Liberalism under the Sea

HE LIVES in a pineapple under the sea - absorbant and yellow and porous is he.

spongebobsquarepants is a loyal hardworking employee who is constantly exploited and abused by his insanely greedy, tyrannical boss mister krabb, who owns the Krusty Krab restaurant. not only is his boss a jerk, but so is his surly immediate supervisor.

all authority is corrupt....

across the street in bikini bottom stands a competing business, the chum bucket restaurant. there is constant corporate warfare as the owner of the chum bucket incessantly, always unsuccessfully  tried to steal the top secret recipe for  krabby  patties.

spongebob himself is a kind hearted, fun loving simpleton who persistently tried to achieve wealth and fame, only because he lives in a culture which so encourages him.

all attempts to corupt spongebob fail, because money and fame haven't the moral power to corrupt the inherent goodness of spongebobsquarepants.

the very fact that spongebob is on cable TV means, by necessity, that he is owned and controlled by a large corporation, run by people who, for the most part, are probably conservative, at least economically, pro business capitalists.

and yet somehow, this liberal subtext got written in, and made it to the small screen. television writers are indeed frequently flaming progressives. but don't sell corporate ownership short; they are people whabove all know how to make a buck, and aren't about to let a little ideology stand in the way of appealing to a mass market.

if we aren't careful, spongebobsquarepants'll be lobbying for employee ownership, revenue sharing, and health care benefits...

Bb

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