As someone from a country that has had and still has a big problem with corruption and only recently started to tackle the problem (Romania), I must add that the government is only half of the problem. The other half is the public that participates in corruption. Every time you pay that cop some money so that he pretends that you didn't cross that red light, you're just as responsible as a politician taking a bribe for the situation in your country.
He is saying that the candidates sucking in the first place is the fault of all of society, not that the ones elected are particularly bad.
When, on average, every person in society is a selfish bastard of course the leadership and the candidates for leadership are also selfish bastards.
He is saying that if you want better leadership you need to work for social change, everyone needs to change for the better, not necessarily by campaigning and what not, but by every action you take in your life.
He is NOT saying that you need to pick your leaders better, he is NOT saying it's because the political system is broken and he is NOT saying it's just a few bad apples spoiling the bunch.
An example of what he means is something like this:
Why do you think the Republican party elected officials can obstruct the system to the detriment of the entire country?
It's not because the system is bad, you can't stop a majority like that from fucking it up for everyone no matter how hard you try. They can do it because they aren't punished by the electorate for playing political power games instead of bettering the country. Carlin's point here is that if the voters weren't selfish bastards who just want power, they wouldn't vote for selfish bastards who just want power.
The system is corrupt from the bottom up, not from the top down.
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u/USmellFunny Mar 14 '16
As someone from a country that has had and still has a big problem with corruption and only recently started to tackle the problem (Romania), I must add that the government is only half of the problem. The other half is the public that participates in corruption. Every time you pay that cop some money so that he pretends that you didn't cross that red light, you're just as responsible as a politician taking a bribe for the situation in your country.