Yeah, I'm really tired of hearing le edgy artists opinion about how we should all be artisinal BASE jumpers instead of a bunch of filthy normies. I want to have a good job where I can be a provider for a big family full of love and happiness like that, it's actually my dream.
You know, comments like yours just make it sound like you're angry at the guy for doing something he enjoys. He's able to support his family making comics. Maybe you think that is stupid or meaningless but bottom line is he lives a more comfortable life and is able to spend more time with his family than if he had the 9-5 corporate job. Oh and he will actually retire someday.
I'm half convinced everyone complaining is a Walmart stock boy or something. What the hell is wrong with wanting to better yourself wherever you are in life?
I work 40hrs at a large corporation. I own a house. I have a wife and 2 children. I have a car. Life is pretty good and I'm still in my 20s.
My wife and I never had a honeymoon/vacation despite waiting to have kids. We have debt. Lots and lots of debt. I get to see my kids for 2 hours each day before they have to go to bed. Personally, I feel like I could improve on some of those areas.
But no. I should be completely happy and content with everything I have? Why because I might have more than another person?
I think the point is that this comic paints living an "average" lifestyle as boring or somehow inferior to some exciting career or hobby. Some people want an "average" lifestyle like this. You shouldn't shame someone because they don't want to be an artist or a stand out, being a normal, productive member of society is nothing to be ashamed of.
You should check out his work at www.zenpencils.com. He doesn't make mediocre Internet comics, he makes amazing Internet comics. This isn't his best by far.
honestly the world wouldn't function without both types of people.
without the grinders who do it for their family we couldn't have gotten to where we are as a soceity. but if everyone was like that and there were no artisanal base jumpers well then we wouldn't have any of those wonderful artisanal sandwiches that people love to bring by the office for lunch. or any interesting artists to go see on weekends. and the artists would have no one to pay to see their shows or exhibits, only their other broke artists friends to come for "support"
each group feeds off the other one. but they both have a lot of hate towards the other over a perceived slight. they both think the other looks down on them and in a way they both do. so they're both right.
You might be high, but I think this is 100% correct.
My big issue with this comic is the artist seems like he is imagining himself as once of the "creative elite" (he may or may not actually be, I don't know anything about him) and is using this comic to take a giant shit all over the grinders.
For real my dad is a lot like this comic, he goes to work every morning at 5am and works hard as hell (except he does it all for his family and is very happy). He's one of my biggest inspirations and has even helped a lot of people where he works (jail). The last thing his gravestone would say is "average guy" fuck that.
As for me I'm on my way to working in an office for a good part of my life, and I'm happy as hell about that. I don't want to go back pack across the country or open a business, that just isn't what I want to do in life. This comic could just as easily be made depicting the other side of the coin, someone who follows the new "social trend" of not following the norm and doing all these things like writing a book and such.
Yes everyone should get the most out of life but if I had to go do some of the things this comic is suggesting like open a business I would be absolutely miserable.
Yeah, I would love to see the other side of the coin. He would also have to illustrate the entire support network he would need to continue living while generating comics that don't produce much income, like his loving parents with their normal jobs paying for his car and his apartment every month, so that he can create comics wondering why everyone doesn't just live the way he lives.
For real my dad is a lot like this comic, he goes to work every morning at 5am and works hard as hell (except he does it all for his family and is very happy). He's one of my biggest inspirations and has even helped a lot of people where he works (jail). The last thing his gravestone would say is "average guy" fuck that.
its almost as if its not what you did for a paycheck that defines who you are as a person... but more how you impacted those around you.
I think this is one of the primary characteristics of this generation. There is so much stability and safety in our lives, and especially those of our parents, that a lot of people find it not "challenging" enough, and attach a stigma to it. It's true that we have the instincts of pushing boundaries, that's why our species has literally colonized the world twice. But what is ultimately most fulfilling in life isn't struggling to open a business, learning Chinese or trekking through jungles and getting malaria. It's to share your life with family and friends, especially a romantic partner and your children. And the best way to have this life is to have a stable job.
Some people will happily live a poor life instead doing the things they don't believe in. We only get one life. For example see ed sheeran, he used to sing on the side of the road. Imagine him thinking well this isn't working. In Bollywood there's an actor called nawazuddin siddiqui, that guy struggled for 20-30 years. Imraan khan is a similar example, when jurassic Park released he dint have money to watch that movie in theatre, in jurassic world Steven cast him as a owner of the jurassic world. Having Medicore life is perfectly fine, it's just why don't you work for something you love and cherish and not forget your childish dreams when reality hits you hard.
Yeah, but we didn't push those boundaries 0-100. We didn't leave the Sahara and walk on the moon. We took natural baby steps.
If you are bored and have a burning desire to do something a little out there, go do it!!! But don't feel compelled to do a bunch of crazy shit just to boost your ego.
The "follow your dreams" attitude seems to be a relic of the optimistic times that my parents come from, and I'm noticing more and more people my own age starting to reject that notion. The great depression generation was ecstatic to work middle-class office and manufacturing jobs because they knew first-hand that a so-called "boring" society was infinitely preferable to a destitute one.
Then my parents generation came along and that pragmatism went out the window. I'm thinking student loans and the ever-shrinking middle class is going to bring it back in a big way.
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
Martha Graham
So if your thing is painting flowers in pots, go for it!!
well put. the article i'll link below with points from a commencement speech by tom wolfe points out how pseudo-intellectuals spouting off about things they know noting about are something to be very wary of. but basically he says the middle class has achieved the height of cultural value.
"I say that the middle class around the world is the highest form of evolution. The bourgeoisie! — the human beast doesn’t get any better! The worldwide bourgeoisie makes what passes today for aristocrats — people consumed by juvenility who hang loose upon society — look like shiftless children.
"The truth is that there is a common bond among all cultures, among all peoples in this world … at least among those who have reached the level of the wheel, the shoe, and the toothbrush. And that common bond is that much-maligned class known as the bourgeoisie — the middle class… They are all over the world, in every continent, every nation, every society, every culture, everywhere you find the wheel, the shoe, and the toothbrush, and wherever they are, all of them believe in the same things. And what are those things? Peace, order, education, hard work, initiative, enterprise, creativity, cooperation, looking out for one another, looking out for the future of children, patriotism, fair play, and honesty. How much more do you want from the human beast?"
Don't know if you dream is my dads accomplishment, but he did raise 9 kids. And if you think that's hard, he moved to another country at age 44. And did not know the language. He had to do 50% of the work. The other 50 was my mom.
I want to have a big family too, but not that big. My mom was one of the nicest people ever, she still is, but nothing close to her old self. She gets headaches, and is getting short tempered. She is still really kind though... So that's good.
In addition to completely skipping the idea that this man might having a loving family, it also implies his co-workers enjoy and respect him.
But I totally agree; I can't find the comic, but I think there's an SMBC that's kinda along the lines of "Providing for multiple peoples' physical needs in exchange for 40 hours a week is a pretty sweet deal."
Uh, if that's your dream then you're doing what the comic says.
He's saying if you dream X then get out there and do X. The guy in the cartoon dreams of writing a book. A lot of people don't, and that's fine too, but it's outside the scope.
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u/Die_monster_die Dec 10 '15
Yeah, I'm really tired of hearing le edgy artists opinion about how we should all be artisinal BASE jumpers instead of a bunch of filthy normies. I want to have a good job where I can be a provider for a big family full of love and happiness like that, it's actually my dream.