Bill Hicks

[Niall]

Donald, I read the article you posted on 'marketing the reptilian brain' - fascinating, gave me a shudder in parts, but fascinating nonetheless! Very funny when he compares French and US 'modes de pensees':

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/interviews/rapaille.html

Once you understand the code, you understand why people do what they do. For example, the code for the French -- once you understand the code, you may understand why [French president Jacques] Chirac reacted this way to Bush, because for the French, the code is "to think." That's it: to think. "I think, therefore I am" -- not "I do," "I think." The French believe [that they are] the only thinkers of the world and that they think for the rest of the world. They believe that Americans never think; they just do things without knowing why. And so in this situation, where Bush say, "Let's do it," the French say, "No, wait, think; we need to think."

Now, what you have to understand about the French culture is "to think" is enough. You don't need to do anything with your thinking. The French philosopher would say, "I think, therefore I am," where in America you have Nextel, this campaign, fantastic, "I do, therefore I am," not "I think." I think they're right on target with the American code.

Recommended reading folks. This guy basically breaks down the modern methodology behind sophisticated marketing campaigns. I have no doubt most forumites see right through the emotional manipulation evident in advertising and so forth. Nevertheless, I found this 'inside-track' account to be very instructive. It reminded me of the manner in which acquiring knowledge of ponerology inherently protects against the very matter it investigates. ;)

 

[PopHistorian]

Marketing to our Reptilian brains was the subject of a CBS News "60 Minutes" report in 2003. The report made the point that Americans buy Hummers and giant SUVs in order to appear menacing to others, to send the message that the driver of the larger vehicle can threaten you with death. It's incredibly STS, and the marketers know it and aim to satisfy that ugly desire.

From (http://www).cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/11/60minutes/main562824.shtml

"Why do you buy a car that doesn't even make 10 miles per gallon, doesn't fit into your garage? Do you really need that? And you don't need that intellectually," he says. "But at the reptilian level, what I call the reptilian level, the reptilian brain, the deepest part of you, the gut level if you want, you feel like you need that."

[...]

"Survival is key, you don't know what is going to happen. You know, is he going to attack you? You don't know if this next guy is going to be drunk and bump into you. And so you want to be square, you want to have a message. Don't mess with me because I can crush you, I can kill you right away, so don't approach me, hah? That's strong. So menacing. The Hummer is menacing."

And George Peterson agrees that menace is a great selling point.

"One woman said, "I bought my SUV so I can take it down into midtown, and there's not gonna be a taxi on the road that's gonna push me around.'"

 

[kommunikationisthekey]

Psychologists have long revealed the senselessness of such exaggerated regulation. About 70 percent of traffic signs are ignored by drivers. What's more, the glut of prohibitions is tantamount to treating the driver like a child and it also foments resentment. He may stop in front of the crosswalk, but that only makes him feel justified in preventing pedestrians from crossing the street on every other occasion. Every traffic light baits him with the promise of making it over the crossing while the light is still yellow.
"Unsafe is safe"

The result is that drivers find themselves enclosed by a corset of prescriptions, so that they develop a kind of tunnel vision: They're constantly in search of their own advantage, and their good manners go out the window.

The new traffic model's advocates believe the only way out of this vicious circle is to give drivers more liberty and encourage them to take responsibility for themselves. They demand streets like those during the Middle Ages, when horse-drawn chariots, handcarts and people scurried about in a completely unregulated fashion. The new model's proponents envision today's drivers and pedestrians blending into a colorful and peaceful traffic stream.

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/chains/signs20061123_OldEurope.php#8dde6551ecfc433de7c603d2b6a

hehe... us Americans have really gone insane

 

[sHiZo963]

hehe... us Americans have really gone insane

...from all the regulation?

If traffic 'anarchy' is proving to work so well, it makes one wonder whether we, as a people, if put in a position to be socially responsible in ALL aspects of our lives i.e. to live in "total anarchy," devoid of all rules and regulations (governmental laws, organized religion, etc) would also not live 'better' lives.

Perhaps this whole notion of 'laws' and 'regulations' has been forced onto us through history to make us 'feel' safe and secure by the MCS when in reality it strips us of our social responsibility to one another, and essentially of our 'humanity'.

