Comedian Bill Hicks was a National Treasure, and in many ways a prophet. He used humor to convey a powerful message that caused us to remember our humanity and our connection to one another and the universe itself. He railed against the far right whack-jobs of the day. His words are truer today than perhaps ever before.
Here is just one example of his genius.
AATTP
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Me 3
True, but there is alot more violent crimes, ill’d rather be shot then get my head caved in repeatedly
Me too.
Gee whiz, as someone who grew up in London, I can say with some authority that I not had my head caved in repeatedly, I have never even had it caved in once– nor do I know of anyone who has. I have on the other hand been robbed at gunpoint and had my home burglarized since moving to the states 10 years ago. I would imagine that any greater percentage of “violent crime” in England is directly attributable to more reporting of altercations to authorities. The US has such an aggressive culture that I would assume a lot of violence goes unreported.
well said.
I like Bill too, but this clip leaves off what else he said about knife violence in England. Also, his gun statistics may have been true in the early 90s when this was recorded (during the assault weapons ban), but they are no longer true today. Check the uniform crime report. You will see that England actually has a higher per capita murder rate and fewer metropolitan areas than the US.
Not true at all. The US’s per capita murder rate is 4 times higher than the UK, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
As much as I believe you, i don’t think you should reference Wikipedia… the Britannica on the bathroom wall.
It’s true. Our homicide rate per capita is higher than that of the UK, France, Spain, and Germany combined.
http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/Homicide_statistics2012.xls
J, Please check your FACTS – According to the UNODC the US last year had 14,748 intentional murders and the United Kindom (not just England) had 722. I love when people think that their FEELINGS are FACTS! CHECK YOUR FACTS! I DID!!
How old are you? You don’t know how to compare correctly… get your school on before “checking the facts” ;)
You guys missed the point.This video sums it up pretty well and if you want to doubt the validity of everything on Youtube, then this guy went through a shit load of trouble photoshoping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWNOiw_XIV8
What’s weird is that Bill was way into the conspiracy theories and always commented on the dishonesty of government, yet he is opposed to the one aspect of the constitution that gives the citizen a viable defense against tyranny.
My understanding was that the right to bear arms was because the Founding Fathers judged a standing army to be anathema to democracy, if every citizen were a soldier then the country could never be held by a foreign force. Seems to me that having a militaristic foreign policy, shaped in part by lobbyists from ‘defence’ related industries, creates a jingoistic culture that encourages gun use and provides a glut of military surplus for domestic markets.
i.e. Make guns, use guns, sell guns, create environment that needs guns, make guns, sell guns, lather, rinse, repeat.
I like living in the UK.
That’s the opposite of what the 2nd amendment says. If that were the case then the U.S. Army would be unconstitutional. It is clearly written in numerious papers by the founding fathers that the 2nd amendment is intended to empower the people to resist a tyrannical government. When Americans hear someone is taking away guns, what they should hear is that guns are just the first thing to be taken. History supports this. I’m sure the UK is great in many ways. I’m sure it was great in 1940 also.
Bill Hicks was a prophet, one of my heroes, and I would have liked to hear what he had to say about national and global affairs today. Even though he and I disagree on this subject entirely
There will never be another comedian like Bill… The closest we will ever get is Lewis Black.
Ever heard of Doug Stanhope? Lewis Black is great, but he is not really comparable to Hicks.
In 1994 there were 13 people dead each day from stabbing in England. Switzerland has many guns yet low crime rate. It’s the mentality. He might be funny but that doesn’t mean that he is right.
There were 632 homicides overall (by all methods) in the UK in 1994. Care to pull any other statistics out of your arse?
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-056.pdf
Sorry, can’t find the relevant article. Might have confused the number of alcohol related deaths, or the year. I remember those numbers were very similar but the number of MDMA related deaths were 2 for the whole year. So what do you say about this? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1036154/A-knife-attack-4-minutes-130-000-year–ministers-insist-crime-rates-falling.html
Since you’re incapable of reading, I’ll point you to the page: Page 11, at the link I referenced. You do realize that an “attack” is a very broad term, and an attack does not equal a homicide?
Again, where is the source (other than your arse) for the 130 homicides by knife per day?
In Switzerland the population is almost universally well-educated, and poverty is almost non-existent. I think you’re on to something there… well-educated, wealthy people generally don’t commit crimes involving firearms. We need to eradicate poverty and fund state-of-the-art education systems. The problem we have here is that the same people opposed to any regulation of gun distribution are the same ones opposed to any substantial efforts to reduce income inequality, poverty-reduction measures, and increased funding for education.
where did you get that from ? absolute crap. that would be 4732 per year which is 7 times the murder total here in the uk. i am very happy indeed that i have never even held a gun (i’m 57) and none of my neighbours have guns and when i go out nobody has guns. thats how we’re gonna keep it. also this week i had a serious ear infection. i called my doctor at 8am. was seen at 10am and given medication which i began at 11am. all i had to pay was the cost of the prescription, about 10 dollars. first class service all round and infection gone. this is how we live and we love it.
to be fair, England is a country of ethnocentric europeans, ALREADY subjugated by a powerless monarch and already used to being downtrodden. to compare their deaths in a country of 30 million to our deaths in a country of 500 million is just plain tricky math. to be fair, our percentages are still higher, but 75% of those numbers are from inner city blacks and minorities… another hot buttn liberals are scared as shit to touch…. so…. we go after guns instead.
Wrong. For 2009, Blacks represented 37.4% of murder offenders, and Whites, 33.5%. http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_03.html
Wrong. You clearly know nothing about England. There are large populations of people from South Asia and all the former colonies. There were race riots in the 80′s. You’re an idiot.
The last time the population in England was 30 million was 1901. The population is not subjugated by a monarchy, how could it be if the ,monarchy is powerless. There may be other factors but 14 versus 23000 is difficult to explain away. I believe Canada has a huge number of guns and a low gun crime rate. I don’t know what factors come into play there. Perhaps as a culture America is too immature to have such dangerous toys.
He’s my hero too
Bill is my hero.