John F. Kennedy - 35th President of the United States
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preaching to the choir
i am so tired of smug facists lording over the disenfranchised that they stole the 2000 election, they still have a job (in management) n there's nothing anyone can do about it - n they're likely to get away with it again. but perhaps the appalling innaccuracy begins with the terms: liberals n conservatives for the left, i prefer the term progressive and for the right, how about elitist? seriously the republican dream requires about 100 slaves per citizen - for the full court press to function properly - for the full effect of trickle down economics - for the people to be trickled on fully call yer quarters a condo if u wanna if u work 60 hrs a week n can't afford to eat someone's lost sight of somethin that people rarely wake up n see this is a testament to the fact that education has been undermined for a reason n sound bytes are worth more than sound reason in this day n age with everything wrong in the world foreign n domestic if u vote republican yer either evil or an idiot selfish or a simpleton a sell out or a soldier for someone silly either scenario should disqualify yer right to vote for it will not be in the best interest of anyone except yer master n doing the right thing either gets mistranslated or pushed aside of course yer not better off than ye were 4 years ago it's those damn terrorists smoke n mirrors maybe if everyone held gawd closer to their hearts held gawd in a higher regard a more prominent place their lives personally, i hold god to a higher standard i believe he's too mature to get angry at me for using the brain that he gave me jesus sed: forget moses, there's only 2 commandments love god with everything, n love everyone as yerself takes a real lawyer for satan to twist that simple wisdom into the current political tradewinds n while i was for the war, in september 2001 it's mostly cuz i'm generally always for ousting any illigetimate adminstration no matter what sacred land they may happen to currently occupy only kind people have a right to rule n while bulldogs have a place in times of defense the price for that cannot be the banishment of all leashes otherwise, we're soon under a tyrant again n no one wants that except for bulldogs n their masters so in a sane world, the terms liberals n conservatives becomes progressive and elitist it's just more accurate see liberals are usually not found prancing around washington - tossing tax dollars over their shoulder willy nilly n conservatives are usually not sober sensible people - concerned only for the assured path toward prosperity while some liberals have been accused of being elitist n some conservatives would like to seem progressive we all know where big business tosses its wad n what they want in return n that they usually get it now, i'm not saying there aren't democrats who give liberalism a bad name but progress is the common theme for dem programs and the only thing true liberals ever beg for note that they hafta beg n that they usually don't get it still in this day n age money trumps the masses every time n beats em back if u hafta beg for human rights - the right to be treated like a fellow human being - the right to work and eat and clothe n shelter yerself - the right to send yer kids to college, or even go back yerself yer prolly kneeling to the wrong pharoah besides, if u wanna be a bad guy n get enough power to do anything with it the republican party is the way to go they actually have a working program for ya personally, i would never run for office with my views, i'd prolly get shot (i may get shot jus for this drivel) n i'm not even a democrat anymore i consider meself more of a humanist but i know better than to not vote democratic they happen to be our only hope nader-gore would be a good ticket even today but nader assured that gore was run outta town n before him, it was perot - but that's karma for ya as long as it requires a billion dollars to get elected the only people with any chance or hope of realizing their political aspirations will be those who are skilled n schooled in the wrestling of many marbles from those who want something else somehow even more be it several more servants or simple civil rights it's highway robbery but those aren't exactly merry men hiding in the bushes we have the right to food n shelter clean clothes n a world class education - we are, after all, full in favor of such things and entirely on board with making it happen so how is it that every bitta progress gets shot down before it even sees the sun? sounds alot like france before the guillotine parades non ? keep payin attention watch the economy collapse now, who would want such a thing? who would order or design such a thing? who would pray that such a thing would please come to pass? - n what makes u think they didn't? well either way one thing's for sure even under the record deficits (bouncin back from clinton actually bein in the black) there's not gonna be many tax increases until about january 2005 - no matter who wins last call |
World Economic Systems
FEUDALISM You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk. PURE SOCIALISM You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need. BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you should need. FASCISM You have two cows. The government takes them both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk. PURE COMMUNISM You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk. RUSSIAN COMMUNISM You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk. CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you. DICTATORSHIP You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you. PURE DEMOCRACY You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk. REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY You have two cows. Yours neighbors pick somone to tell you who gets the milk. BUREAUCRACY You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other one and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows. In triplicate. PURE ANARCHY You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors take the cows and kill you. CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. SURREALISM You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons. |
Socio-Political Themes in
"The Smurfs"
1.) Introduction:
This is a discursive analysis of the television programme The Smurfs,
created by Peyo, and first aired during the greater part of the eighties.
