After Thursday’s class discussion, I got thinking about socialism and Obama. Being politically conservative myself (dare I publish that?), I heard all the talk about Obama being a socialist and turning this country into a Communist state. I won’t say that there is zero truth in that, but I do recognize it as typical conservative anti-Obama propaganda (aka Obama trash talk).
I decided to do a couple of Google searches on “Obama” and “socialist”, expecting quite a number of wacky websites to pop up…which it did. On one of them ( http://obamaism.blogspot.com/ if you’re interested) I found a couple of videos which eventually led me to this:
Interestingly, this video was not made for the McCain campaign. It was made before anyone even knew who Obama was…in fact, before he was even born. It was made in 1948 by Harding College, a conservative Christian college in Arkansas. In 1948, they saw the spreading Communism as a threat to the “American way” and the values we share. They responded by creating this captivating cartoon to convince the American people to think critically about the way of life they have now and how it can change for the worse with the introduction of Communism.
(As an interesting sidenote, one of the main proofs they use as an American capitalistic success is the thriving automobile industry in the US that has created many jobs and boosted the economy at large. 60 years later, the US government had to save the ailing industry and until today it’s seen as a main drag on the economy.)
That’s a fascinating cartoon (and one of the shorts we’ll be discussing on Tuesday. See here: http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/eng3940h/2010/03/12/the-red-scare-and-the-hollywood-blacklist-for-tuesday/ ). Though it was commissioned by Harding College, which wasn’t particularly well known, it was produced by John Sutherland Productions, which created many instructional and propaganda films in the 40s and 50s and employed some of the top animators in the business.
So what is the connection here to the ideas and movies we’re discussing this week? How might we explicitly connect the discourse around Obama’s presidency (especially during the campaign) to cold war anxiety about communist infiltration of all segments of American life?
first off i loveeee thiese kind of old cartoons i used to watch them when i was little, they would re-run them on cartoon network on weekends. secondly i found this very interesting because of how convincing it was. i found myself thinking communism was this evil thing that shouldnt be anywhere near me, when in fact i do admire alot of communist beliefs. i think that this shows how we can be influenced so easily by things that seem to be assertive and show fact. i find it funny how they make the issue of communism so black and white,communism is bad and capitalism is god sent.it advocates this to children so that they can grow up thinking this and then be intolerant to others who believe differently. maybe not only are children brainwashed to buy things but also their brainwashed into what to believe and who to become.
something that caught my eye at the end was how the communist advocate in running away from the people he was trying to convince ran on a path that would lead to the city which was seen off in the horizon. might be a coincidence but i think it would be relevant since it seems as though they are trying to say beware because not only will the evils of communism come to places that might not have as many educated people, such as farms, but also major cities.