In this section from his recent HBO Special, comedic legend George Carlin does an amazing job of putting all of this "God Bless America"/"Proud to be an American" Crap in exactly the perspective it needs to be.
Here are some excepts:
I saw a slogan on a guys car that said "Proud to be an American" and I thought "What the fuck does that mean?"
I'm fully Irish, and when I was a kid I would go to the St Patrick's Day parade and they sold a button that said "Proud to be Irish", but I knew that on Columbus day they sold the same button only it said "Proud to be Italian", then came Black Pride, and Puerto Rican Pride. And I could never understand national or ethnic pride, because to me Pride should be reserved for something you achieve on your own.
Being Irish isn't a skill, it's a fucking genetic accident.
You wouldn't be proud to be 5'11". You wouldn't be proud to have a pre-disposition for colon cancer.
And then he gets to the entire "God Bless America" thang.
Here's another slogan you run into all the time, "God Bless America".
Once again, respectfully, I say to myself "What the Fuck Does that Mean?"
"God Bless America?" Is that a request? Is tht a demand? Is that a suggestion? Politicians say it at the end of every speech, as if it was some sort of verbal tick that they can't get rid of.
I guess they figure if they leave it out someone is going to think they're "bad Americans". Let me tell you something folks, God Does not give a flying fuck about America, ok? He doesn't care. He never cared about this country. He never has. He never will. He doesn't care about this country any more than he cares about Mongolia, Transylvania, Pittsburgh, the Suez Canal or the North Pole. He simply doesn't care, ok.
Listen, there are 200 countries in the world, do these people honestly think God is sitting around picking out his favorites?
Why would he do that?
Why would God have a favorite country? And why would it be America of all the countries? Because we have the most money? Because he likes our national anthem? Maybe it's because he heard we have 18 delicious flavours of classic Rice-O-Ronie?
It's Delusional Thinking.
If these people believe in God, they must have heard that God Loves Everyone, and he loves them equally. So why would these people ask God to do something that goes against his own teaching? Maybe they ought to check with that Jesus fella. They're always talking about "What would Jesus do"?
They don't want to know so they can do it, they just want to know so they can tell other people to do it.
Personally, I think he has a point.
Vyan
