The Boondocks by Aaron McGruder for July 14, 2010

The twenty-first century version of “Tune in, turn on, and drop out”!

Coincidentally I was recently informed of this ACTA issue.

Riley, living off the Grid? Impossible, Remember that in keeping with his image he has to accept “nigga technology” (no I’m not racist, this is what Mac called it in one of his episodes).

There are hundreds of companies buying and selling information. The government will never integrate them all. Good old capitalism defending our privacy from government hands. Now the Martians on the other hand—–

and who defends our privacy from the capitalists?

Information overload protects us all. And believe me, I know how liberating ignorance is - by watching all the libtards living in their fantasy worlds! High comedy indeed.

Avon said, 1 day ago

“I think most Boondocks lovers do realize that the strip cuts across all kinds of cultural lines (ideology, education, ethnicity, and more). I love that.

Singling out rumplesnitz’ comment yesterday wasn’t too nice. But that comment (saying that the world’s richest and freest society doesn’t “deserve” to be hassled by the annoyances of preserving its privilege against the most offended of the others) is something totally different. That “issue” has little or nothing to do with Boondocks, or with conservative types, or even with politics. I’d say it’s an individual moral judgment call.”

Don’t worry, I’m not gonna take up a regular stand here each day for ad-nauseum political commentary - just wanted to clear up one little point and I’ll tippy-toe on outta here for a spell - A. I think this comic strip is great. B. I didn’t say this country shouldn’t be bothered with the details of its own survival. Quite the opposite, I said that when we quit accepting reality, we no longer deserve to survive; that reality being that this mess with Islamic Jihadists is not “Bush’s War”, and Dick Cheney is not Darth Vader. If we want to have this standard of living, we must each accept the individual blood-guiltiness that comes with this standard of living, realize this standard of living comes not from crushing the life out of under-developed regions but from the majority of our population choosing to live responsible lives, and taking up the burden of protecting this way of life even if it means we must crush the life out of some poor misled people. When we refuse responsibility, we lose the privileges that come with it. And when enough people insist on hiding their heads in the sand and blame others for cutting out the piece of pie which they themselves just ate, this country will fall. We gave peace a chance - and it got crammed right up out sweet patooties on 9/11/2001.

I hear that. I just disagree with the conclusions drawn from the facts. For example, we’ve also given war a chance or two in the modern era, and that wasn’t too great either. And, for example, I don’t agree that we can have our standard of living by simply choosing to live “responsible lives”, without creating deep poverty and environmental destruction worldwide … the consumption and depletion numbers just don’t anywhere near add up. But as long as people are at least thinking about it, I’m hopeful.

Well, that’s the rub in all methods and systems of mankind - the idealists on all fronts are led by either the foolish, the insane, or the greedheads. Very little noble altruism at the top. So ya pick yer band and ya dance to the music ‘til the sour notes drive ya away or ya find a better band.

Or you can just dance to the music that’s in your head. In my head, the war thing has worked out better than the alternative in a few cases. Let’s take WWII for example. How many more people might now be dead, had the Germans and Japanese been successful in their visions of how the world should look? How about the American Civil War for another. While folks may quibble about whether it was for states’ rights or about slavery, it did wind up ending slavery in what was to become the most powerful nation in the world. Of course, in both of those cases, the victors fought until they attained the victory. They didn’t conspire with the enemy to bring “peace with honor” as a means of ending the conflicts. I’m not by any means advocating war as a panacea for what ails the world. It’s just that sometimes, just sometimes, war is the answer.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think those facts add up either.

Ending slavery and defeating fascism have both been accomplished at far less cost (money, lives and emotional fallout) in most other cases. We’re still paying the interest on WWII, and additional human complications of the Civil War keep cropping up.

I’m actually glad India and Pakistan didn’t declare a Revolutionary War as lengthy and draining as our own, and that South Africa got from 1980 to 2000 without a civil war and “reconstruction.” In both cases, the paths taken required sacrifices and heroics that I think hold their own compared to war stories.