Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for October 18, 2014

Your principles are now nice and clean.

Reality sucks, eh, Calvin?

So much for your principles…I suppose you’d prefer a mud bath?! ;)

Tea bag? Let’s dip Calvin in hot water and see what comes out…oh, no, wait….

Namaste, Calvin buddy, with your shining moment of truth !!

In the last panel Calvin looks like a young Kilroy Was Here character.

Calvin has the same problem at school. When he refuses to compromise his principles, it compromises Miss Wormwood’s ability to teach the class, so she sends him to the principal.Click here: Calvin and Hobbes (June 28, 1993)Click here: Calvin and Hobbes (September 30, 1992)Click here: Peanuts (October 18, 1951)Click here: Red and Rover (March 3, 2013)

Being unwilling to compromise one’s principles can be a good thing if one’s principles are morally just, and if one is being tempted or forced to perform an act of evil.However, it is very important not to confuse this sort of situation with being unwilling to compromise on anything ever, believing that this somehow shows strength of character.A total unwillingness to compromise in all situations does not show strength of character. In fact, it shows weakness.The willingness to change one’s position on something based on new insight or new data, or based on compassion for others, does not show weakness. It shows a combination of maturity, intelligence, and wisdom.

Zigackly! (with apologies to Goscinny & Uderzo)

I hear ya’, Calvin.

Hi, Number Six. Sorry to hear you are still a Prisoner in the Village. At least they haven’t changed your number.

Yes, Red and Rover shows influence from Calvin and Hobbes, and both strips show influence from Peanuts. In the Red and Rover Sunday strips, Brian Basset sometimes does some amazing artwork, like Bill Watterson.Interestingly, Red and Rover is set in the 1960s, so Red is about Bill Watterson’s age in the 1960s. Bill was born in 1958, and he was 11 years old when the first moon landing occurred.

Only a 3 paneled one? That’s odd.

My stars, I recall clipping this one from the paper and pinning it on the company employee bulletin board. Ah, bad times!

How can you become edcuated without your principles?

IIRC, the Tenth Anniversary book explained that this strip was a subtle jab at his syndicate. Whoever he’d been dealing with at the time was demanding an increasing amount of control over circulation and a number of other issues, and in the end Watterson wound up having to give in to keep the coming going uninterrupted.

What principle is Calvin defending? The Constitution guarantees the right to bare arms, but not smelly armpits! ;-\

@bluram Guess we know who the oldies are. I tho’t of Killroy also.

Unfortunately, what Calvin says in the last panel is true for almost everyone, even adults.

…which is the primary drawback of mere behavioralism.

Part of the trouble is, Cal, that you’re a youngun and so just about everyone older and/or bigger than you will just override your wishes, regardless of whether there is any principle involved. But only part of the trouble, because one day you may discover that holding to principle can be exceedingly difficult even for an adult, not least when everyone stands against you, and few if any are willing to stand with you.