Eine Smurfischweltanschauung

_{This article was submitted to amerikaner.org by Grant Norman. If you would like to contribute articles, media, podcasts, art, or anything else to the website, please send an email to amerikanercontributions@proton.me}

Ideology can be a tricky thing. On one hand, an ideology properly codified and enforced can lead to a great unity of purpose, carrying a group of men forth to accomplish mighty deeds as they seek to realize their ideals. On the other, ideology can become an excuse for inaction and infighting, as factionalism and personality lead to split after split until the whole project first becomes a confusing mess and then an intellectual dead end.

Conservatives tend to be wary of ideology. They prefer to state that their policies and views are rooted in universal ideals and common sense, but with such open-mindedness, one always risks having his brains fall out. Attempts to codify conservative thought run into the challenges of individualism and gatekeeping. Today so many ideologies on the right in America are little more than re-heated Reaganite fusionism with sexier titles, like “National Conservatism”, “America First”, and “Christian Nationalism”. When push comes to shove, all of the efforts of eggheads employed by Beltway think-tanks are for naught. No one really believes in their claptrap unless he is being paid.

For many in the dissident sphere, the immediate answer to the question of ideology is National Socialism, full-stop. But, without reigniting the optics debate, it is a rather hard sell to the general public. Attempts to explain National Socialist policies and worldview are quickly subsumed in relitigating World War II. That is a steep hill to climb, built-up as it has been over the years on the deluge of propaganda which surrounds National Socialist Germany.

But if Hitler cannot be an introductory avatar for the time being, then who… or what?

Enter: the Smurfs. Delightful, whimsical creatures standing only three apples high, the Smurfs are both a wholesome children’s media franchise but also an enjoyable introduction to concepts such as corporatism and the Führerprinzip.

Excluding some of their recent forays onto the big screen, who has anything really bad to say about the Smurfs? Only the kind of rabid individualist who sees the Smurfs as Communist propaganda rather than for what they truly are: an example of a National Socialist society which is child-friendly, and thus digestible for the bulk of our people as well.

Unlike the degenerate comics of the American cultural wasteland, the Smurfs are the creation of a wholly European soul, much like Asterix or Tintin. Their stories possess weight and morality alongside comedy and adventure, providing life lessons that one can apply without having to jump through the erratic series of hoops instituted for jewish-created superheroes.

Let us examine some of the aspects of Smurfish society portrayed within the comics and animated series: the guild system, the role of the Papa Smurf, living in harmony with nature, and opposition to hook-nosed sorcerers seeking to use the blood of innocents for depraved rituals.

One of the immediately striking facts of the society of the Smurfs is the importance that work holds to each Smurf’s sense of identity, an idea wholly congenial to National Socialist thinking and practice. Smurfs are given names which reflect their talents and roles in society, with examples including Handy Smurf, Hefty Smurf, Farmer Smurf, and Painter Smurf. These examples demonstrate the value which Smurfs hold to the different aspects of labor: industry (such as exists in the pre-industrial setting of the Smurfs), manual labor, agriculture, and arts.

From this grounding, the Smurf village proceeds to operate on the corporatist principles of 1930s economic thinkers in Fascist Italy and National Socialist Germany. Handy Smurf is not looked down upon by Painter Smurf, nor is the latter resented by the former. Despite their different roles, they both serve their community and are valued for it. The Smurfs who do not enjoy this same level of respect are those whose titles are less related to their profession than their personality. Jokey Smurf with his exploding packages, the eternally black-pilled Grouchy Smurf, and the limp-wristed Vanity Smurf provide not only comic relief for viewers but also valuable examples for children on how not to behave.

An especially noteworthy Smurf in this regard is Brainy Smurf, whose bossy nature and ego often ends up getting him beaten up by the other Smurfs. A valuable lesson for big-headed intellectuals divorced from the popular sentiment that Hitler and Mussolini would certainly have approved!