In other words, it is an analysis of some of the socio-political themes I have noticed in the show.
The Smurfs is a unique programme. It is, first and foremost, a cartoon, and as such it is aimed at children. The discussion could end there, however, unlike many other cartoons, or indeed other television programmes, The Smurfs is about an entire society and its interactions with itself and with outsiders, rather than the adventures of just a few characters. Hence I believe it is, in short, a political fable, in much the same way that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a fable about Christianity. Rather than Christianity, however, The Smurfs is about Marxism. I am not accusing The Smurfs of being some kind of subversive kiddie propaganda - although if it was, would it really be that much worse than the spate of 'toyetic' cartoons of the same decade that only existed to sell plastic toys? In any case, this essay should be seen as the highest kind of praise. What other childrens' shows would address the issue of Marxism in such a way, and at such a pivotal point in the history of the Cold War? The Smurfs should be praised for using metaphor and the device of the fairy tale to introduce children to political themes. If Peyo was a socialist, however, he was obviously not the sort who had much time for the version of it practiced by the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc police states. He was a utopian. There is a distinct lack of any kind of army or police in the Smurf Village. On rare occasions when it is necessary, they form their own civilian militia to fight off threats. Otherwise, it is the absolute opposite of the police state. After my brief analysis of Marxism in The Smurfs, I will also be addressing the issues of feminism and homosexuality
in the show. But the main concern of this essay is to argue that The Smurfs was a Marxist fable.
2.) The Smurf Village as a Marxist Utopia:
The Smurf Village itself is a perfect model of a socialist commune or collective. It is self-reliant, and the
land is not owned by individuals, but by the entire collective of all the Smurfs, if the word 'owned' is even appropriate.
Papa Smurf represents Karl Marx. He is not so much the leader of the Smurfs as an equal revered by the others for his age and wisdom. He has a beard, as did Marx, and thus could conceivably be a caricature as well. And lastly, he wears red, which is the traditional colour of socialism. Brainy Smurf could represent Trotsky. He is the only one in the village who comes close to matching Papa's intellect - he is a thinker. With his round spectacles, he could also be a caricature of Trotsky. He is often isolated, ridiculed or even ejected from the commune of the village for his ideas. And of course, Trotsky was banished from the USSR. Despite their different professions/distinctions, the Smurfs are all completely equal. Thus, while the occupations of certain Smurfs, such as Farmer, Handy and Greedy, are more important than others, such as Clumsy, Grouchy, or Lazy, there is no feeling that certain Smurfs are superior or inferior to others because of their work, or level of skill, because ultimately, everyone is a Smurf first. Economically, the Smurf Village is closed-market. There is no money, and all possessions are communal - property of the collective. Everyone is equally a worker and an owner. The Smurfs reject the idea of a free-market economy, with its greed and inequities, and the collective is more important and valuable than the individual. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. John Lennon asked us to 'imagine no possessions'. The Smurf Village achieves that goal. In fact, many of the ideas expressed in that song are reality in the Village. There is one large piece of capital, or produced means of production, in the Smurf Village: the dam. It is owned, operated and repaired by the entire collective. The Smurfs all refer to one another by the same title; 'Smurf'. Eg, Brainy Smurf, Handy Smurf, Jokey Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Papa Smurf. This is highly reminiscent of socialist states' use of the word 'comrade' when referring to others, instead of more elitist titles. Adding to the idea of complete equality in the Village, most of the Smurfs wear the same kind and colour of clothes. It is a general work uniform, and with the distinctive caps and blue skin, is highly reminiscent of the so-called Mao Suit, common in Maoist China. In the tradition of pure Marxism, the Smurf Village is atheist. There is no god, and there is no Priest Smurf. There are only the 'real' forces of nature