlated so well with his point just drives his logic home a little more.