Oh Lil K, you rascal! Where did he even get that top hat?
Lil K’s situation in this strip is one I have found myself in pretty often when conversing with other human beings. No, it’s not the fancy dinner party, it’s the issue of what, exactly, I am allowed to talk about. Nowadays, I’m not as concerned about offending people as I used to be, but it’s still something that nags at me from the back of my mind.
I feel like we live in a society that focuses heavily on the idea of contention and polarization. Republican vs Democrat, religious vs non religious, religion vs other religion, Godzilla vs Mothra and so on and so forth. The media, and our society in general, jams the idea down our throats that there are but two sides to every issue and that those issues are meant to be fought over, vehemently. When it comes time to have conversations and discourse with other human beings, however, contention is considered impolite and maybe even a little dangerous. It’s a strange dichotomy.
It often seems that we are only supposed to discuss our beliefs with like-minded individuals so that our long held preconceptions are not challenged and remolded, but rather reinforced and shoved into a narrower and narrower perspective. Where we should be able to discuss our ideas intelligently and openly, admitting flaws in our arguments as they are shown to us, we instead choose to look at only the particular facets of any given issue that strengthen those preconceptions.
By seeking only information and individuals that regurgitate the same ideas and opinions that we hold ourselves and by acting with aggression toward those that believe differently than us, we are doing a disservice to our societies and to our own minds. By seeing how others see, we get a glimpse of something we wouldn’t have come to on our own. One of my favorite personal reminders is “You can’t know what you don’t know.” It often takes a little prodding from something outside your own internal world to offer you a greater perspective on an issue or on life in general. Knowledge and insight don’t spring forth from a vacuum.
This simple concept is what has given rise to this website. I love drawing silly comics and reading about mythology but I also have this desire to offer something back to people. I could just try to be funny and make people laugh, but it doesn’t feel like enough, in my mind. By providing context for jokes and a little knowledge on life as I see it and as ancient people saw it, it’s my goal to help people think more critically about their lives and the lives of others. By showing you that there are deep connections between us, not just incredible differences, I’ve hoped to bring people together. That may be a bit much for a simple cartoonist to do, but hey, it’s my dream.
It’s important to remember that changing our views or even just recognizing the views of others as being valuable in some way isn’t turning you into a completely different person. You are who you are and the things you value today will change tomorrow. Such is life.
If you can just manage to keep learning, you will keep growing. If you can have difficult conversations with others and examine your beliefs without taking things personally, you will be a better person for it.
Or you can avoid the difficult topics and talk about genitalia at fancy dinner parties.
That is always an option!
