"Ohh, what do you know?"
—Homer Simpson

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Less than a minute in a show spanning thirty years was all it took to ignite some deep-seated mania in Simpsons viewers. Sneed’s Feed and Seed has reached cult-like significance with its disciples as earnest in spreading the word as Christ’s apostles.

Our domesticated culture harbors a condescending view of rural America: uneducated, bigoted, poor, backwater people. Now entering Homer such thoughts are latent in our heads. Yet it is we, the audience, who are attacked.

“City slicker," “fancy German car," “Gucci loafers," “Park Avenue manicure,” invective bites at our character, what we represent. We are that urbanite consumerist drone with his import products and delicate hands unknown to hard labor. This theme develops throughout the scene.

Homer’s blunders show he is not more wise or capable in all regards to the farmers, but rather than realizing this he merely responds with “What do you know?” only to make yet another laughable mistake. “What do you know?”

While at the time this seems to be simply ironic dialogue for comedic effect it has an added deeper significance. It makes we, the audience, question, “What do they know?" Sneed is embedded in our collective unconscious, the reasons undoubtedly nuanced.

No, it cannot simply be because of the emotional contradiction we feel, having our expectations be defied. Having one's views challenged leads to a catharsis. Sneed is a mirror into our own subconscious. We live in a society where all of our needs are easily taken care of.

There is no direct connection between our cushy white collar jobs and providing for our very survival. We supplemented freedom for comfort. Our ancestors experienced struggle to survive. This is part of the human ethos.

The industrial revolution and its consequences inverted our way of life. We no doubt feel a draw to return to the freedom and struggle formerly experienced by those who lived before. Sneed represents a return to tradition. Such a desire is no doubt manifest in most of society.

The conservatives wish to return to their idealized American decade, even though where we are now was the inevitable conclusion of it. The farmers themselves are no longer sustenance farmers. Sneed himself is selling to Homer to make extra money.

Even those seemingly resistant to change have been dragged on the coattails of “progress." So is this yearning for freedom a delusion? Perhaps. Our desire for freedom manifests in many ways. Some may progress among the fake hierarchy of the business world for this sense of control.

Others may try to escape it all and homestead for their families. In more extreme cases our desire for freedom manifests in extreme cathartic violence. All political violence is catalyzed by our desire to dictate our destinies. What do we have to show for it? The system is resilient.

The trends of “progress” show no signs of stopping. Maybe now one can hope to stay away in the woods away from civilization, but it will not last. Civilization will come knocking on their doorstep as history has shown countless times before. It will not stop.

It will continue until everything is a socially beneficial agent. You and I are already pigs of this system. Import products, white collar jobs, probably on some drug to wire you into accepting your place in this insane hierarchy, sneering in the face of true universal order.

Now I ask you, “What do you know?”