Annotated 21-15
Here’s a note I made to Phil in the revision process that I think stands up on its own: This strikes me as Byron’s REAL problem with trying to keep close to his adventuring roots. He has people relying on him to be part of the group (Syr’Nj is only the one who relies most heavily) and so he can’t go off half-cocked in a bar fight, or on a special solo mission, or behind the picket line when that becomes relevant. He can’t do those things without disappointing his current brothers-and-sisters-in-arms.
Changing the system from the inside gets a bad rap these days, and later developments in both Guilded Age and real-world politics would make Byron look a little naive here. But I do feel like there needs to be pressure from both within and without to effect a serious change to any system. You just have to figure out where you belong, and try to hold onto your principles despite the times when it’d be easier to give them up. That temptation may be more constant on the inside, but it will exist no matter where you decide to be. After all, Braggadocio was on his own when he decided to give up the freelance life that had once defined him as it did Byron.
Phil elected not to have Syr’Nj shout her dialogue on this page as she did in my earlier draft. Might’ve been funnier, but maybe it was a little less “her.”
Braggadocio’s comment in panel 2 comes back later. Didn’t notice that the first time around.
In Bragga’s case it’s more likely to be “Nothing adventured, weight gained.”
or “…no weight gained” I think?
I mean, he eats the monsters…
I thought the one on the right was technically Ardaic’s, too.
The silent interaction between Syr’Nj and Bandit in the third panel is brilliant. One of my favorite moments in the comic. ^_^
“That’s a, um… uh, what do you call it, when you, um… when you, when you punished criminals in, uh… days of yore, it was, um… and you’d put them in the, uh, the square, in those… you, you know, uh…”
“You mean in the stocks, or a pillory?”
“Yes, exactly.”
*bzzzzzzzt*
“It’s a fricking hammer!”
I guess infiltrating the system to enact sabotage and espionage is …. kinda … like changing it from the inside?
I mean, destruction is a form of change too, right?
Whether change from the inside actually works or not depends a lot on just what changes you’re trying to enact. Generally speaking changing who’s nominally in charge and which groups get exploited the hardest is pretty easy.
Start trying to dismantle an oppressive tyranny “from the inside” though and while you can probably displace the titular heads pretty easily, as soon as you start trying to chop down the bureaucratic weeds that are the ones actually doing the day-to-day oppressing you’ll rapidly find that there are a massive number of vested interests with tentacles all through society who have no intention of letting you take away the sweet deal they’ve got.
Walter Block has some interesting articles about his attempts at trying to convince various third-world warlords to set up a free society instead. Getting the top levels of the government to see the advantages is generally pretty easy. But the second and third level bureaucrats who can’t see beyond the fact that they’d lose their jobs invariably refuse to co-operate.
Anarcho-capitalism is not a “free society”. It’s just legalized tyranny by whoever has the most cash.