Saturday, August 22, 2026

Environmental and Political Poisoning

Three recurring themes in The Smith Family, with examples from the strips below.
Environmental and Political Poisoning: 

The strip was a precursor to modern activism, critiquing "environmental poisoning," "military spending," and the existential threat of nuclear proliferation, famously asking, "Who will make tomorrow's bombs?"


Social Hypocrisy:

 The Smiths utilized the strip to address "cultural hypocrisy," "gun control," and "women's equality" decades before such topics were mainstream.


Technocratic Skepticism: 

The work maintained a deep skepticism of the modern "captor-technocracy." One recurring theme argued that "civilization can never occur till exacerbation, perspicacity, munificence and magnanimity" are achieved, while television was viewed as the "voice" that programmed citizens like "chimpanzees in captivity."


The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a woman grins and asks, 'I don't believe it! How could the TV break down on the day of the most important game of the year?'



The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a bespectacled child lectures about all living matter as one omniscient organism and the earthworm as sacred; another child is told 'You just zapped one,' then stands at a grave marked 'Worm' and says 'Sorry.'


The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a child says 'There's six tons of plutonium missing,' the kids see a mushroom cloud, and muse that plutonium is named after Pluto, the devil — 'Wouldn't that be lovely?'


The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a man says the male has maligned the female with the term 'woman driver' though insurance statistics prove the opposite; a woman holding a steering wheel arrives as a child tumbles past — 'Flawless timing.'

The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a child asks, 'Grandpa, how come your skin don't fit?' and the wrinkled grandfather replies, 'I washed it and can't do a thing with it.'



The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a man reads that 'this jerk' calls our cultural matrix an engine of destruction for turning resources into noxious fumes and people into fat, then walks into a door frame — 'Idiot.'



The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a child asks 'Why am I? Who am I? What am I?'; a girl says 'I can answer all that... if you give me five minutes' head start.'



The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a child stands by a scruffy dog and says 'Doesn't it mean anything to you that dog is God spelled backward?' and is answered 'Doesn't it mean anything to you that saelf is fleas spelled backward?'



The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: two children discuss how rats raised like American kids became sad, dumb klutzes while littermates in a rich environment became joyful geniuses; 'Sure, that's all great stuff if you're a rat.' 'Watch it!'



The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a bespectacled child says the human family is such a fright that all nations should turn in their national emblems for one common one; asked what he'd suggest, he says 'The cuckoo.'



The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: kids in a field discuss soil erosion and growing toxicity from petrochemical agriculture, until one throws dirt in the air: 'The heck with it.'



The Smith Family strip by Mr. and Mrs. George Smith: a man at a desk muses that the student exceeds the master as Japanese electronics, cars and steel and now pharmaceuticals overtake us, then clutches his head: 'Bombed again!'