Bloggers have done numerous tributes to the late George Carlin. Normally I’d have done mine on my other blog. However I’ve long since closed my social commentary blog because too many people that I knew in the real world could not understand the concept of going “over-the-top” to make a point. What happened is a select few started to read way to much into the posts and in a few instances imagined stuff that was not even close to the truth.
Naturally, going over-the-top is a page from Carlin’s playbook that he mastered decades ago.
By now you are saying: “That’s fine Bob but what the hell does this all have to do with the martial arts?”
Answer: Critical thinking.
Long before college and the umpteen theories I was exposed to my first two sources of critical thinking were Mad Magazine and George Carlin records.
In 1994, Brian Siano (The Humanist) discussed the eye-opening aspects of Mad:
For the smarter kids of two generations, Mad was a revelation: it was the first to tell us that the toys we were being sold were garbage, our teachers were phonies, our leaders were fools, our religious counselors were hypocrites, and even our parents were lying to us about damn near everything.
George Carlin took that same premise of scratching the sugar coating off life then ratcheting things up ten fold to get his point across. Often he’d offend but he did not do so for the sake of offending but to make a point. At the end of this video interview Carlin was asked if he intentionally tried to get people to think. He said that he used laughter as a method to get people to let their guard down. When that happened he was often able to get his point across. At about 2:50 into this video Carlin talks about the illogic of arbitrary rules and how he did not like them. In short: He tried to teach people to think for themselves and not blindly obey authority.
In the martial arts we submit ourselves to authority. However, there is a big difference between blindly submitting and willingly doing so while thinking. An example that springs to mind comes from my first taekwondo school, some 15 years ago. The instructor would often say that taekwondo focuses on kicking because legs are the longest and strongest parts of your body. In fact, I honestly think he believed that you could chop most anyone down through this so-called superior firepower. This little ditty was probably taught to him by some master and he’s blindly followed it ever since.
The truth is somewhere in the middle…
Legs are the longest and strongest and a good kicker who knows what he or she is doing can seriously hurt someone. However, what if you jam their kicks? What if you get inside their kicks and stick and punch? What if you take them to the ground where they can’t kick?
Blindly following authority can lead to this wrong-headed and stubborn way of thinking.
Now I’m not saying you should disrespect your instructors. However, if they are not open to answering your questions or admitting where their particular art is weak (and they ALL have weak spots) then you might consider moving on to another school that has honest instructors.
Anyhow, here’s a few of my favorite Carlin bits. All of them get at critical thinking Carlin-style and all of them I find funny. That having been said he does use profanity so if that kind of thing bothers you then don’t click on the links!
Finally I’ll close this post with one of my favorite Carlin bits. It really has nothing to do with critical thinking but I find it funny for two reasons: 1) I don’t like answering machines, cell phones, I-PODS, A-PODS, etc., etc. and 2) It goes to a very dark place which I find uncomfortably hilarious.
I had the privilege of seeing George perform at Butler University in 2004. The neat thing is he was still working the kinks out of this bit. In fact, he told the audience exactly that and he then proceeded to read the bit because he was still memorizing it. Honest as always.
As a tribute to George, for the remainder of the month my sidebar will feature even more Carlin videos. And I can’t think of a better time to knock one back in honor of the late Mr. Carlin than the 4th of July weekend!
Cheers to you George! I’ll miss you.
~BCP
