Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Smurfs Were Communists?




The Smurfs was a cartoon created in the 1980s which came off to most as nothing but a children's show. It consisted of a happy society full of little blue people who kept being attacked by a villan, Gargamel, who wished to use them to gain wealth. It's a simple plot to most but the deeper connection is, the happy smurfs shared everything and worked for the greater good, much like a communist society. All the while Gargamel tried to gain wealth from the poor little smurfs, representing a capatilist government. To further emphasize the Smurfs connection to communists, they all wore the same colors and sang the same song, had their specific jobs for the community, and when it was time to harvest there food they distributed it evenly. The writters even went so far as creating an episode were the smurfs tryed to change jobs and all failed. By creating a cartoon such as this, many peoples minds without knowing it would be more accepting of the communist way of life. Much of the rhetoric used in this show displayed the "smurf" life as something innocent and happy which made communism seem somthing to be accepting, while making casatlilists seem like the villian. This was a pathos appeal to all viewers making them feel for the smurfs and in some ways dislikeing the captilist Gargamel. The communist way of life seemed to work in the Smurfs but can you see communism working in America?

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