Nemesis at the gates

Having spent a lot of time this week with my special friend, I was once again forced to ponder things that until recently, had remained tucked away in the annals of my mind. Over lunch at our usual spot, we got to talking about World War II, Music, South Park, The Simpsons, Politics... but one subject that he brought up really sparked my interest: THE SMURFS. It's been well documented, both at University level and on the net (though distinguishing between the two these days is proving quite difficult) that the smurf society was really based on communism. I searched through many written theories on this subject and thought I might share just a few insights into their world: The Smurfs, though not drab by any means, had a pretty standard dress code. Each smurf wore minor accessories that differentiated them from each other. This systematic uniform is argued by some as a representation of the largely uniform style of attire dominant in several early periods of the Soviet Union and The People's Republic of China, including the "Mao suit". Even though the evil wizard Gargamel and his loyal feline worker, Azrael, are argued to represent an analogy of the forces of capitalism, it would be more correct to say that they represent the forces of reaction. In fact Gargamel desires to capture the smurfs in order to turn them into gold through a magical process of boiling (a clear indication of it's preference for rent over risk capital). His greed drives him to great lengths in what is said to be a parallel of the Cold War and its extreme struggle. The capitalistic forces want to devour socialism, as the West wanted to do to the USSR and its allies according to Cold War propaganda. Gargamel can be seen as a pure capitalist; he wishes to turn everything into a commodity, including the individuals of a living society. The smurfs live in an egalitarian utopia. Each smurf has a particular skill and each performs tasks for the benefit of the community. There is no system of monetary exchange or even barter in the Smurf village. The village is under a planned economy, under the leadership of Papa Smurf, and to some extent, Brainy Smurf. Each member of the community is a Smurf, and each has Smurf as a suffix to their own name; this can be seen as analogous to the use of "comrade". The Smurfs have a tendency to use the word 'smurf' as a prefix or suffix to many sentences. This could be seen as an identity to create a strong group identity or a way to eliminate influences from other cultures. This is similar to what was practiced under Soviet Russia. Ironically, as communism fell in Russia, it was around that time that The Smurfs were lost from tv syndication and comic publication.