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Economy 87

(Weber 1958), but in the inherently religious character of capitalism. From
Walter Benjamin’s reflections in the late 1920s on “Capitalism as Religion”
(Benjamin 1996) to recent debates about the “religion of the market” (Loy
1997; Foltz 2007), the expanding economy of capitalism has been engaged
as if it were a religion, emerging in Europe, developing in North America,
and now global.
If the capitalist economy is a religion, its sacred texts, its canonical
scriptures might very well be discovered in animated cartoons. Both Adorno
and Benjamin, for different reasons, found Disney cartoons revelatory in
reinforcing capitalism’s ethos of conformity and promise of redemption.
Though all modern media are entangled in these cycles of production,
consumption, and contestation, animation is a particularly plastic medium
for testing and transcending limits, for taking a beating, like Donald
Duck, but also for playing with transformations, like Mickey Mouse, in an
alternative world that is “full of miracles.” To illustrate these animations
of the constraints of the culture industry and its miraculous promises of
redemption, I focus here on one animated film, Destination Earth.

Secret, sacred

Destination Earth (1956) is a thirteen-minute animated cartoon, brilliantly
illustrated by a team of creative animators, produced by John Sutherland,
and financed by the American Petroleum Institute, in which Martians learn
the secret of American power. Opening with an expansive display of planets
in outer space, with traces of a whizzing spacecraft, the film settles into a
stadium, where the supreme Martian leader, Ogg, the Exalted, announces
that all Martians are “commanded—er, invited—to attend.” Accordingly,
the stadium, Ogg Memorial Stadium, in the city of Oggville, with its
Oggmart, Ogg Café, and many other Ogg enterprises, is filled to capacity
with subservient, obedient Martians, cheering their “Glorious Leader, Ogg
the Great,” in response to prompters instructing them to cheer and applaud
on cue. Surrounded by banners that herald the glorious Ogg as “friend,
leader, crusader,” the Great Ogg begins by thanking the people for their
“unsolicited testimonial” to his greatness.
This gathering was convened to hear the report from a Martian who
had recently returned from outer space. As Ogg announced, “by special
permission of the commander-in-chief—me—here is Mars’ first space
explorer, Colonel Cosmic.” As the colonel explained to the crowd, he was
sent into outer space by Ogg, the Magnificent, because the supreme Martian
leader has become dissatisfied with the speed and efficiency of Ogg power,
coerced slave labor, “which runs most of our industry.” Particularly, the
great Ogg was frustrated that his official limousine was too slow drawn by