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Here's somethign a little bit different for you.
I was reading an article about this a while back, and I'd like to know what everyone thinks about it.

Just to let everyone know, this isn't a very well planned essay. There will be no real links between ideas, just a short paragraph for each point I would like to bring up. I know it makes for a sloppy essay, but perhaps I will clean it up one day.
Also, I do not believe that "The Smurfs" were in any way a tool to turn children towards communism, but instead just a satirical look at the world from Peyo, the creator, and perhaps a way to introduce children to the very basics of politics at a very early age.


I don't know how many of you are old enough to have watched the Smurfs as children, but I'm sure that you all know who they are, and probably have a fair understanding of what the show was.
If you don't, I'll just take a second to explain the jist of things.


The Characters:
-The Smurfs: Community of little blue men (and one woman). They all have a specific job to do and all commodities are shared within the commune. There is no money and no trade in the Smurf's village.

-Gargomel: The antagonist in the smurf world. He is a hermit/magician who hunts the smurfs for two reasons. 1) to eat them? Why not eat something bigger and easier to hunt? but anyways, that's one of his goals.
2)He has a spell to turn them into gold. He is obsessed with money.

-Azrael: Gargomel's cat. Has no belongings and does whatever Gargomel tells him to. He has no thoughts or opinions.


So the basic idea behind the show is that Gargomel and his cat Azrael hunt smurfs and the smurfs just live happy lives and try to avoid being captured. It's a kids show so its not exactly a multi-layered plot or anything.


How does communism fit into all of this?

First of all, the Smurf's village is a perfect example of a autonomous commune. They provide for themselves and each smurf takes only what is needed. There is no currency or trade, and all smurfs jobs are seen as equal. They also all share the same title; Smurf. (ie. Papa Smurf, Lazy Smurf, ect..) Similar to the term "comrade" used by the communists to show there are no social classes.

There are also several Smurf characters that can be seen as characatures of important communists. Papa Smurf has a big white beard and wears all red; depicting Karl Marx. He is the "leader" of the commune and he is also the wisest. Brainy Smurf shares several characteristics with Trotsky, and he is often shunned by the smurf society for his ideas.


The Smurfs are all athiests. THere is no God in their village, and there are no priests of any type. They believe only in nature and science (although there is some magic in the show, it is never used to explain forces of nature. It is but an extention of nature)
They also have no police force or army, although the smurfs do sometimes rally together as a militia to fight off their enemies, and in one episode the militia was used to overthrow Brainy Smurf who had taken power and made himself King in Papa Smurf's absence.

The evil magician Gargomel represents capitalism. He is greedy, and is ruthless. He will stop at nothing to further enrich himself.
As I mentioned above, he has two goals.
Eating smurfs doesn't seem very intelligent, but if it is looked at from a metaphorical standpoint; perhaps it is a metaphore for capitalisms constant attempts to devour communism and what it stands for. (This show aired in the 80's, around the fall of the Soviet Union)
The second is what charactarises Gargomel as the capitalist. To turn the smurfs into gold. This shows that capitalists view everything as a commodity, even life itself and that everything can be converted into currency.
He is a bitter man, mainly because his life is completely empty other than his constant search for wealth.

His cat, Azrael, is his servant. Azrael is constantly placed in dangerous conditions so that Gargomel may become richer. This cat is the embodyment of the proletariat. The cat has no belongings, no education, no opinions and can not object to the work he is charged with. He works very hard, and risks his life on several occasions and only Gargomel gains from his endevours.



I'll end this here because as I re-read this, it's attrocious.
I'm sort of distracted with some other work at the moment so I know it's a bit all over, I promise I'll clean it up and post a real essay in a short while.
Until then, I'd like to hear what you all think of this.

The first "govt" that forms with humans is primitive communism.

No no no no no. Before feudalism, it was primitive communism. It was during the times of Biblical times. For example, think of Mohammed(sp?), the Prophet of Islam. He was in a nomadic society. His society is constantly roaming the Middle Eastern desserts...they barter goods with markets that they stumble on, but they share the things they have in order to ensure that their nomadic tribe thrives. (I hope that was not a bad example.) Feudalism would somewhere like in Biblical times of Egypt, where there are slaves and different classes of people. But what stands out in feudalism is that the not only the upper class people owns the productivity and the products, but upper class people actually owns the workers (that's why their called "slaves". In some cases, they are called peasants due to how the worker have a little freedom/property).

To make a comment; your example of the nomadic tribes sounds like capitalism to me.
The closest thing in the ancient world to communism that I can find is the Celtic societies. The post of cheiftain was more often than not decided by who was the stronger warrior, and was not an inherrant position. Men and women were equal, and few became slaves because their parents were. The tribes worked as a comunal unit, switching betwen the tasks of warrior and farmer when needed.

I know the nomadic tribes were a bad example...but each member of the tribes has access to what the other tribe member has. Also, they do NOT profit...they only trade through barter! Besides, if they were going to trade, it would with someone who is not within their tribe.

everything said here perfectly fits into the form