If you guys are old enough to remember Al Capp's Li'l Abner cartoon series, you would remember the Shmoo - " the greatest menace to hoomanity th' world has evah known." Is it because they are so terrifying, so evil that humanity has to fear the Shmoo? "No, stupid," answered Ol' Man Mose, hurling one of life's profoundest paradoxes at Li'l Abner. "It's because they're so good!"
Let me quote once more from the article on the Shmoo. "Ironically, the lovable and selfless Shmoos ultimately brought misery to humankind because people with a limitless supply of self-sacrificing Shmoos stopped working and society broke down. Seen at first as a boon to humankind, they were ultimately hunted down and exterminated to preserve the status quo. "
And here is where I digress. The Shmoo were not totally exterminated. One always seem to have escaped to Al Capp's Dogpatch fairy tale world. In reality, they metamorphosed or evolved it it is to survive. One, it seemed, survived and metamorphosed in the far away land of Malayia where today they are thriving in their metamorphosed state wrecking the havoc that Ol' Man Mose predicted.
Note: for more information on the Shmoo re-read your Li'l Abner cartoons or visit http://www.lil-abner.com/shmoo.html. You will not regret it.
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