Speaking of Muppets and the contemporary exploitation of indentured servitude by the so-called "knowledge-classes," what about the Fraggles' unending oppression of the Doozers? I can't think of a more concise example of a knowledge-class (the mystical Fraggles who "live to play") extracting the congealed labor ("Doozer sticks") of an underclass (the hard-working Doozers).
The Fraggles literally gobble the labor up.
Just listen to Jim Henson's description of the system of oppression--he's like a wackier incarnation of his bearded brother, Karl Marx. And yet he seems to accept the system of exploitation as unavoidably rooted in some sort of alleged naturalism: "Doozers live to work." Clearly Henson subscribes to Fraggle-mysticism. In other words, we know what side he's on.
Perhaps a re-reading of Fraggle Rock is the most urgent thing Cultural Theorists could be doing.
2 comments:
My question is, what are the dozers building? Could it be that they are building the infrastructure for some kind of democratic model of governance, which the aristocratic fraggle class callously and purposefully destroy in order to maintain their social dominance inherent in the status quo?
Then again, the dozer sticks are made out of radishes... with a little salt and pepper, sauteed in some olive oil--could it be that we are confusing class oppression with a simple case of foolish achitectural decision-making and a bad case of the munchies?
Yes, you pose an interesting question in raising the possibility of Fraggle Rock being a political allegory for our contemporary scene. The Doozers are the Clintonian democrats who have created the wealth of radishy public infrastructure that the Fraggles (neo-conservatives) mooch off of.
The only problem with this scenario is that it would mean that, somehow, Fraggle Rock anticipated the future... except that that isn't a problem, on account of the Prophetic Trash Heap! A Trash Heap who does, in fact, greatly resemble Alan Greenspan if you look closely.
And I'm actually completely serious about this...
-Donald Hipserdoofus
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