NationStates Jolt Archive

Commie Comics
by Nima Sanandaji (mailto:sanandaji@gmail.com)

The last time I traveled to Sweden I forgot to bring my toothbrush. Going into the nearest shop I noticed that the children’s toothbrushes had a picture of a small yellow bear on them. I sighed.

The small yellow bear is Bamse. Bamse is a popular children’s comic character who appears in both comics and televised cartoons. He is an ordinary little teddy bear, living with the other nice cuddly animals in the forest. But when the baddies, such as the trolls or the wolves, start hurting the nice animals, Bamse drinks some kind of magical "thunder honey" and uses the super strength that he gains to beat up the bad guys.

The comics of Bamse are really about communicating values to small children and Bamse has become an important icon in Swedish society. What is striking about Bamse is that he is a socialist. The bad guys in Bamses world are driven by capitalist greed and lack of solidarity. Bamse regularly stops Krösus, an exploitative capitalist rat, from profiting from hurting other animals.

Bamse spends a lot of his time teaching children fundamental socialist values. Joakim Nilsson has written a very interesting essay (in Swedish) where he goes through the various political messages in Bamse. The comics are usually written for small children and have simple storylines (a wolf steals some carrots from the rabbit, Bamse beats up the wolf and gives back the carrots, etc.) but they can be quite sophisticated when it comes to politics. In a comic from 1983 the children can read:

"In Bejing there is the greatest square in the world – Tien An Men. Tiananmen Square. On October the first of 1949 millions of people joined together there to hear Mao Zedong proclaim the People's Republic of China. The country was liberated from the warlords, businessmen and foreigners who had ruled previously. Before this liberation, many millions of people starved to death. After 1949 food has been distributed fairly and nobody starves. This is one of the most important events of the 20th century – a quarter of the people on the Earth are Chinese!"

Bamse does not only brainwash children into believing that perhaps the worst genocidal regime in human history is a good one. He also explains to them how greedy and evil capitalists are and the importance of solidarity, high taxes and a welfare state.

Bamse is not really a fan of private property or the rule of law either. Already in 1973, there is a story where Bamse becomes a police officer and catches somebody robbing a toy store. However, Bamse realizes that the burglar is his friend who is stealing the toys for her child’s birthday. Bamse sees this as an adequate reason for stealing and releases the burglar. He also promptly tells the owner of the store, who demands that the burglar be punished, to "Shut up!" When Bamse ends up in prison for misconduct as a policeman, he simply runs away. And so the story ends happily.

What strikes me about Bamse is how somebody can write a comic for very small children that celebrates genocidal dictators and teaches that stealing and breaking the law is right when there are good socialist motives to do so. This comic teaches us something important. Not only do socialists see the world in a strange and twisted way, but they also view themselves as so morally superior that it becomes acceptable to indoctrinate children with their radical ideas.

And if you think that Bamse is restricted to only Sweden, think again. If I remember correctly, Bamse has even been shown in Iranian television. The little bear has been around in various comics and TV series since 1966. According to the site Bamsesamlarna.com (http://www.bamsesamlarna.com/) ("The Bamse collectors") the Bamse magazine is printed in eleven different languages with a total circulation of 1.5 million. The cuddly little bear is still teaching children what is right and what is wrong. The socialist message in the comic might very well (at least partially) have been replaced by politically correct leftwing liberalism. But if Bamse teaches us anything it is not to let our children read comics that have an underlying radical message hidden in them.

May 22, 2006

Nima Sanandaji [send him mail (mailto:sanandaji@gmail.com)] is president of the Swedish think tank Captus and the editor of Captus Journal. (http://www.captus.nu/) He is a graduate student in biochemistry at the University of Cambridge.

Copyright © 2006 LewRockwell.com


It's refreshing to see that at least some Swedes (the author) don't worship the Total State.

;) Cool stuff.

What? You thought brainwashing kids was anything new? Have you seen the Advertising conventions/conferences over here in America?

Socialism is definitely a religion. It even has the "indocrination of young children" thing down.

Much less damaging than Disney, which rewrites complex stories to make them fit into simplistic Manichean patterns of good and evil, and teaches children to think of everything in those terms.

]

It's refreshing to see that at least some Swedes (the author) don't worship the Total State.
I don't think the author is Swedish, just travels there as indicated in the first line of the article.

This is different than Iron Man''s anti-communist era or games like Monopoly or consumerist messages like "Gotta catch 'em all" in what ways?

It's a shame that so many people don't see the difference between teaching and indoctrination. Proper teaching would be giving children the necessary information to decide for themselves.

YIKES!! Those devilish commies are freeloaders! Simply because your are a human, doesn't give you the right to success...hard work, and plenty of it does. "If everybody is equal, everybody is miserable." -Your's truly!

My brother has some old "Bamse" comics lying around from when he was younger... We never knew they would corrupt him and turn him into a pinko. I'd better have a look at what sort of indoctrination we have put him through...

Okay, I've got a "Bamse" story here... Let the unravelling of the socialist propaganda begin:

First page:
Bamse is at his grandmother's house, thanking his grandmother for making the thunder honey. Grandmother's reply: "Who else could do it? I am the only one who knows the recipe."

Obviously, thunder honey symbolizes the power and might of the socialist bloc. Bamse's grandmother must be perceived as a symbol for the leaders of socialist revolution, the ones who hold the reins and direct the working class from whom socialism's power comes, which the warriors of socialism (aka. the "Red Army", symbolized by Bamse,) use to spread the socialist gospel. Strong leaders (Grandmother,) are required to direct the worker's righteous power. The capitalists (who no doubt sell their grandmothers,) are in other words doomed.

