Bill Hicks on the Gulf War of 1991:
"Let's check the casualty figures for that war again:
Iraq: 100,000
USA: 79.
79? Does that mean if we'd sent over 80 guys we still would have won that fucking thing?
One guy in a ticker tape parade saying "I did it!"
"It wasn't exactly a war. A war is when two armies are fighting.
.... so I think we can all agree it wasn't exactly a war."
"People say to me 'Hey but Bill the war made us feel better about ourselves.'
What? What kind of people need a war to feel better about themselves?"
Bill Hicks.
I agree with Bill that it wasn't really a normal war.
What was it then?
Mass murder.
I met personnel of the English Army in the "war" of 1991. They showed me pictures.
They were openly racist about the slaughter they inflicted. They celebrated it.
Glorification of terrorism if ever I saw it.
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Another favourite Bill Hicks quote of mine is
"You're right!
You're right!
Not those fuckers who want to tell you how to think!
You're fucking right!"
Bill Hicks.
Why is it left to a solitary American stand up comedian to point out this obvious truth?
Where are the journalists, writers, intellectuals, academics that are saying this truth - a truth that is blazingly obvious?
Where are the political movements pointing out this truth about the Gulf "War" of 1991?
"Let's check the casualty figures for that war again:
Iraq: 100,000
USA: 79.
79? Does that mean if we'd sent over 80 guys we still would have won that fucking thing?
One guy in a ticker tape parade saying "I did it!"
"It wasn't exactly a war. A war is when two armies are fighting.
.... so I think we can all agree it wasn't exactly a war."
"People say to me 'Hey but Bill the war made us feel better about ourselves.'
What? What kind of people need a war to feel better about themselves?"
Bill Hicks.
I agree with Bill that it wasn't really a normal war.
What was it then?
Mass murder.
I met personnel of the English Army in the "war" of 1991. They showed me pictures.
They were openly racist about the slaughter they inflicted. They celebrated it.
Glorification of terrorism if ever I saw it.
------
Another favourite Bill Hicks quote of mine is
"You're right!
You're right!
Not those fuckers who want to tell you how to think!
You're fucking right!"
Bill Hicks.
As a counterweight to this I also like the famous words of Cromwell:
"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."
I like the Bill Hicks quote "You're right!" because it encourages independent thought.
Independent thought is important in an epoch in which the intellectual establishment and the whole culture it is part of has abdicated its truth-telling role.
My liking for this sentiment doesn't mean that I think you shouldn't question what your own views are as well.
"I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."
I like the Bill Hicks quote "You're right!" because it encourages independent thought.
Independent thought is important in an epoch in which the intellectual establishment and the whole culture it is part of has abdicated its truth-telling role.
My liking for this sentiment doesn't mean that I think you shouldn't question what your own views are as well.
Why is it left to a solitary American stand up comedian to point out this obvious truth?
Where are the journalists, writers, intellectuals, academics that are saying this truth - a truth that is blazingly obvious?
Where are the political movements pointing out this truth about the Gulf "War" of 1991?
The unusual French thinker Baudrillard also had some interesting views on this unusual war or genocide as he did on other things.
But even he - one of the few major figures to question the conventional view of the war - abdicated his job as an intellectual to criticize and condemn by abandoning a soundly moral view of the war.
But even he - one of the few major figures to question the conventional view of the war - abdicated his job as an intellectual to criticize and condemn by abandoning a soundly moral view of the war.
.......