Small World

Before I start, this is a political cartoon, and I know that I'll express a political opinion somewhere in here. So I'll toss out my bias at the beginning to orient your filter: I fall somewhere near the category of Libertarian, socially liberal, economically conservative; essentially, "Get the government out of the economy, get the government out of private affairs." There, I've just been more honest with you than nearly every newspaper or news station.

It's simple to repeat the news highlights in an illustration, or to show the content of the opinion column below. But what use is that? If I want the news or commentary, the prose has far more information. The ones in print tend to follow that form, contributing nothing to the discussion. Small World however takes its thousand words and fills in a few connections. It is the commentary, not a repeat of it.

News is such a terrible word. Nothing that happens in the news is really that new, all that changes is who has been doing it. The Muslim world has had internal war since the 600's and warfare has existed in the middle east long before then. Ever since government existed, people have competed for power and with the innovation of popular government we've had tyrants (in the Greek sense of the word) and demagogues using the masses to obtain it. Church and State became at odds with one another back around 300 when the state no longer was the church.

Small World takes time to look at the overall picture: that the major issues in the news today, was business as usual one president ago; that for all the books and programs, weight loss is still eat fewer calories than you use; things we're thankful for now were catastrophes a few years back, but merely hopes for the future years before then. History tends to be written off in today's world, but just a few years can create new perspectives.

It also provides a look at real questions, not the unending debate over placebo laws. Why do only two political parties dominate the system? What do the numbers reported to us really mean? Why is this issue important now? (and what I think is the big one) What makes the news network authoritative? Questioning accepted truths is how we advance. When Galileo dropped his weights, everyone knew the heavier one would fall faster.

The mechanically elements are adequate. The artwork effectively conveys the demographic groups (as fully described characters are unnecessary, further refinement of the art would just be a bonus) and, when needed, a few public figures. Updates are regular without fillers or breaks.

It hits the mark and is worth a read (unless you have some serious investment in the status quo of course).