Smurfs
At the height of the Cold War, a new cartoon emerged. Little blue people called Smurfs sang and skipped into the hearts of the American populace. The good, clean antics of the Smurfs were the model of American values, or were they? One should look closely at the Smurfs, their values, their cultures. Surprise! The Smurfs were not capitalistic at all. They were Communists! Communist practices and doctrine have not only infiltrated American television, but they have also become integral parts of America itself. Communism has even become a part of the American education system. How has communism been adopted into the American educational system? Some examples of this infiltration into the classroom include one of the Ten Planks of Communism, atheism, controlled learning, propaganda, school to work programs, and busing. Communism as it is known today was first proposed by Karl Marx in 1848 when he published The Manifesto of the Communist Party (Leone 13). Marx envisioned a Utopian society where everyone was equal. Such a society would combine growth with fairness by allowing the bureaucrats to make most of the decisions concerning the economy (Samuelson). As in The Smurfs, there would be no money, and everyone would contribute what the
y could and receive what they needed (Schmidt). There would be one manor source of income, and the entire collective would contribute to that source. At the time of Marx, communism stiff fell under the category of socialism. During the last twenty-five years of the nineteenth century, there was a split in the Socialist Party, and communism began to be recognized as a movement of its own. The original Communists were small extremist groups of revolutionaries within the European socialist movement. It was not until the Russian Revolution in 1917 that socialism and communism finally parted ways (Leone 14). By 1985, over one-third of the population of the world claimed to be Marxist, including countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America (Fienberg 2). Vladimir Ilyich Lenin seized power when he led the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution and ruled the Soviet Union until his death in 1924 (Remnick). One of Lenin's chief advisors was a man by the name of Trotsky. After Lenin's death, a power struggle ensued between Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. When Stalin won, he immediately started executing and exiling those who opposed him. Trotsky was forced to flee the Soviet Union and was later assassinated (Leone 46). Somehow, between Marx's writings and Stalin's regime, communism had chanted from a system of beliefs for those without power to a system of beliefs brutally imposed on the working class by the government (Fienberg 6). While writing his thoughts on the perfect society in 1948, Karl Marx published his famous Ten Planks of Communism. Marx stated that any country that had all ten planks in practice was a communistic state. The tenth and final plank calls for Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc., etc. (Courageous Lion). Stated more clearly, the tenth plank advocates free government education and a combination of schools with the marketplace. In the United States, citizens are taxed to send children to free public schools, and schools often have some program that connects the classroom to the workplace. The NEA, Outcome Based Education, and The Department of Education itself all fall under Marx's tenth plank of the Communist Manifesto (Courageous Lion). According to Marx, the perfect Communistic society is atheistic. In the USSR, religion was banished from all curricula and banned from all public roles (Fienberg). American schools are put in an interesting position. Due to the First Amendment, all children have the right to practice their varied religious customs. However, the clause that separates church from state ensures that the government does not favor one religion over another. Thus, any government-funded school cannot teach religious doctrines or institute school prayers, etc. In a letter addressed to all school principals, the United States Secretary of Education said, 'School officials may not endorse or favor religious activity or doctrine, coerce participation in religious activity, or seek to impose their religious beliefs on impressionable children...' (qtd. in Secretary of Education). The Secretary's statement means that while students are allowed to express their religious beliefs, teachers are not. In the same letter, the Secretary stated, 'The right to engage in personal voluntary prayer or religious discussion free from discrimination does not include the right to have a captive audience listen, or compel other students to participate' (qtd. in Secretary of Education). It was with the former guidelines in mind that Congress banned all faculty or student-led prayers at football games, graduation ceremonies, etc. Thus, although freedom of religion is guaranteed in the Constitution, the practice of expressing religion in a gover
Some common words found in the essay are:
Money Molnar, Schools Molnar, Noah Unfortunately, Opportunities Act, Soviet Union, Secretary Education, Glass Eight, Tift Trying, Supreme Court, Scopes Trial, soviet union, supreme court, ten planks, secretary education, channel 1, qtd secretary education, planks communism, school initiatives, controlled learning, perfect society, factories farms, ten planks communism,
Approximate Word count = 2566
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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