This also makes one think of Gurdjieff and the mechanical-ness of contemporary man: having 'grown up' and (de)volved in such a controlled society through countless generations, man has become subconsciously dependent on authority. Perhaps the Fourth Way and the shedding of one's 'sacred cows' is really a return to an ancient form of 'anarchy' and social/personal responsibility.

The Wave and the drastic changes/shocks to come may give those that are 'ready' for such FREEDOM a possibility to be able to embrace it fully and in effect to form a new world...

...or so I think.

And as for Bill Hicks - brilliant man. I watched and listened to his material after I saw it mentioned here on forum, so thanks for introducing him to me :)
I particularly like his line:

Here in the US of A (which he has called "A"dvertising), you have the Freedom to do what we (the PTB) tell you to do

Sad but true.

 

[Russ]

In a way, I agree. I think some rules can be a good thing, and that they are needed to a certain extent, but too much reliance on them can probably have some kind of negative effect, such as learning the rules and laws isn't the same as knowing something properly, its just mindless adherance from personally unverified sources - kind of like a robot. So I'm thinking maybe rules aren't such a bad thing, but how we personally learn about things. In other words I think rules are here to stay for the moment, and our goal should be perhaps to become more aware of their dangers so that we can avoid the pitfalls of obeying without thinking. I do think though that we are getting too many rules and laws nowdays (also a lot of senseless silly ones), and the people that break the rules the most are ironically the people who usually know how to get out of it, saving their own skin but leaving a trail of destruction.

 

[Rhys Gethin]

It is good to hear that Bill Hicks memory is being kept alive. He was a good man. Someone who could see, where all this hatered was taking us as a species. He may have had a so called "foul mouth", but I for one felt his passion. He spoke to me in a language ,I for one could understand, being uneducated and working class . The anger and the frustration. His inability to swallow the never ending torrent of lies. He, above all, had an honest and good heart.
Above all, he raised my consciousness. He was an American hero, in the true spirit of America and it's founding ideals. Equality and justice stand for one and all. I noticed that you people like to quote, so here is something simple and heartfelt....
"No man is good enough to be another's master" William Morris"

 

[Guest]

Bill Hicks, you helped bring me to this forum, like a gilded thread in a darkened world.

My three fave Bill quotes now;

On bigotry in the armed forces.
"I don't want any gays around me when I'm killing kids".

On Clinton's inauguration; he meets a shadowy group in a boardroom and views exclusive angled footage of the Kennedy assasination, following which a cigar toking pathocrat asks him, "Any questions?" Cue Clinton's reply, "Just what my agenda is".

On the dietry habits of the Brits.
"YOU ARE OVER YOUR POTATO QUOTA!!!".

Verily, truth is triplicative!

 

[PopHistorian]

I remembered liking Hicks back in the day, what I saw of him, but wasn't so awake then. I just watched his Sane Man DVD, and, oh boy, I actually spit out food while laughing. Talk about no sacred cows! He would be an absolute terror to the PTB if still alive, assuming he kept learning truths at the same rate.

Gotta wonder about deaths like his. Go to the doc and hear, "Hey, you've got cancer. Let's get you on these 'treatments' right away," and the person proceeds to weaken and die.

 

[tatou]

"You know, this is a world where good men are murdered in their prime, and mediocre hacks thrive and proliferate!
I gotta share this with you cause I love you, and you feel that...
You don't see the imminent danger, do you?
There are DEMONS!
Set loose on the Earth to lower the standards for the Perfect and Holy Children of God -which is what we are, make no mistake about it."


"I'm just trying to rid the world of all these fevered egos that are tainting our collective consciousness and making us pay a higher psychic price than we imagine."


"If comedy is an escape from anything, it is an escape from illusions. The comic, by using the Voice of Reason, reminds us of our True Reality, and in that moment of recognition, we laugh, and the reality of the daily grind is shown for what it really is - UNREAL... a JOKE.
True comedy turns circles into spirals. What before seemed a tiresome, frightening, or frustrating wall, the comic deftly and fearlessly steps through, proving the absurdity of it all.
The audience is relieved to know they're not alone in thinking: 'This bullshit we see and hear all day MAKES NO SENSE. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks so. And surely there must be an answer...'
Good comedy helps people know they're not alone.
Great comedy provides an answer."

