War as Entertainment

Watching Dennis Miller with George Carlin as a guest. George is a few years too old for my age/generation. My first stand up comic was Eddie Murphy. Then Andrew Dice Clay, sadly. After that came Seinfeld and Chris Rock and the Original Kings of Comedy. I can't remember anyone inbetween. Anyhow, I've checked out Richard Pryor - freaking genius - and George Carlin, because of his reputation amongst comics. His shows were decent, not great. But on Dennis Miller tonight, he said something terribly disgusting and profound.

Mr. Carlin said the reason for his existence on this earth is to be entertained. He thinks all the philosophers have it wrong, that we don't have any higher purpose than to be entertained. And here's the bad/interesting part...what entertains him on the TV is mass death, War, terrorism, etc. He could care less about balancing the budget or a bill being passed. What he finds so cool about war is the longevity - it's long term entertainment for the masses....1984, I guess.

But what a profound thought... We've made these tremendous technological advances over time but for some reason we haven't made any similar moral progress. We still kill each other to protect our property. And what purpose does war serve? To ostensibly protect us, but we must admit, it also entertains us. It's worth investigating to what degree we are entertained by war and how that impacts our behaviour.