Carlin's "Stuff" Has Gotten Us Into Trouble

Composed in Royal Oak, Michigan-

George Carlin, the Lenny Bruce of my generation, has left us.  Carlin first got noticed with his riff on "the seven words you can't say on television."  It was no where near the strongest of his material, but it got him arrested, which got him noticed and his career took off.

Lenny Bruce's career had a similar albeit shorter arc.  Bruce was also arrested early in his career for using what lawmakers thought was inappropriate language.  Like Carlin, Bruce rather enjoyed using insightful commentary to get under peoples' skin. 

Carlin's star burned bright and long.  He starred in 18 HBO specials.  By contrast, Jerry Seinfeld has had two. 

Lenny Bruce died young of a drug overdose.  He never achieved major stardom, but became a cult hero and a frontrunner to comedians such as Carlin and Richard Pryor.

One of Carlin's best routines was a bit about how we like our possessions and how we are defined by our "stuff."   The routine is about 25 years old, but it was a harbinger of things to come.

The mortgage crisis is about buying houses that we can't afford so that we can live in places large enough to keep our stuff.  A record number of foreclosures will force people to lose their homes and sell possessions so they have enough money to eat.

The impending credit crisis comes about because we use credit cards to spend money we really don't have so that we can have more stuff.

Do you have more stuff than you need?