we-are-special

A seven-panel comic. A red-haired child and a man with dark hair, glasses, and a green shirt talk while building a snowman over the course of the strip. Child: "Are humans special?" Man: "Of course." Child: "Because we have syntax." Man: "Nah. Birds have that." Child: "Because we have culture." Man: "Dolphins have that." The child lists more traits while the man counters each: "Tool use."/"Cephalopods." "Commerce."/"Monkeys." "War?"/"Ants." Frustrated, the child asks, "Then why are we special?" The man replies, "Humans, alone among all creatures, are obsessed with whether or not they are special." The snowman is now finished. He adds, "...And once we realize it, we'll stop doing it, and it won't be true any more." The child, now a silhouette beside the man and snowman against a night sky, says, "Truly, we are damned." Votey: a close-up of the dismayed child's face. Child: "Extra specially damned."