If Software Companies Ran the Country

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2021-06-13 00:00:06

[This essay originally appeared in Whole Earth Review #57 (Winter 1987). It is now both terribly dated and still apt. It can be viewed, perhaps, as ahead of its time. It earned hate mail when it first appeared.]

You remember the Shmoo, don't you? It was a cute little white colored, squash-shaped cartoon character created by Al Capp in his comic strip "Li'l Abner," in 1948. Shmoos bred like rabbits and could produce any object at the drop of a hat. Since they loved to please humans, they would willingly pump out milk, eggs, filet mignon, caviar, or anything else if requested.

At first glance Shmoos seemed to herald the arrival of Utopia. Unfortunately, a plethora of Shmoos meant that people quit their jobs, stopped paying taxes, and civilization as we know it began to degenerate quickly - or so Al Capp sought to demonstrate in his mildly didactic way. In other words, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

The great funnies-reading public was not so sure. Shmoos were enormously popular and thousands of Shmoo products were bought and sold before the Shmoo fad ran its course. Al Capp supposedly became so sick of Shmoos that he killed them off and banished them from the strip. They popped up again for another short appearance in "Li'l Abner" ten years later, were killed off again and this time were gone for good.