“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” The astute words spoken by a cartoon character seem to sum up my view on how people can seize disaster from the very jaws of success. No need to contemplate human frailty or the delicate balance of natural forces. Accept that if it is corruptible, people can mess it up.
Without much effort, I can think of quotes and comments pointing out that the deep knowledge of human imperfection has long existed. Here are some favorites:
“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.”
Or my personal favorite from Theodore Roosevelt, “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.”
Jimmy Buffett wrote that humans were taken out of the oven a bit too early in the baking. Not quite completely baked. That could explain our ability to perform one stupid transgression of common sense after another.
But then, as Mark Twain observed, ” there’s nothing common about common sense.”
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Absolutely that Pogo toon is one of the best ever! Very glad you posted it and the other quotes included are perfect.
I love your cartoon! Not one that’s known here in the UK.
Thank you, Louis for taking part in the challenge.
Pogo was written and drawn by Walt Kelly from the late fifties until 1975. It had a large cast of comic strip animals. The strip was famous for political and social satire. And it’s the satire that makes it memorable when most comic strips in US papers were just gag strips.
I subscribed to a regional newspaper that had little to do with news where I live so I could read this strip! Walt Kelly was a master at his art and the characters were cute, too. Remember the turtle that always hid on the 13th of the month, proclaiming “Friday the 13th landed on Tuesday this month?” [Or whatever day of the week it was.] The politics of the day were ripe for his level of satire, with corruption in the White House that ended in a Vice President, then a President ending up resigning in shame.