The different roles and personalities of the Smurfs would seem to be an invitation to fraction and discord, and indeed the Smurfs do enjoy their fair share of squabbles. But over all of this is a singular leader figure, Papa Smurf, who mediates disputes, provides wisdom, and guides his people in the right direction. It is striking in our current pop culture landscape of deconstruction and faux anti-authoritarianism that Papa Smurf’s leadership role is not seriously challenged by either other characters or by the author. It is natural and good that one Smurf serves as the leader for his people, and he is a noble and good leader, open to hearing from his charges and learning from them. Brainy Smurf’s naked grabs for authority and power behind the cloak of “Papa Smurf says” are still shot down by a population of Smurfs who are properly skeptical, not blindly worshipful of their leadership.

In a similar way to National Socialist governance, Papa Smurf does not exercise his authority for the sake of doing so. Instead, he practices the principle of subsidiarity where he can, delegating responsibility to the Smurfs he deems best suited for the task at hand. This is an authoritarian system, yes, but not a totalitarian one.

The Smurfs also model for viewers a lifestyle friendly to nature. The Smurfs are not strangers to building and sustaining a comfortable life for themselves in their village, but their relationship with the wildlife around them is a cooperative one, not an exploitative one. The Smurfs operate a dam to prevent their village from flooding and fish for food, but they also repurpose mushrooms as homes and are friends with the animals. For the Smurfs, a fallen log is not an immediate cause for concern. Rather than remove it for the sole sake of clearing the most efficient route, Smurfs will enjoy the detour.

These are all aspects of the Smurfs’ society, but what of the stories that are told in this world? What provides conflict for the Smurfs to overcome? Well, besides the previously mentioned disputes and clashes of personality in the Smurf village, there is a rogue’s gallery of fantastical characters seeking to destroy the Smurfs or use them for their own dark ends. Chief among the show’s villains is the wizard Gargamel, a hunchbacked, hook-nosed, balding alchemist.

Along with his cat, named Azrael after the Hebrew Angel of Death, Gargamel is constantly seeking out the Smurfs for reasons which vary from story to story. Sometimes he wishes to eat them, other times to revenge himself upon some real or imagined slight, but the most striking motivation given for his actions is the idea that the Smurfs themselves serve as valuable components for some of Gargamel’s rituals. In the setting of a children’s cartoon, Gargamel’s failure is preordained and he is a bumbling figure as much as a threatening one, but for children this story element is an introduction to the subject of jewish blood rituals which resulted in the kidnapping and murder of Christian children across Europe throughout history.

Gargamel has been criticized as an anti-semitic stereotype, and with good cause, as his appearance and actions are those of the enemy that has stalked across Europe and the imagination of European artists. Forewarned is forearmed, and the Smurfs is valuable in this regard because it not only depicts the enemy as an actual danger, but also shows that he can be beaten.

To provide a parallel with some of the current struggles of our current age, one of Gargamel’s earliest plots against the Smurfs involved the creation of an artificial Smurf, a female called Smurfette. This was not the Smurfette of popular imagination, however, but a curly dark-haired hag with bad teeth. Only with the help of Papa Smurf and his “plastic Smurfery” did she become the blonde-haired, blue-skinned knockout that we know today.

In trying to help the misbegotten creature, however, Papa Smurf only helps to further Gargamel’s scheme: the newly attractive Smurfette begins creating the discord among the Smurfs that the hand-rubbing wizard envisioned. After the various Smurfs throw themselves against each other to pursue the unattached and unchaperoned Smurfette, Papa Smurf is forced to step in and exercise his authority. From then on, Smurfette becomes a part of the community, but her integration is guaranteed by her adoption by the community’s patriarch to give guidance. There are several valuable lessons one can draw from this single story.

Ultimately, the Smurfs benefit from having sprung from the well of classic European folklore and tradition rather than the deracinated, consumerist “culture” of a more decadent society. The Smurfs are not perfect, they have their foibles and disagreements, but they present a vision for a world which many of us would like to live in. Plenty of young boys are introduced to the surface appeal of National Socialism through images of driving tanks and diving planes, of impressive uniforms and striking symbols, but we owe it to future generations to impart the worldview and philosophy which formed the basis for these amazing feats. The Smurfs can offer first steps towards the better world we seek to create for our youth.

Join us next time to hear about how the Snorks and their music were created by the CIA.