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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories Police Reports Measure 92 recount shows little change in Jackson County Ashland: Lions Club steps up for vision tests Police allege Ashland pizza parlor owner tried to blow up building Survey: Ashland is an affordable rental market Education Ashland: Lions Club steps up for vision tests Ashland Rotary Student Youth of the Month: Avery Nicole Jesmer AHS arts festival is Friday AHS, SOU seek arts program director In Portland, mindfulness classes ease stress of high school Environment Home Help: Make your new house feel like home ‘Tis the season — for wild mushrooms Don't like weather where you are? 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Ashland Calendar ... Guest Opinion: The environmental tipping point ... Our View: 92 backers should move on ... Ashland Calendar ... Guest Opinion: The environmental tipping point ... RELOCATIONS Herb Rothschild Jr.: Greed, love and the Shmoo DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Nov. 22, 2014 @ 12:01 am Posted Nov. 22, 2014 @ 12:01 am » Social News The Shmoo debuted in the “Li’l Abner” comic strip in August 1948. This creature of Al Capp’s imagination struck a chord in the American psyche. By September 1949, a collection of Shmoo strips published under the title The Life and Times of the Shmoo had sold 700,000 copies, and Shmoo by-products were a $25 million business. The Shmoo was a small animal shaped much like a bowling pin except that it had a mustache and its body was plumper and thus vaguely reminiscent of a ham. Shmoos proliferated as quickly as rabbits, and since they lived on love, they were an inexhaustible resource. Alive, they spontaneously produced eggs and Grade A milk. Dead, their flesh tasted like ham or pork chops, depending on its preparation. No slaughtering was necessary, because if a person looked at a Shmoo hungrily, it died from the sheer joy of being wanted. Like a good bit of Capp’s work, the Shmoo was partly political in conception. General Bullmoose, Capp’s personification of corporate greed, recognized the Shmoo as a threat to his power and arranged for its extermination. The last strip in the series showed what seems to be the utter destruction of the species, but unbeknown to Bullmoose, one loving pair survives deep in the woods. Prior to that pointed conclusion, Capp had spelled out his message in a “Town Meeting of the Air” radio program, which was reprinted in the New Republic of March 21, 1949. The talk itself was comic, with Capp assuming a persona whose uncle was named J. Parnell Capitalist, married, of course, to Auntie Capitalist. These representatives of the two ideologies beginning to lock horns in the Cold War decide, for differing reasons, that they must exterminate the Shmoo. After they do, the Capp persona concludes, “But don’t cry, kiddies, there is a real live Shmoo. This big earth will give us everything we want, just as the Shmoo does, if only we’d let it alone — if only in our passion and hatred and intolerance we don’t tear it apart.” Did Capp mean to say that the material resources of the earth, like the Shmoo, were indeed inexhaustible? Astounding as it seems today, perhaps he did. Post-World War II America acted as if the planet’s ecosystem was open-ended and its resources unlimited. Today we know better, although General Bullmoose continues to act as if they are, as long as he can monopolize and monetize them until nothing remains to exploit. There is, however, another way to understand what Capp was saying, one that explains the imaginative power of his creation. The Shmoo wasn’t about the material world. Its flesh was merely the vehicle through which it expressed its spirit. Matter is limited; when we use it, we use it up. Love is unlimited; the more we use it, the more it multiplies. But it is only in fantasy, in the Shmoo, that matter so painlessly serves the spirit. Matter has its own integrity and its own claims. The snowpack in the Cascades will not increase out of love for us, nor will the world’s coral reefs rejuvenate because they wish to delight us with their beauty. It may be that all matter is filled with spirit — many belief systems hold that as true. Western culture since the late 17th century has rejected that belief, but most of us still believe that humans are a nexus of matter and spirit. And if we can properly love the creation, then instead of devouring the Schmoo, we can admit it on equal terms into our economy of care. Herb Rothschild Jr. is chairman of the board of Peace House. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Nov. 22, 2014 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2014 Local Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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