A bird lands in Grandmother's window, carrying a message. The message is a plead for help by an anonymous person, who is, apparently, trapped in a place called "Skumleborg."

It is worth noting that the Swedish word "borg" is also the stem in "borgar", which is the Swedish word for "bourgeois". "Skumle" means "spooky", so the letter is from someone who is trapped by the "spooky bourgeois".

Page two:
Bamse naturally decides he must help this poor soul, who is trapped in "Skumleborg". He learns that to reach "Skumleborg", he must cross across a steep mountain. Grandmother, remarking that she has heard "Skumleborg" is a "dreadful place", gives Bamse five jars of thunder honey before he heads out.

The steep mountain is obviously meant to represent the division between the working class and the bourgeois, who own the means of production. Though obviously a challenge, Bamse will no doubt prove that the working man can cross this barrier to challenge the capitalist oppressors.

Page three:
Grandmother's cat and a housemouse overhear Bamse, and wish to join him on his quest, claiming "to friends should accompagny him." Bamse, however, refuses to take them with him, saying "Skumleborg will be too spooky" for them.

The message is clear: The cat and the mouse represent the common worker and farmer: The hammer and sickle. Though they are Bamse's friends, they should not interfere in his work. War is the soldier's responsibility, and it is in the best interest of the farmer and the worker to leave him to his work. Hardly a democratic way of thinking.

Over the following pages, Bamse travels to "Skumleborg", carrying with him five jars of thunder honey. Unbeknowst to him, the cat and the housemouse have hid in two of the jars, so he only has three jars with actual thunder honey. Over the course of the travel, Bamse loses these three jars.

Again: It is not for the farmer and the worker to interfere with the warrior's work. Only bad will come from this. They should stay behind and help socialism by working and producing.

Bamse reaches "Skumleborg" and decides to charge up on thunder honey. He discovers, of course, that thanks to the cat and housemouse's interference, he has no more thunder honey. Despite their well-meaning, they have weakened him by disobeying and leaving their posts.

Bamse still enters "Skumleborg", to find that it's resident, Treodor, is a nutcase who collects stuffed bears from all over the world. The only think missing from his collection was a live bear (Bamse is a bear, which, coincidentally, is an animal closely connected with Russia.) The note sent to Grandmother's house was just a ruse, used by Treodor to lure Bamse to him. Treodor traps bamse, gleefully announcing that he will never let Bamse go.

The symbolism couldn't be more clear: Treodor is the socialist bogeyman, a shrewd capitalist who's only interested in own material gains (teddy bears,) and who seeks to enslave the workers (trapping Bamse in a cage,) for his own gain.

Over the next few pages, the cat and the mouse, feeling guilty for Bamse's predicament, search for one of the lost jars of thunder honey. They find that one has been stolen, and that the thief is currently experiencing stomach pains from eating of the honey. (Only Bamse may eat of the honey without stomach pains.) They manage to bring a spoon to Bamse, who immediately becomes "thunder strong", smashes the cage, beats up Treodor (only after Treodor attacks him,) and destroys his weapon. Bamse then gives him a lecture on how imprisoning people is bad, and Treodor appears to repent. Thus, the story ends happily.

The worker and the farmer are, of course, able to aid the warrior, by giving him the honey (socialism's power.) As long as they stay out of the way and let the warrior sort capitalism out, things go well. Bamse defeats the capitalist, destroys his weapon (capital, no doubt.) The story ends happily as the bourgeois is defeated and socialistic idyll is once again restored.


I cannot understand how we could have been so blind as to let dear little brother read this propaganda! It has no doubt addled his brain and indoctrinated him with socialist propaganda! I shall have to remedy this by buying him "Captain America" magazines and comics with brave Americans fighting the evil Japs during WWII! Never again will this sneaky socialist filth poison him!

DE COMMUNISTEN STINKEN! HOE DURF DOEN ZIJ DIT! Herinner me: "Als iedereen gelijk is, is iedereen miserabel." - Uw truly!S!

OH NOES!!!!!1

And Paddington bear encourages vagrancy and teaches children that it's ok to sleep in train-stations!

Its asshats like the guy who wrote this article that piss me off. I mean, shit. In the market-place of ideas I have complete confidence that capitalism or some variation of it will win every time because of the shear unfeasibility and irrationality of communism. We need not be scared of a toy bear. Then we’ve just sunk to the level of the FCC and supporters of hate-speech laws.

Death to Bamse.

1) Kevlanakia, you are my hero.

2) http://www.schildersmilies.de/noschild/laughoutloud.gif

3) Well, "solidarity", high taxes and so on have apparently helped Sweden quite a bit in recent decades (although they had to restructure some things in the 90s). Interestingly, I haven't heard many complaints from Swedes about their horrible and oppressive system, and some people are free to own quite a lot of money (like the people who started IKEA as a classic example of entrepreneurship leading to immense personal wealth).
Even if there were hidden messages that promote these values - would you be surprised when they have served Sweden well and are generally accepted by much of its population, perhaps including the authors of the comics?

Oh, not another Austrian School cultist, or worse..a Rockwellian.

Bamse, the Communist bear > Popeye, the capitalist Sailor pig-dog.

That comic is wacked out. It's stuff like this that gives socialism a bad reputation, though it isn't the best. It isn't the worst either. The idea of communism, the thoery is to share property and for everyone to provide for everyone. that would mean some people farm and everyone gets food while others make clothes for everyone and such. This however, is ineffective on a large scale and doesn't work in an actual nation. The form of government requires a transition period of heightened state to acquire all property to set everyone even. Thus, communism as government is crap but as a theory and on a small scale it's not that bad.

thats nothin Macdonalds have been brainwashin kids with their happy meals for years :)