Candorville: 5/2/2008- No Opinion | Buy Reprint Rights | License Candorville | Get Candorville In Your Paper | Buy Candorville BOOKS
May 2nd, 2008
Candorville: 5/2/2008- No Opinion
Discussion (12)¬
…or via Paypal
COLLECT CANDORVILLE BOOKS
COLLECT POLITICAL CARTOON BOOKS by DARRIN BELL
COLLECT RUDY PARK BOOKS by DARRIN BELL
When I read the posts on some of the other websites where people post their opinion about the presidentia race, they do often express the “what’s the use” attitude. I wish they could read this comic so they could see themselves.
Thanks, Chris.
I don’t always go for a laugh with Candorville; often, I go for insight, even if it’s insight into something depressing.
This particular cartoon was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend of mine. After explaining why I thought a certain presidential candidate would be good for the country, she basically told me it doesn’t matter. We could elect Ghandi or we could elect Attila the Hun, and it wouldn’t make any difference, because as far as she saw it, anyone who assumes the reigns of power is going to end up perpetuating the current political system. And the system, as she sees it, exists solely to enrich the few at the expense of the many. It may have some strains of altruism, but it’s all still serfdom, fundamentally.
She made great points and I agreed with many of them. But I also noticed that, while we both thought she had touched on some sort of truth in her arguments, and I thought I’d touched on some in my rebuttals, neither of us had smiled for maybe a half-hour, except in incredulity at what the other was saying. It was bleak. Bleak as hell.
But it was also honest, and it made me think.
It made me think about all the apathetic people I grew up around, all the apathetic people I was educated with, and all the apathetic people who don’t bother to vote. It made me think about people who can still be undecided two days before an election, even though they’ve had months, or even years, to form an opinion. Most Americans fall into those categories, and as skeptical as I am about people, I refuse to believe that most Americans are stupid. Their apathy must be motivated by something profound.
The most common reason people give for not having an opinion is “it doesn’t matter.” I think whether they’re undeducated or whether they’re about to get a PhD, like my friend, people who believe “it doesn’t matter” are, on some level, looking at the grand sweep of human history. They’re looking at a history filled with tragic stories about slavery everywhere from 19th Century America to biblical Egypt. They’re looking at a history marked by war; we learn about the Revolutionary War in first grade, and every history lesson following that somehow involves yet another war. They’re looking at homeless people lying in the shadows of gleaming skyscrapers, and they conclude that no amount of economic progress has eliminated poverty.
And it reminded me of something I wondered back when I first created C-Dog: Maybe the apathetic among us aren’t stupid or lazy. Maybe they’re philosophers.
Still, as Lemont said, they’re about as uplifting as gravity.
I try to make people laugh and think at the same time. I think there’s humor in the tragic aspect of the human condition. There has to be. We have to laugh at ourselves, or we’ll either grow cynical or take up denial as a profession. But I know that not everyone is open to laughing at tragedy. I laughed when I saw Fargo and Pulp Fiction, but a friend of mine couldn’t take either one. So I go for insight, and figure if some people – or even a lot of people – aren’t laughing at it, at the very least it’ll give them something to think about.
(smile) PeaceZGood, thank you for your opinion. Kindly put and yes I was a little defensive when I first read the article. Things that portray the truth does hurt a lot more than a little. I shared the clipping with about ten of my Military Buddies who read the Stars N Stripes and there OPINION didn’t differ from mine so I decided to not just boil in my own anger but ask WHY to the source himself to get a better understanding of his thought process. My opinion is, As we continue to hurt our Culture with the negative truth, when will we ever focus on the positive ones? Anyway Peace, thanks alot for a better understanding inside Mr. Bell’s world while he is too busy explaining his good-looks lol. Mr. Bell thank you for shedding light to things we need to fix, you have reached me and hopefully I can reach others with this one article, thanks.
Well, I would l write a blog post telling people why I’m funny, but at the moment I’m too busy writing a post explaining why I’m so good-looking.
😐
And no offense, Mr Bell, but WHY don’t you explain humor? Why not just write a general blog explaining your tongue in cheek type of humor and explaining the positive reasons for sarcasm?
Hi, Chris. A little defensive are you? Anyway, what it is is what it is. Some Black, and also some Southern white people, talk like that. The humor in this is tongue in cheek as are most of the Candorville strips I have read. I’m starting to understand Clyde’s character, too. I think the point is that Clyde is not all bad, and that he has some depth to his thinking, and we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, I thing it’s the opposite of portraying the “ignorance and level of knowledge in blacks”. The opposite. Just my opinion. Hahahaha. 🙂
I don’t explain humor. People either get it or they don’t. But no, it has nothing to do with race. When you see two white characters talking in a comic strip, do you assume it has anything to do with race? I don’t know, maybe you do. But if not, why assume it’s racial commentary just because the two characters are black?
UHH, I didn’t see the humor it at all. Is there something I am suppose to see here, of course I got the broken English. Sorry, I just don’t see the humor in this one. Portraying the ignorance and level of knowledge in blacks’ maybe?
Love the windows. Wow.
Great art and dialogue. 🙁 for my reflection on life.
I LOVE the windows, architecture, depth, rooftops, and shading. After being on the ABC website and reading the posts, this cartoon seems like an understatement of reality. Not just exposing reality. So sad is lfe sometimes, huh? 🙁