Another dead hero

A voice of truth left us 16 years ago today.

Comedian and social critic Bill Hicks died Feb. 26, 1994, from pancreatic cancer. He was officially recognized by the British parliament 10 years after his death, and its members reminisced about his statement that “his words would be a bullet in the heart of consumerism, capitalism, and the American Dream ... one of the few ... unflinching, painfully honest political philosophers.”

Yet in the United States, to this day, he remains an obscure figure, despite the myriad of artists he influenced, from bands such as Built to Spill and Radiohead to critics such as David Cross, Doug Stanhope and George Carlin.

Denis Leary made a career out of stealing Hicks’ angry persona and none of the political and cultural insight or intelligence that made Hicks such a dynamic figure. As Hicks himself said about Leary, “I stole his act, camouflaged it with punch lines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did.”

More than a decade before George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the Iraq War, Hicks was a voice of adamant, ardent opposition to everything they represent. His words describing the First Gulf War are used now to describe our current war: “Iraq has terrible weapons, terrible weapons. How do you know? Well ... we looked at the receipt. But as soon as that check clears, we’re going in. What time’s the bank open? Eight? We’re going in at nine, for God and country; here’s a fetus, and he’s a Hitler ... whatever you, the docile, apathetic masses need to get behind.”    

Whereas now we have Bill Maher apologizing for offending people on a show called “Politically Incorrect” and Jon Stewart going on Fox News in some passive attempt to play friendly, Hicks refused to pretend to cater to the whims of the illogical, irrational right wing of the country. He recognized that the truth is often painful and that Rush Limbaugh and his brethren, like the Fox News “commentators,” are nothing more than hypocritical parasites and should be treated as such.

Hicks rejected the worship of the mediocre, safe aspects of our society. From hack “musicians” such as John Mayer, Lady Gaga and Ke$ha, who represent clean cut, safe America, to young earth creationists and the hypocritical, propagandist manner of the U.S. war on drugs, his was a voice against all that is vile and hypocritical about the American nature, instead seeking to make a better world.

It’s a sad fact that 16 years after his death, all he railed against is still so entrenched in our society. Rush Limbaugh is now the de facto head of the Republicans, we’ve seen Bush and “Gulf War 2.0,” consumerism and anti-intellectualism are more rampant than ever, and Reagan is now considered Ronaldus Magnus. Unfortunately, this perhaps reflects some of his most insightful words: “We always kill the guys that try to help us, always. And let the little demons run amok: John Lennon murdered, John Kennedy murdered, Martin Luther King murdered, Gandhi murdered, Jesus murdered ... Reagan ... wounded.”


E-mail: mrstraw@indiana.edu