Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 05, 2010

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    MisngNOLA  over 13 years ago

    Sorry, but I see Toggle’s prospects as being pretty good. He’s going to college or at least has been going in previous strips, and his love of music and his skill at working sound boards can keep him gainfully employed, making decent money, and even better money if he should happen to hook up with an up and coming band who likes his mixes for them. This is the problem with Trudeau and his ilk. They think if you don’t go to an Ivy League school, there’s no possible way you could be intelligent, or support yourself, so it’s no wonder they see the government as the answer to everything. Ask the farmers who feed the world what college they went to. Ask the truckers who move almost everything where they went to college. This is the “elitism” that many conservatives and libertarians despise in a neat four panel comic strip.

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    RussellNash  over 13 years ago

    ^That’s what Trudeau’s character is saying. You somehow forgot that Trudeau created Toggle in the first place and knows what he’s capable of far better than you do.

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    Nebulous Premium Member over 13 years ago

    @MisngNOLA: 2 points. First, lots of people in relationships have those sorts of feelings. Second, Don’t assume that the views of any particular character are the views of the author. Remember that the Successful characters in this strip went to Walden, the University with educational standards slightly below your local Community College.

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    jpharris  over 13 years ago

    Maybe MisngNOLA isn’t a long-time Doonesbury reader, and doesn’t understand what Trudeau is laying out. But I’m happy to give you the benefit of the doubt far better than you give others.

    Elitism is not a dirty word. It implies the highest quality, which is what I want for my children, and from my leaders. Truck drivers and farmers are necessary to our society, but what’s wrong with them being educated? It would be to America’s benefit if more Americans knew what the branches of government are, or who sits on the Supreme Court instead of Lindsay Lohan’s details.

    Don’t resent Ivy League education because you don’t have one. Your public library is full of resources to expand your outlook.

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    Coyoty Premium Member over 13 years ago

    One dastardly political tactic is to paint virtues as sins. Those painters who can’t or don’t want to live up to the virtues can then feel like they don’t look so bad next to the examples they’ve knocked down.

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    GrimmaTheNome  over 13 years ago

    Toggle is a million miles from Zeke (as GT knows).

    Hope that comparison of Alex with her mom doesn’t put the dampners on her.

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    lewisbower  over 13 years ago

    Yes, I want educated people to keep us from repeating the folly of the past. I also want people who know which end of a screwdriver to hold. One son may be a statesmen, one an electrician, and my daughter may inspire others with her art. Are not all 3 needed in civilization?

    GT has annoyed me for many a decade. This is good. He makes me think, sometimes in ways I’m not used to. Rarely we agree but we do enough for me to see he may be right on something we disagree on. I call him names, I put labels on him, I use language in my mind I would not use aloud. And then I ask, “What if he’s right?”.

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    Sandfan  over 13 years ago

    “I’m retired now. I don’t do anything. And I don’t start doing that until noon.”

    Bum Phillips - Houston Oilers

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    nickmangieri Premium Member over 13 years ago

    I think one of the reasons people are so down on college is the ridiculous amount it costs. You could by your child a house for the cost of an ivy league education these days. Will you be able to get a job and pay off those loans?

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    cdward  over 13 years ago

    MisngNOLA, others have said it well: education is of great value, both to the individual and society. MIT, by the way, is not an Ivy League school. It is a technical institute that teaches some of the brightest minds in the world. My sister went there and comes from a middle class, factory-working father.

    I agree with Lewreader (who wrote a very fine comment above - thanks!). I honor and respect all people who work to make the world a better place whether it be a trash hauler or a chemist. And it does us all good to respectfully read the works of and listen to those we disagree with.

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    cdward  over 13 years ago

    As to Alex, she’s just insecure and wants someone to tell her she’s on the right track. Grandma, I suspect, knows this but isn’t going to let her off the hook so easily. By comparing Alix and Leo with her mom and Zeke, she’s forcing Alix to recognize for herself how radically different they are – and therefore how really good Leo is for her.

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    alan.gurka  over 13 years ago

    After Zeke retires, he can help flagging these spammers!

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    Prey  over 13 years ago

    Analyse, analyse, analyse, this is a COMIC strip. You know, supposed to make you laugh.

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    MRMcDermott  over 13 years ago

    Many of those farmers who feed the world went to elite colleges like Iowa State or texas A&M, where, among other things, they learn the Business of farming. Many of these “elitist” colleges also run the state’s Extension program, which puts offices in every county to disseminate the fruits of their research, and to help teach the basics of agriculture to kids. You know it better as 4-H.

    There are more truck drivers with degrees than you know.

    How many people has Liberty University fed today?