"The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while.
Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: Is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, 'Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid ever, because this is just a ride...'
And we ... kill those people!
Ha! ha!
'Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real.'
It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter, because - it's just a ride.
And we can change it any time we want.
It's only a choice."

"John Lennon: murdered.
John Kennedy: murdered.
Robert Kennedy: murdered.
Martin Luther King: murdered.
Malcolm X: murdered.
Gandhi: murdered.
Jesus: murdered.
Ronald Reagan: wounded..."

"What's the point of George (H) Bush?
Reagan-like...
No one cares that he was the ex-head of the C.I.A, now elected president...
The C.I.A: political assassination, overthrowing governments, death squads, drug running...
Let's give him more power!
Put him in the White House!"

"Clinton? There's no f**king hope in Clinton...
They're all the same. I'll show you politics in America, here it is, it's right here:
I think there're puppets on the right chair, here's my belief.
I think there's puppets on the left this is more to my liking...
Hey, wait, there's one guy holding up both puppets!
'-SHUT UP!
Go back to bed America, your government is in control!"

"You know there's a handful of people to run everything, that's true, it's provable, it's not a f**king conspiracy nut, it's provable...
A very small elite run various institutions, which includes the mainstream media.
I've got this feeling that anyone who ever gets elected president like Clinton did, no matter what the promises you promised on the campaign trail: blah, blah, blah... When you win, you go to the smockey room with the twelve industrialists, capitalists scum f**ks who got you in there and you're in the smockey room and this little screen comes down and the big guys are like:
'-Roll the film.'
And it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before, and it looks suspiciously off the grass knoll!
And then the film goes, the screen goes up, the lights go up and they ask to the now president:
'-Any questions?
-Er, just what my agenda is!
-First bomb Baghdad.
-You got it!"

"All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.
There is no death, life is only a dream and we're the imaginations of ourselves!"

Bill Hicks.
1961-1994.

Would've loved to hear his take 9/11...
Gosh if he was still around, maybe he'd be reading the SOTT page right now!
Yeah well, died at the ripe age of 32, a short and intense life I believe, like a falling star.
Just old fire from the sun they say.

 

[anart]

Yep - I like a lot of his work - he's been discussed quite a few times on the forum - you could start here http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=1799 . He seemed to be way too popular and way too vocal to live for very long in the U.S. - osit.

 

[Bernhard]

Always a favorite!
Thanks for posting.
Could you imagine having him around now?

 

[Nawd]

What about your take on all of this, instead of a various amount of quotes. What do YOU think and why?

Yes these people had something to say. And what they spoke of was interesting. I personally would like to know what it is you are here to share. Without quotes.

"You know, this is a world where good men are murdered in their prime, and mediocre hacks thrive and proliferate!
I gotta share this with you cause I love you, and you feel that...
You don't see the imminent danger, do you?
There are DEMONS!
Set loose on the Earth to lower the standards for the Perfect and Holy Children of God -which is what we are, make no mistake about it."


"I'm just trying to rid the world of all these fevered egos that are tainting our collective consciousness and making us pay a higher psychic price than we imagine."


"If comedy is an escape from anything, it is an escape from illusions. The comic, by using the Voice of Reason, reminds us of our True Reality, and in that moment of recognition, we laugh, and the reality of the daily grind is shown for what it really is - UNREAL... a JOKE.
True comedy turns circles into spirals. What before seemed a tiresome, frightening, or frustrating wall, the comic deftly and fearlessly steps through, proving the absurdity of it all.
The audience is relieved to know they're not alone in thinking: 'This bullshit we see and hear all day MAKES NO SENSE. Surely I'm not the only one who thinks so. And surely there must be an answer...'
Good comedy helps people know they're not alone.
Great comedy provides an answer."

"The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while.
Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: Is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, 'Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid ever, because this is just a ride...'
And we ... kill those people!
Ha! ha!
'Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real.'
It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter, because - it's just a ride.
And we can change it any time we want.
It's only a choice."