and physics, and these are represented metaphorically by the characters of Mother Nature and Father Time. Of course, there is also magic, as practised by Papa, Gargomel, Balthazar and others, but it is simply another tool, something that occurs in nature, that has physical properties and can be tapped into, with the right know-how. It is not, as many religions are, a way of understanding the universe in a supernatural context. The episode The King Smurf was the ultimate illustration of the Marxian conflict between the bad, oppressive kind of government, where greedy kings (and capitalists) exploited the population for their own ends; and the good, egalitarian political model Marx had formulated. In the episode, a militia is formed to overthrow Brainy, who has become King in Papa Smurf's absence, and utopian order is restored when Papa Smurf returns. In this instance, Papa Smurf, as Marx himself, represents the ideal form of Marxism. The evil wizard Gargomel represents capitalism. He embodies everything bad about capitalism. He is greedy, ruthless, and his only concern is with his own personal gratification. He is what happens when the individual makes himself more important than the society he lives in. Not coincidentally, he is also a crazy old hermit wth no real friends. What does Gargomel want to do with the Smurfs? He has two ideas. The first is to eat them. This is unusual, because the Smurfs are small and rare, and would not make as good eating as, say, a deer. It is similar to Sylvester's obsession with eating the golf ball sized meal that is Tweety Bird. There are two explanations. The first is that metaphorically, he wants to devour socialism, as the West wanted to do to the USSR and its satellites during the Cold War through its tactic of encirclement. The second is that as a pure capitalist, he wishes to turn everything into a commodity - including people. The second thing Gargomel plans to do to the Smurfs once he catches them is to turn them into gold. As the ultimate supercapitalist, he is more concerned with his own wealth than with equality and fairness. Like any Adam Smith style capitalist, it is his 'natural' state to want as much money as he can get. Gargomel is a cold, bitter and ultimately empty man. This is because he has nothing else in his life but a soulless quest for wealth and possessions. A definite statement about the anti-social effects of economic rationalism. Gargomel's ginger cat, Azrael, represents the worker in the ruthless, free-market state that is Gargomel's house. He is uncomplaining, or, since he has no voice (ie. Trade Unions), is metaphorically unable to complain. He cannot negotiate his wage - he eats whatever he is given by his master. He is smaller and less well-off than Gargomel, and metaphorically, he represents the proletariat, while Gargomel represents the bourgeoise. Azrael is exploited and oppressed. He risks his life fighting and hunting for his master, and does not have the intellectual capacity to question this state of affairs, just as the worker suffered his fate for centuries because education was off limits to him, and he had no other option but to work for his bosses. Gargomel owns his house and everything in it, including the capital of his alchemical equipment, in nothing like the way that the Smurfs own their village. If the same political structure existed at Gargomel's house, both he and Azrael would be equal owners, regardless of Gargomel's superior size, knowledge and skill. But Azrael owns nothing. The incursion of the new characters
later in the series/eighties, such as the Smurflings, with their colours
and different clothes and looks, can be viewed in the real world as an
incursion by commercial interests to increase the popularity and sellability
old the show. In the show, metaphorically, they represent Western intrusion
to the utopian harmony of the Smurf Village, just as Gorbachev's glasnost
and perestroika reforms in the mid to late eighties heralded the ultimate
demise of the Soviet Union.
3.) Feminism and The Smurfs:
Monique Wittig wrote that women are defined as women, while men are defined by
their occupation, the idea being that men have occupatons but women do
not. For example, if an accident was being reported, the victims might
be described as 'a teacher, a plumber and a woman'. Smurfette is
unique in the village in that she is not defined by an occupation or a
personality trait like the male, or real Smurfs, but by her sex. She is
not a real member of society because of her sex, and this is represented
metaphorically in the show by the fact that she was created by Gargomel.
