George Carlin - It's A BIG Club & You Ain't In It!
Why Hacker News recommends it
Quoted whenever threads touch on elites, exclusivity and education, with 'it's a big club' as shorthand.
What it is
A clip from George Carlin's 2005 special Life Is Worth Losing, in which he argues that the powerful don't want an educated public capable of critical thinking.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2023 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec Ozzie_osman · 2024-04 · on “George Carlin estate forces "AI Carlin" off the Internet for good”
One of my favorite clips ever is [this video] It's a big club and you ain't in it! Thoughtful, funny, masterfully delivered.
Cites zoogeny · 2024-08 · on “Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master: The Medieval Guild (2018)”
It is important to note, especially given the positive view given to the guild system in this article, that it is written on a masonic philosophy page. The freemasons have a long and esoteric history that should be viewed with some skepticism. Secret fraternal orders have a sketchy history. George Carlin has a famous comedy bit where he states "It's a big club and you ain't in it" [1]. My own feeling is that guilds of all sorts prioritize exclusivity for the purposes of bestowing power on some select few. As the article states "Master’s were few and far between". This is similar to how luxury brands maintain their high value: exclusivity. The standardization and guarantees of quality seem to
Cites mindcrash · 2025-10 · on “Carefully Educated to Be Idiots”
George Carlin said it best way back in 2005: "[...]THEY’VE GOT YOU BY THE BALLS! They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interest. That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them
Cites jmyeet · 2026-03 · on “Elite Overproduction”
There's a double-whammy here of the Myth of Meritocracy under capitalism and Prosperity Gospel under Protestantism. After the Civil War we compensated slave owners . After the GFC we bailed out the banks. The government giving money to poor people is somehow a moral hazard yet the wealthy not only expect government handouts, they demand them. What's interesting AI is I think many people in tech don't yet realize how this is going to impact them. Jobs losses, depressed wages, unpaid extra work and constant layoff churn. The heady heights of the 2010s will seem like a fairy tale. Except this time, unlike a century ago, there is no labor movement. It's been decimated. There is no effective push
Cites jmyeet · 2026-05 · on “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education (2008)”
I'm reminded of the prescient 2005 commentary of George Carlin: "it's a big club and you ain't in it" [1]. Hollywood, in particular, is almost completely nepo baby captured. This is an oft-repeated trend where an industry goes into decline and the children of those who originally succeeded end up dominating it. I think there's a lot of this in politics too, particularly because government jobs (including staffers on campaigns and for representatives) don't pay a lot so you really have to come from an affluent background to afford to live. It used to be that if you wanted to be a cast member on SNL you had to go to Harvard because of the Harvard Lampoon. I've seen this issue with the doctor p