Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for August 11, 2012

You get a life

Patient heal thyself.

D.C. indeed!

There’s way too much egocentricity around for my liking.

Mitt Romney and celebrities need this help big time.

but it’s ALL about you!

Hey! Leggo my ego……

If the rest of the world paid attention to me there would be no problem with egocentricity.

I guess it depends on whose egocentricity you want to cure.

There is a cure, have kids.

@Wiley

You are terrific. 2 strips 2 days in a row suggesting we think about the plight of others in this sojourn on the planet. There will be a special place for you when you depart this lunatic asylum of the universe where the lunatics run the asylum. Love ya!

@win

That’s the problem in a nutshell. Thanks.

I think the last thing that served to squash out egocentricity on a large scale was WWII and the Great Depression. I would never want either of those things to happen again, but I don’t think people change without a great need to.

@jreckard

Great point. The ladies in the booth in today’s strip seem to imply a defect of character endemic to the entire human species.We all need to clean up our act ad be vigilant to suppress the tendency in ourselves.

@ Egocentric Capitalists

The Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader reported on July 25th that Gilchrist (“built it all myself”) had received over $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the New Hampshire Finance Authority to set up Gilchrist Metal Fabricating and buy new equipment and do Navy sub-contracting work.Proof positive that he didn’t need anyone to succeed in business, right? Don’t need government interference, right?A true rugged individualist.Guess he didn’t need anyone to ship raw materials to him, to ship the finished products, to buy the products, utilities provided by the state to be in business at all or workers to produce those products.But he built it all himself, right? Good grief.

‘The sadistic narcissist perceives himself as Godlike, ruthless and devoid of scruples, capricious and unfathomable, emotion-less and non-sexual, omniscient, omnipotent and omni-present, a plague, a devastation, an inescapable verdict.’― Sam Vaknin*******************************Sounds like us commenters!

The five words that sum it all up: " What’s in it for me ?"

@guy asking the question of the ladies in the booth

You can help by looking in the mirror. As Ann Landers said in a reply years ago, “The guilty seldom recognise themselves”. Ladies to guy-BTW, there’s a donation box on the counter. How about putting your money where your mouth is?@GrainbeltGreat quote. Thanks. Jack Gilchrist and reeps to a T.

@Sharuniboy

Quote (yours)- “No collective grouping has ever given the world a major breakthrough in technology….(etc)”.Once again, to cite the above-mentioned Jack Gilchrist,did Gilchrist or any other great egocentric innovator ever live in complete isolation?There wasn’t anyone else around to provide the basic necessities of daily living, necessary to the preservation of his innovative genius?As far as your dim view of religion, agree to the extent that religions are like flags-all they do is tend to create divisions among people. Spirituality, the basic underpinning of any religion, speaks to the highest of human instincts. As for those who view creation as a random accident, no higher power than impotent bipeds, their minds are already closed -Higher Powers R Us.

@John Pike

Many thanks for your terrific posts at the end of yesterday’s comments section @me. Did respond to you, but it was late, and you may not have seen my post to you.

@somebodyshort

The Ekert was not so much egocentricity’s cousin-except by way of Ekert’s digestive tract. The Ekert feasted on egocentricity and greed.

אם אין אני לי, מי לי? וכשאני לעצמי, מה אני? ואם לא עכשיו, אימתיHillel (the Elder)

@stripseeker (first post) – King of Hearts

@underwriter – I knit

What’s in it for you?

Maybe nothing today, or even tomorrow. But the day may well come when you need someone else to help you out of the goodness of their heart. On that day, if you did not help today, they may not be there to help, or not inclined to help a selfish individual like you.

@BluePumpkin

Correct. We are not as bad off as during the Great Depression……yet.But that’s what the upcoming election is all about. Do we really want a rerun of Bush policies that created the fiasco in the first place? Do we really want the final destruction of what little is left of the safety net for the poor and middle class?Contrary to the belief of many, Obama did not create the disaster that is the U.S. 2012, he inherited it from his reep predecessor.Hey, we had wars to pay for(a few bucks continuing to be spent there)-wars Obama didn’t start. The trillions blown away there (literally, not to mention human lives) could have done incredible good if spent to promote life instead of death.But there were egos to be inflated on Wall Street and in the defense industry ,leaving us to marvel at their business acumen, and technology, a la Shock and Awe over Baghdad.

@neeeurothrush

Translation, please, and where did you get that keyboard?

transliteration and translation – not the keyboard – just pasted a copy of the quoteIm ein ani li, mi li? U’kh’she’ani le’atzmi, mah ani? V’im lo ’akhshav, eimatai?Translation: If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And when I am for myself, then what am “I”? And if not now, when?

Maybe they should make it a kissing booth instead.

Personal question: (The reason I ask is because you capitalize “HUMAN” learning, as if to set it apart from other learning; you clearly have no use for organized religion [you manage to turn most comics into an anti-religion spiel]; previous comments indicate evolutionary beliefs; yet you highly respect individual spirituality. None of this is criticism, just observations. Oh yeah…and you use big words, too!)Do your personal beliefs align closely with any particular faith (notice I did not ask what religion you are)? If so, which one? If not…okay.

Oh, the thrill of the Merry-Go-Round!Did you get the Ring!?Did you score?

@INGSOC

Truly meant by me. Your posts are brief, but with a bit of mystery, and great meaning. They fit your avatar perfectly!

Hahaha! Good one!

Something bigger and more powerful than humans started all this. As far as I can tell there is no way to know what the hell that was, or whether it is another type of being. All I know is I only believe what can be demonstrated repeatedly. My beliefs don’t need a congregation, or an affirmation. Unlike religions, my beliefs can be adjusted as new information comes in. Truth, not superstition is the goal.. Some people may say that I don’t believe in anything, if it can change. I believe in what can be demonstrated…I’m an active agent in my own affairs. Nothing else matters …except maybe helping needy people….That’s one thing I believe in…..it’s been demonstrated to me that it helps…

A wise lawyer centuries ago was inspired to comment that ‘faith is not the possession of all people’. In today’s climate of ridiculing anyone and anything having to do with faith, it seems faith has become a word to stimulate some to humor and name calling. Strange thing though, Jesus said it was the key to everlasting life. The historicity of Jesus can not be disputed, but some will still say it’s belief in ‘fairy tales and spirits in the sky’. That’s fine though. Someone much wiser than they stated that ‘The fool is saying in his heart their is no God’. That helps to separate fools from those with faith. “Fools may say there is no God, but they probably pray they’re correct.”

“Fools may say there is no God, but they probably pray they’re correct.”Excellent…can I plagiarize this?

haha hilarious i get it!! tell the dude it’ll heal you of your egoness!

Please dumb-down your comics for California-we has no money for edumacation.