The dimunitive suffix of 'ette', common in our society, also identifies Smurfette as being not the equal of the males. She is the second sex. Above I asserted that eveyone in the Village was equal. In a sense, this is still true. In the beginning, it was all male, and Smurfette's introduction did not disrupt the patriarchal order. Thus, Smurfette is equal to the others politically, but not socially. In an ideal, sexist, patriarchal state, women are not a part of the community. They do not occupy the 'public sphere' of work and the outside world, and they certainly do not work. Smurfette's main occupation seems to be standing around looking pretty, ie 'being the woman', although when it comes to problem solving, the producers have not, thankfully, made her a brainless bimbo. She is quite a bit sharper than the rest of the Smurfs, except of course, for Papa. Smurfette is definitely the 'object' of the male gaze. Since she is the object, the males are the subjects. They are active, she is passive. Smurfette has no breasts. I believe this is significant when we consider how Smurfette was created. She began life as the almost Frankensteinian creation of Gargomel. As a capitalist, he naturally is treating her as a commodity, something which can be made, used and disposed of, all ultimately to make him money. The idea that a woman can be made by a man denies women's key role in procreation. The fact that she does not posess breasts goes further to this denial of nature, an attempt to control women, to make them conform to the societal norm imposed by the patriachal order. Smurfette is a secondary creation, in that she was made after the males. She has a heart of stone, and technically, she is unnatural. Physically and metaphorically, she is not a 'real' smurf. She is, in short, bad and wrong, as patriarchal cultures have viewed women for centuries. How do you make a better woman? In other words how do you make a woman who is acceptable by society (ie. the Village or our own society)? One, you take all the fight out of her. Make her compliant, make her toe the line created and maintained by the male-dominated social structure. One visual example of this is her transformation from a brunette to a blonde. Western society traditionally stereotypes dark-haired women as brainy, but blondes as dumber, but more beautiful and desirable. And that is another way to make a better woman. You make her beautiful. Essentially, when Papa Smurf casts his spell to make Smurfette a 'real' Smurf, the visible difference ws that she was more 'beautiful' as well. Thus it follows that before, she was ugly. So when it comes to women, ugly equals wrong, and beautiful equals right, and in a sense, real. But why is one thing beautiful and another thing not? Who says? Ultimately, the patriachal order. And the Smurf Village, with its 99:1 ratio of males to females, is definitely a patriarchy. This adds to he idea of woman as commodity - she is changed and made by men, and is beautiful by their standards. And at the end of it she is thankful. Gloria Steinem once wrote that 'women were history's first drag queens', meaning that ideals of beauty are all imposed by the patriachal order, and there is no reason for women to look 'like women' other than a need for distinction between the sexes, and to reinforce the idea of women as mere objects, as the focus of male gaze. Smurfette is no exception. In an ideal patriarchal society,
there are no women. Can you imagine what the Smurf village would be like
if the ratio of males to females was 50:50? One thing is certain, it would
not be the same utopia it is presented as in the show. Perhaps this means
that the ideal Marxist state can only truly operate when everyone is equal,
including sexually, although it is almost impossible to imagine an all-female
Smurf Village. This is probably more due to deep, intrinsic sexism in our
own society than any other reason. If female was the 'natural' sex for
Smurfs, I cannot see why they would all look like Smurfette. The concept
of beauty, if it existed at all, would have no basis, no frame of reference
in which to be equated with 'blonde and cute'.
4.) The Smurf Village as Homotopia:
The Smurf Village was always all-male, until Smurfette came along, when it was still overwhemingly male. This
means that they did not procreate by traditional means, and thus, 'heterosexuality'
would not be the norm.
Much like ancient Greek city-states such as Athens, which many believe is the closest to a pure democracy the world will ever come, government was by all the people, and by 'all the people' they meant males only. Women are not invited to particpate in public affairs. In Athens, homosexuality was not uncommon, nor was it particularly frowned upon. No Smurf ever forms a relationship with Smurfette. Although she is the focus of some childish heterosexual rivalries, especially between Hefty and Handy, there is never any real heterosexual tension in the Village. The tension is more between Hefty and Handy themselves, who seem to be more interested in impressing each other than Smurfette. If the Smurf Village existed for ages without any females, how would the Smurfs have been able to understand what the Smurfette was? Certainly, nature would provide examples of male-female bondings that the Smurfs would have been able to observe, but in their own sphere, there were never any women, and never any heterosexuality. Thus, how could Smurfette have been able to seduce anyone? Are the creators trying to say that heterosexuality is the natural state, even if it never existed in society and there was never any frame of reference for understanding what heterosexual attraction was? On this point, I'm prepared to let the creators off. They probably weren't even thinking about it, because in our society, heterosexuality is very much seen as the norm. Lastly, I believe the characters of Hefty, Handy and Vanity
are gay archetypes. Vanity is the kind of gay archetype commonly presented
by the straight entertainment industry, for example in the UK sitcom Are
You Being Served? while Hefty and Handy are gay archetypes in the same
vein as the Village People, with their extremely iconic masculinity,
exaggerated to the point of camp. Meanwhile, I believe Clumsy and
Brainy represent an stereotypical gay couple.
5.) Conclusion:
I believe that at the very least, Peyo was attempting to present certain Marxist theories in the form of an allegorical fairy tale.
The Smurfs, then, succeeds in the way the best kind of fantasy literature does - by shining a light on the real world we all live in.
There is much evidence to suggest that The Smurfs, as a narrative, is a utopian socialist fable.
And ultimately, I think a large part of the appeal of the show comes from this utopian ideal,
because even if it is unlikely to ever occur in the real world, with all its complexities, we can still imagine.
Source: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Cinema/3117/sociosmurf2.htm PS - How do Smurfs make love?........ They smuck ;o) |
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