Carlin, and his almost direct decedent Bill Hicks (who tragically died much too soon), had little effect as you see it, because as I see it they were preaching to the choir. Frank Zappa too, who was much more intellectual, and brutal, in his discourse. Yet the fact that they had that huge choirs to preach to is what you are missing.
To view America (as you must because you are not here, and others who do live here that largely see it that way because they are lazy and intellectually vapid) only from the other side of a TV set is pretty much like thinking you know all about all women because you saw a porno movie. Because that media is it's own pornography. It's a pornography of greed, materialism, power and status set in a white, Protestant middle/upper middle class landscape. And, just like learning that women love hot sex from the porno is true enough, but hardly the only thing, or important thing in understanding them, what you are seeing is true to a degree, but only a degree, and there are 360 of those in a full circle, and you are not seeing the other 359. You are not seeing them because they are not covered accurately (if at all) in the media, and many of them being very media savvy know enough to avoid the media at all costs. There are many different types of communities, ranging from the Amish, to counter-cultural influenced, to visionary attempts at utopia in America, and not just now, but at every point in our history.
Cynicism is a hallmark of American culture, it's what we were founded upon, and it's why change is more possible here than in any other place. And not minor changes, sweeping and often disruptive change. Did not the Greek cynics reject power, wealth and fame in search of a simple life because only in living in agreement with nature can people be happy. They held that most problems were the result of the worthless and dangerous conventions and antiquated notions of customs that society used to prop itself up. I'm pretty much down with that. And if you are using it in the more modern and conventional meaning: people who think that others actions derive from purely selfish motives - well this site is pretty much a shrine to that idea. But for sure our Founding Fathers frequently used the term 'enlightened self-interest' to describe what should motivate political decisions, and I see no trouble with that either, it part of being responsible. When we move away from that, basing decisions on what ancient texts, superstitions, or 'our betters' say or think (or what some preacher in brown shoes thinks they say) we move away from good decisions and end up embracing really ->-bleeped-<-ty ones. And, no doubt, we've got plenty of them to undo - starting with the 'corporations are people too' idiocy, which goes back to the 1880, so it's not a new problem.
But I see no despair from those other 359 degrees, that despair comes almost exclusively from that 1 degree that the media represents (invents?) who now find that they have built a lot of castles in the sand, and can no longer deny the tide is coming in. Most of the people who voted in the last election cast their ballot for a pretty radical choice, one that was totally unimaginable only a short time ago. The joy was electric, if short lived because of that entire meet the new boss, same as the old boss problem. On the other hand, many of the people who did not vote for Obama woke up and found that the brother from another mother was about to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and basically their heads exploded. It was a national tombstone on their treasured white supremacy nonsense, and knowing that their dream, their way of life was over, well it had to be troubling.
And far from hoping it all goes away, we are seeing a groundswell of people working to ensure that it does. Times they are a changing.
Oh, by the way, what would the reaction of the Australian government and police be to the occupation of it's financial sector, or like in Wisconsin, people occupying the seat of government?