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    traceling  over 13 years ago

    It’s just a story line. Long time readers will remember that J.J. had Alex with Michael Doonesbury. An unlikely and very short-lived affair (were they even married?). And that Joanie herself left her family to join the hippie commune at Waldon in the early days of the strip. So it’s not surprising that Trudeau chose to match up Alex with someone outside her comfort zone. Plus Toggle is in keeping with Trudeau’s long-standing commitment to having characters in his strip who are intrinsically tied to the current events of the day. Few strips have even tried to employ as many characters as Trudeau. Check it out: http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/thecast/

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    cdhaley  over 13 years ago

    @Pprey

    It’s a comic strip, but Doonesbury’s readers aren’t just looking for mindless yucks. They don’t need to analyze, but they do reflect on the world around them. The average, unreflecting truck driver or banker or salesman is made uncomfortable by their (or Trudeau’s) reflection and damns it as elitist: “Who does he think he is, trying to look at life through a mirror instead of accepting it unquestioningly like the rest of us?”

    These “gainfully employed” doers despise anyone who claims the leisure to think. Their resentment shows their own fear of being alone with their thoughts, just as their insensitivity to irony bars them from true self-knowledge.

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    MisngNOLA  over 13 years ago

    For those who think I’m ignorant because I talk about higher education and elitism, just so you know, I was accepted to both MIT and CalTech, but didn’t have the resources to attend either. I’m not against higher education. I’m against assuming that one type of education is more valuable than another when either is utile in the situation for which it is attained. I’ve been a nuclear engineer in the Navy, a firefighter/EMS first responder, am currently a network manager, so I am eminently educable and more open-minded than most. I just see things from a different perspective than some others. I gave an explanation which many of my “progressive” co-posters have asked about in this and other forums (or fora if you prefer the Latin plural) and most of you didn’t understand that. I know also that many truckers and farmers have college educations, I am an alumnus of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College system, my point was that most in those two groups are not Ivy League alums. If you’ll notice, I asked what colleges you thought they attended, not whether you thought they attended college. I’ll also note for you that hundreds or perhaps even thousands of “non-elite” universities and college provide research on many of the most compelling issues including medicine and diseases, energy and ecological issues, food and farming and more.

    All that said, I guess my original point was that Toggle is not anything like Zeke and yet both Alex and her gram, seem to make the comparison simply because of Toggle’s environment. Can anyone truly disagree with that conclusion?

    Edit for additional comment:

    Going back and looking at my original post, I’ll also note for you that when I used the word elitism, I put it in quotes. In addition the last sentence in the post which is the only place where I use that word, so it was clear in my mind that I was using it and explaining it for those who simply don’t understand what people who use the term mean by it. If my syntax and sentence structure was incorrect or if that thought was indecipherable, I’m sorry, but that’s the only way I could think of to put it.

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    Dragoncat  over 13 years ago

    Toggle and Zeke are definitely NOT cut from the same cloth.

    The only reason Toggle lives in a trailer park is because his mom lost the house. Aside from that, he’s employed and going to Walden - which, last time I checked is a college…I think! And did I forget to mention that Alex’s dad and stepmom LIKE him?

    Zeke, on the other hand, is freeloading off of Alex’s mom. And now he’s saying he wants to retire from doing odd jobs. I’m not an expert on economics, but I’m betting odd jobs DO NOT OFFER 401K’s. Prudential couldn’t help him retire.

    Needless to say, Alex is worrying over nothing. This is just an excuse for GT to show us how J.J. and Zeke (a.k.a. Stupidhead) are doing.

    We haven’t heard from them in quite a while…which suits me rather nicely.

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    Nemesys  over 13 years ago

    Elitism is the left’s equivalent of financial greed. Having a bundle of elite education as a goal is as meaningless as having a bundle of money - the crux of the biscuit is what one does with it.

    It could be argued that many of the country’s financial woes are due in part to the Wall Street business people whose misuse of money brought Wall Street (and subsequently Main Street) to its knees. But at the same time, there’s a good case to be made that nobody could have then compounded and screwed up a bad situation even more than our highly educated “elite” who then took over. Both sides look down their noses while helping themselves to the resources provided through the work of those “clinging to their guns and religion,”

    At this point, I’m not impressed with either side when it comes to actual results, nor are the farmers, truck drivers, and other folk who do the real work of this country. Is it any surprise that these are the folks who comprise most of the Tea Party?

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    Alabama Al  over 13 years ago

    ^ Nemesys, Communist activists made fairly much the same points.

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    Nemesys  over 13 years ago

    @ Al, so did Ayn Rand, minus the religious references.

    At the grass roots level, it all looks pretty much the same. When you’re being stomped on, it’s academic (sic) whether or not the feet that are kicking you are wearing Nike’s or Reebok’s. Methinks many people are feeling footprints from both on their heads right about now.

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    peter0423  over 13 years ago

    My dad once said it best: “You send a dope to college, you get an educated dope.”

    The opposite is also true: a sensible, honest, hard-working person who never gets to go to college is still a sensible, honest, hard-working person. (Like my dad.)

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    rmbdot  over 13 years ago

    “Long time readers will remember that J.J. had Alex with Michael Doonesbury. An unlikely and very short-lived affair (were they even married?). ”

    They were indeed married. If I recall… from sometime in the early/mid1980s (whenever it was that GT had the gang graduate Walden) to maybe the early 90s. …at least from the middle of the Reagan years through the first Gulf War.

