Bighead’s individual punishment is a clue here - surely the reason to focus on environmental activism is precisely that environmental “punishment” will not be visited on individuals on a one by one basis. Yet is everything as it seems? Is this a simple regression back to individualist moralism, or is an even more penetrating ideological critique at work? The absurdity of Mr. In other words, the problem is that a person in a crucial role happened to be a “bad person” - yet once the situation became known, he received a personal punishment, both from the social system and from the environment itself. Here the writers back away from their dangerous insight, collapsing the critique to individualism: the reason the corporation was polluting so much is that the person in charge of waste management unaccountably loved to pollute. He is fired from his job, and indeed a hole in the ozone layer (remember when people talked about that?) opens up directly above him, exposing him to intense sunrays that fry him to a crisp. Bighead, who violates the norms of environmentalism essentially out of heartfelt conviction. The head of the board is shocked to hear about the damage they’re doing and asks who is in charge of waste disposal - and it turns out to be Mr. Rocko is, however, able to get the townspeople together to storm Conglom-O’s headquarters and preach the message of environmental responsibility to the company’s board of directors. Why not focus on changing the corporate behavior, then? It’d be hopeless - they’re simply too strong! (One also thinks of further questions: if recycling is so necessary, why not mandate that companies only use easily recyclable packaging, etc., rather than trying to recycle whatever companies happen to make? Since corporations are producing this waste, why don’t they have to take responsibility for it? Etc., etc.) This is a brilliant moment of ideological critique, exposing the ways that individual efforts at harm mitigation (such as recycling) are more than counteracted by corporations. When Rocko asks why no one does anything about the situation, the townspeople reply with an immortal chorus: However, they soon find that there is a limit to their effectiveness - no matter how much they clean up, the Conglom-O factory makes even more of a mess. Bighead’s philosophy, and the townspeople join him in a massive recycling effort in order to make room in the garbage dump. Bighead, who is carrying barrels of toxic waste and claims to be able to dump it anywhere with no regard for the consequences. Behind him in line to dump his garbage is Mr. Rocko’s efforts, however, are stymied by the fact that the town’s garbage dump is completely full. The episode begins with Rocko and his fellow townspeople preparing for spring cleaning.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |