The Race - Anti-Capatilistic theme

For those of us that look deeply, far too deeply my friends tell me, into Seinfeld episodes, I would like to put my 2 cents in.

In The Race there is a subtle and of course, not too subtle, theme of Communism and anti-capitalism.

Elaine is black listed from Hop Sing's Ned's father was blacklisted in the McCarthy era. Ned is black listed from Hop Sing's. Kramer is taken advantage of by Coleman's Dept. store. The materialistic child cares not for the exploited children in Tai Wan.

Jerry has a Showdown with Duncan an old advesary ala High Noon (A highly anti-capitalistic movie of the 50's) Lois is threatened by Duncan who *controls production*. The Race can be taken to mean the *foot race* or the capitalistic *rat race*. ...any others?

Neat .. eh?

The News Guy(Mike) wrote:

"The Race" is one of my favorite episodes, and you're right, there's a theme of Communism running all through it. It's an extremely well-crafted show, in the way they weave that theme through all the subplots and tie them together. It gets even more amusing if you think about the other theme running through the episode- Jerry's Superman fixation (the very fact that his girlfriend is named Lois is a turn-on for him). Superman, the supremely American hero and defender of the American way- vs. Communism.

On Sun, 27 Dec 1998 01:04:25 -0500, Keith Davenport

high noon is indeed a great movie, but to call it anti-capitalistic is wrongheaded and facile.

certainly the movie looked askance at the McCarthy witch-hunts...but it wasn't an indictment of capitalism...

cheers, wt

WTP wrote:

Well, The House on Unamerican Activities (or whatever McCarthy's committee was called.did not agree with you. They blacklisted the writer of this film. But then again, they were pretty wrongheaded themselves. PS- watch the film again and you will see the socialistic and anti-capitalistic bent. It is there. Not there is anything wrong with that.

It certainly was not sympathetic. The bad guys riding into town were the Senator McCarthy gang. His old friends and the businessmen who saw their profits more important than coming to the aid of the sheriff represented the rich and comfortable old-town hollywood stars like John Wayne, Ronnie Reagan etc. who did not speak out in aid of the writers, producers and actors who were being blacklisted but just hung them out to dry.