Thought for the day, or the rest of your life.

I've been a fan of the comedian and political satirist Bill Hicks since I was a kid and heard some of his material sampled by Tool (without really knowing who it was). The documentary Zeitgeist also uses a few of his live dialogues and through these I began to listen to more recordings of his live shows. Within the last year I've given his material a good listen and have come to the conclusion that he was really in touch with reality in many ways. Below is an excerpt I typed up from one of his shows in England. The man was simply brilliant and I wish I could have met him.

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As scary as the world is, and it is, it is merely a ride. In the amusement park of the universe, it is merely a ride. It has its thrills, it has its chills, it has its ups, it has its downs...

The world is just a ride, and some people have known it; we think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are, but it's not, it's a ride. And some people have known it and have come here and told us "it's just a ride", and we have killed those people, because we love the fucking ride. You ever notice that, we always kill the good guys and leave these demons just running amok on the planet, you ever notice that; Jesus murdered, Martin Luther King murdered, Ghandi murdered, Malcolm X murdered, Reagan, wounded. But it's just a ride, and since you know it, (and some people are tired of the ups and downs, and the thrills and chills and prefer instead the quiet), they have to be told it's just a ride...

Is it all hopeless, no...Here is my point folks, in the blink of an eye we can have heaven on earth, it's a choice, that's all it is, there's no evolution, no need to go any farther, we know it now, it's all here, it's all clear, it's all right now. It's a choice, you can look through the eyes of fear, you can look through the eyes of love, that's the only two ways to look, the eyes of fear is insanity, it's not really there, the eyes of love are the only real eyes. Heaven on earth right now if you want.

It's a choice, to look through the eyes of love instead of the eyes of fear, just once. For instance, that money we spend on weapons and defense each year, that money we spend on buying bigger locks and more fucking cops, instead if we spent that money feeding, clothing, and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, we could as one race explore outer space together in peace, forever. That is my dream.

Bill Hicks (1961-1994) at the Oxford Playhouse November 11, 1992.