Click to enlarge.
While this comic isn’t directed at anyone in particular, I find that the ability to use logic and reason seems increasingly to be a lost art. And it has given way to winning at any cost.
Here’s the thing: the world is growing increasingly complex, and we are facing some really dire problems (financial meltdown, climate crisis, dwindling resources, to name but a few); and we need to have some serious, thoughtful debate and discussion on how we are going to address these issues.
I don’t have all the answers—no one does. Which is why we need to talk through the problems in a reasonable, concentrated way—using facts, not emotions. But instead we seem to be yelling about things that have no relevance.
It was bad enough when TV and politicians eschewed meaningful and rational discussion; but now I see this same madness replicated in the way we talk to one another.
Democracy depends on free speech; but that speech has to be substantive.
3 comments
1 ping
Mark!
August 31, 2010 at 5:08 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
This is all WRONG! There, I don’t have to say anything else. What’s not to like? But Mr. Flag-wrapped looks more like he’s in a toga and I’d suggest more of a out of the swimming pool look. For some reason the ending looks off. It captures my eye more than the title and, when I first saw this, felt that it was. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that the comic art breaks down at that point. Perhaps it could have more of the full art quality of the rest of the panels.
Cej
September 1, 2010 at 9:54 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
You’re an asshole!
That’s the one the one I forgot: call your opponent a mean name.
I actually like the toga look, but I think you’re right that it is not the standard wrap-yourself-in-the-flag look. So it could be confusing.
As to the last panel, it probably does throw off the balance. That’s always tricky with any cartoon: how to balance everything so that the reader reads it correctly, but still have an impact. Tricky…
hardtravelinghero
October 27, 2010 at 6:33 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
You left out old people. The elderly, that is. They are sometimes used in the way children are used to “support” an argument, since us Americans like to think they are all feeble and incapable of taking care of themselves. Then there is that saying that life is about coming full circle, that is starting on all fours, walking on two legs, and then on three (two legs and a cane). I guess walkers hadn’t been invented when the saying came out, so is that six legs in the end? Just like bugs. Never mind. I didn’t realize I’d end up arguing old people are like insects.
Drawing Board: How to Win Any Argument | ArmzRace Blog
August 26, 2010 at 12:19 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
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