"John Lennon: murdered.
John Kennedy: murdered.
Robert Kennedy: murdered.
Martin Luther King: murdered.
Malcolm X: murdered.
Gandhi: murdered.
Jesus: murdered.
Ronald Reagan: wounded..."

"What's the point of George (H) Bush?
Reagan-like...
No one cares that he was the ex-head of the C.I.A, now elected president...
The C.I.A: political assassination, overthrowing governments, death squads, drug running...
Let's give him more power!
Put him in the White House!"

"Clinton? There's no f**king hope in Clinton...
They're all the same. I'll show you politics in America, here it is, it's right here:
I think there're puppets on the right chair, here's my belief.
I think there's puppets on the left this is more to my liking...
Hey, wait, there's one guy holding up both puppets!
'-SHUT UP!
Go back to bed America, your government is in control!"

"You know there's a handful of people to run everything, that's true, it's provable, it's not a f**king conspiracy nut, it's provable...
A very small elite run various institutions, which includes the mainstream media.
I've got this feeling that anyone who ever gets elected president like Clinton did, no matter what the promises you promised on the campaign trail: blah, blah, blah... When you win, you go to the smockey room with the twelve industrialists, capitalists scum f**ks who got you in there and you're in the smockey room and this little screen comes down and the big guys are like:
'-Roll the film.'
And it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before, and it looks suspiciously off the grass knoll!
And then the film goes, the screen goes up, the lights go up and they ask to the now president:
'-Any questions?
-Er, just what my agenda is!
-First bomb Baghdad.
-You got it!"

"All matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.
There is no death, life is only a dream and we're the imaginations of ourselves!"

Bill Hicks.
1961-1994.

Would've loved to hear his take 9/11...
Gosh if he was still around, maybe he'd be reading the SOTT page right now!
Yeah well, died at the ripe age of 32, a short and intense life I believe, like a falling star.
Just old fire from the sun they say.

 

[Bernhard]

What about your take on all of this, instead of a various amount of quotes. What do YOU think and why?

I guess your question is directed to tatou, however, I just like to point out that this thread's title is called 'Bill Hicks", so it does seem obvious to post some quotes of him and not expect a writing of tatou about 'what he thinks and why.'

Bill Hicks is an inspiration for many truth seekers and there is no shame in remembering such people just by some good ol' fashioned quotes, letting them speak for themselves. Obviously when we post quotes, even in our signatures, they resemble something that we respond to deeply. There is a connection and with that connection comes a surge of motivation, inspiration and drive to learn more, to find truth and DO something about it, because you identify with that person on some level. Well, that's how quotes work for me at least.

 

[tatou]

Mmh ok, well, more or less what I said after the quotes you know...
I'm afraid I'm not as eloquent as Bill was but mostly that: that I would've loved to hear his lines about 9/11, that only someone of that calibre would have had the nerve and the intelligence to speak up and pull laughters out of our guts from such a tragic event AND expose the truth in the process.
I would have liked to see also what a thorough bathing in esoteric knowledge could have done to that man, something he might have lacked I believe, who knows, maybe he would have gone for a lower profile and have had a longer life but hey...
And, what else, how typical it is to see those people brave enough to step into the spotlight and die before they can do any serious damage to the system...
You see I discovered Bill Hicks a bit over 48 hours ago and got to know the public person quite well in a very condensed period of time (thank you internet, not much sleep though), I sent videos to my friends, explored his life a little and basically was so overwhelmed by the intensity of this man that I thought some relevant quotes would fit here.
Other than that the process of writing down his routine from vids in order to type it up here also got me to see more things in his material.
There you go.
What about you Nawd? I personally would like to know what it is you are here to share with this comment. Without patronizing.

 

[tatou]

Hey cheers Bernhard, Gosh your reply is actually more sensible than mine.
Well yeah, as you mentioned earlier, since I discovered Hicks, I keep thinking "What would he say now?" Well I've come to the conclusion that his "new" material would have been hilarious, it could have started riots and well Bill would still die young anyway...