Chile, Revolution And Disney

Imperialism and capitalism go hand in hand, as they've always done. The world's greatest capitalist power, the U.S., is also the world's greatest imperialist power, having conquered other nations for their resources with their almighty military. However, the pen is mightier than the sword, and this short post is about the role Disney plays in the conquering of minds.

I've recently stumbled across a book titled "How to Read Donald Duck," written in the early 1970s in Chile by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart. Chile, like many other Latin American countries, was a playground and source of natural resources (mainly copper in Chile's case), for corporate America, until its people democratically voted in socialist president Salvador Allende in 1970. You may recall that I wrote about the violent, U.S. backed coupe on September 11th 1973 led by General Augusto Pinochet in 2019; read Allende's 9/11 for more information on that violent period in Chile.

In that period, in the height of the Cold War, Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart wrote a book-length essay on the hidden imperialist and capitalist propaganda embedded in the innocent looking Disney comics and strips. This book fell victim to the infamous book burnings in Chile after Pinochet became America's puppet dictator who reopened Chile for U.S. corporate interests. Although the book literally became a best-seller throughout Latin America, it was only reissued in August 2018 to a general audience in the United States, mainly due to legal efforts from Disney. Disney is known for protecting their intellectual property with extreme prejudice, while at the same time appropriating stories from around the world.

The actual criticism of Disney cartoons, Donald Duck in particular, is interesting to say the least. Especially noteworthy is the fact that in the world of the Ducks and Mouses, fathers and mothers are missing in the depicted family relationships; everyone is an uncle, aunt or nephew, or a grandparent even, but there are no fathers, mothers, sons or daughters... Here's how Wikipedia summarizes this criticism:

Everybody has an uncle or nephew, everybody is a cousin of someone, but nobody has fathers or sons. This non-parental reality creates horizontal levels in society, where there is no hierarchic order, except the one given by the amount of money and wealth possessed by each, and where there is almost no solidarity among those of the same level, creating a situation where the only thing left is crude competition. Another issue analyzed is the absolute necessity to have a stroke of luck for social mobility (regardless of the effort or intelligence involved), the lack of ability of the native tribes to manage their wealth, and others.
_{source: Wikipedia}

I've linked no less than 2 videos in this post. The first is a reading of an old Donald Duck comic in which Donald and his nephews go on an adventure titled "Lost in the Andes"; it gives a good impression how foreign cultures were depicted and how America always is the benevolent conqueror. It's also a prime example of the purely capitalist hierarchy expressed in Donald's job, one of many he's had, as an "assistant to the second assistant"; he gets ordered around by the second assistant who's ordered around by the first assistant who's ordered around by the professor. And Donald himself gets to order around the three nephews, playing out his dream of one day being able to yell orders at a subordinate himself. The second video is a book review from a rather boring individual who nonetheless does a good job explaining the book's main message. But, you could also just read the book, as I'll link the pdf file here: How to Read Donald Duck.

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