The Communist Manifestoon

Imagine Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto brought to life by classic cartoons. Now, give your imagination a rest, and have a look-see courtesy of YouTube:

This is a brilliant treatment of the classic work that has the added bonus of nostalgia - I grew up with these wonderful 'toons, many (most) of which I recognized immediately. The other aspect of this work that I find completely fascinating is how it subverts and reverses the North American cultural socialization (no pun intended) that was the subtext of many - if not all - of television's early cartoons. We were tacitly taught to value capital accumulation and industrialization, and to emulate the gender, race, class, and sexuality stereotypes of the day. Taking those works that would be completely inappropriate to today's (more) enlightened sensibilities and using them to illustrate the great-granddaddy of contemporary political economy and emancipation discourse is sheer subversive genius, I think.


And, for those who would like to hear the opposing view, circa 1936, YouTube offers this for your viewing pleasure (also a classic piece, characteristic of the times).

[Technorati tags: manifestoon | communist manifesto | cartoons | marx | engels]