Page 105 - Key Words in Religion Media and Culture

88 David Chidester

slaves and too dangerous if propelled by explosives. Therefore, as Colonel
Cosmic explained, he “ordered our first expedition into space to bring back
the secret of how other planets got their state limousines to run smoothly.”
Undertaking this interplanetary mission, Colonel Cosmic had headed for
the Earth, finding himself in “a country of Earth called the United States of
America,” where he was immediately astounded by all of the “Earthmobiles”
driving around as if they were state limousines. These vehicles, he soon
discovered, were fast, efficient, and owned by everyone. Searching out the
secret of all of this power, he went into a library, read a few books, and
found that the Earth’s “code was remarkably easy to break.”
Here was the secret: oil. Power was drawn from drilling oil, transporting
oil, refining oil and, through the “magic of research,” transforming oil into
a “whole galaxy of things” that made life in America better “than in any
country on the whole planet.”
However, this secret would have remained locked deep under the Earth’s
crust if it had not been liberated by the key of free-market competition. As
Colonel Cosmic discovered, the competition of entrepreneurs, taking risks,
exploiting opportunities, and seeking competitive advantages against each
other necessarily turned scarce resources into surpluses. Market competition,
he found, was the key not only for success in the oil industry but for “almost
every successful business enterprise in America.”
In concluding his speech to the Martian rally in Ogg Stadium, Colonel
Cosmic announced that his exploration of the Earth had revealed that the
“big secret is of course oil, which has brought a better life to all the people in
the USA. But the key to making oil work for everybody is competition.” Over
the Great Ogg’s objection that competition was “downright un-Martian,”
the rally breaks up as Martians start rushing around drilling for oil under
new signs as “Martian Oil Explorers” and “Martian Oil Pioneers.” Even
the old Ogg Café is suddenly reopened, “under new management,” as Joe’s
Café.
Against the background of this explosion of oil drilling and free enterprise
all over Mars, the Martian dictator also explodes, somehow easily blown up,
by a push of a button, as Colonel Cosmic says to the Great Ogg, “You are
through.” In the coda for the film, the colonel addresses a wider audience,
extending from Mars to Earth, by drawing out the obvious moral of the
story: “Yes, the real secret is not only a great source of energy, but also the
freedom to make it work for everybody. And if you have both of these things,
any goal is possible. It’s destination unlimited!” As the music expands and
swells, and the film displays this new banner—“Destination Unlimited!”—we
learn again, in the rolling credits, that this beautifully animated and richly
entertaining film was presented by the Oil Industry Information Committee
of the American Petroleum Institute.