    They lived for a while at Walden. Mike worked in advertising in NYC (one account his agency had was “selling Reagan to black voters”). They bought a crummy loft in some lousy section of the city. JJ was doing her bizarre performance art. Alex was born. Zonk came on as nanny…

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    alan.gurka  over 13 years ago

    Do all these long winded posters really expect anyone to read their rambling diatribes?

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    peter0423  over 13 years ago

    Of course, algurka. We all know that the earth would spin out of its orbit and fall into the sun if we kept silent and allowed someone else to remain ignorant on the Internet. :)

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    antburman  over 13 years ago

    These are repeats. That’s really irritating. Good as before…but flipping annoying.

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    diggitt  over 13 years ago

    I thought this seemed familiar!

    Joanie is heavily into irony here. She often is when it comes to JJ. We and Joanie know that Alex has never found a grain of sympathy coming from her mom and the even if Joanie “withdraws” her comment, she will get Alex thinking.

    As an example, remember when Alex announced to her mom that she was planning on going to MIT. JJ hoped that she would go somewhere “fun” where she could party all the time. She asked Alex – in this totally deadheaded way JJ has of dealing with her daughter – how could Alex be sure that engineering wasn’t just a passing fancy? Alex answers something like “Mom, I hold five patents.”

    In terms of Alex’s “elitism” in her worries about Toggle’s background, don’t forget that Toggle’s mother is constantly shown tearing her down, criticizing her, and trying to get Toggle to give up his ambitions. NOLA, if you picked up the strip at that point, would you realize that GT is roasting her too, just the way he is roasting Alex, or would you put a totally different spin on it? I think he’s reminding us how complicated people are, and that we all run into people very different from us – if only we stop to notice it.

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    ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago

    Gram’s saying to go ahead & dump the nice guy, go find yourself an Uncle StupidHead, be like your mother.

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    Alabama Al  over 13 years ago

    One thing I wonder about: I realize JJ’s judgment is somewhat suspect, but, really, is Zeke that good in the sack?

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    dfowensby  over 13 years ago

    hey. zeke is cool. mondo cool. iĺl bet heś got the nudge to make her moan and knows it.

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    summerdog86  over 13 years ago

    The spam’s a repeat, too.

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    W6BXQ, John  over 13 years ago

    plus4,

    Funny, the only date I can find is “10-5”, today’s date lower left of panel 1. Of course no year. If there is another date please tell me where to look.

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    RinaFarina  over 13 years ago

    @msgnola; you might be making a very common mistake, and that’s assuming that an opinion expressed by one of the (sympathetic) characters is actually the opinion of the cartoonist himself. Basically, it’s Alex who says Leo hasn’t gone to college, has limited prospects, and therefore isn’t good for her. There’s a lot of assumptions in there, and the logic is faulty as well.

    The way I see it is: Leo is a person you can respect - he just behaves well. Whereas Zeke isn’t. And I have no idea whether he went to college. And I don’t think GT ever once portrayed Zeke as behaving well.

    So - do you really think it’s a good parallel, Alex and Leo vs JJ and Zeke?

    In short - I think your conclusion that _GT_ thinks people who didn’t go to college are inferior could very well be mistaken.

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    RinaFarina  over 13 years ago

    @msngnola, from what I know of caltech, they try not to let money (or lack of it) prevent an otherwise qualified student from coming. So you surprise me when you say that you couldn’t go. They have scholarships, assistantships, etc.s (but especially etc.s!) available to help people out.

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    RinaFarina  over 13 years ago

    incidentally, i see that i have repeated many of the things other people said. so i’m glad that my ideas aren’t original. i would hate to think that only i thought that GT himself wasn’t being elitist.

    but he has several times shown alex as lacking in self-confidence. so it could indeed just be her need for reassurance.

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    RinaFarina  over 13 years ago

    and oh yes, caltech is also not a college nor a university, but an Institute of Technology - just like MIT…

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    DavyG  over 13 years ago

    MIT not a university? You’re joking, right? Spend a little time looking at their course catalogs and degrees offered (link below), then come back and explain why it’s not one. They teach a bit more there than just f=ma and e=ir. You can’t even get a BS in chemical engineering there without a broad education in humanities and social sciences, and most likely a foreign language, in addition to all of the technical classes. Find someone wearing a “Brass Rat” ring (actually a beaver) and try to explain to them that they didn’t go to a university.

    http://web.mit.edu/education/

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    Coyoty Premium Member over 13 years ago

    SCAATY_423 said,

    My dad once said it best: “You send a dope to college, you get an educated dope.”

    The opposite is also true: a sensible, honest, hard-working person who never gets to go to college is still a sensible, honest, hard-working person. (Like my dad.)

    And a sensible, honest, hard-working person who gets to go to college is destined for great things. He’s not a dope because he goes to college, nor does he deserve to be torn down for having the opportunity. Condemning someone for going to college and getting a good education smacks of sour grapes.

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    Possum Pete  over 13 years ago

    Truckers are retards.

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    MisngNOLA  over 13 years ago

    Algurka, apparently someone reads the comments even when they’re long because several people have replied to those long posts that are apparently too much for most of America’s short attention span. “If it doesn’t fit in a sound byte, we don’t wanna hear about it.”

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