Thoughts on Mary Hartman Mary Hartman

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, “MH2,” was a television sitcom which aired, five times a week, at 10:30 p.m., during 1976–1977. MH2 was intended to be a parody of traditional soap opera television shows but became more in the eyes of television viewers. It quickly took on cult status, which has endured to the present day. As with the series aired many years later, Friends, people had “Mary Hartman parties” when MH2 was broadcast. MH2 served as a sort of litmus test for the many cultural changes occurring at that time. It is also a Marxist allegory.

Part I

A blog concerning a TV show from the 70s seems out of place in this website about applied Vedic thought. This book series, the Secret History of the Vedas, is all about the most ancient Vedic scriptures applied to very modern themes. Marxist implications can be evidenced in nearly every Episode of MH2. These three — -Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; the Vedic dharma; and Marxism — — are related in having similar themes and solutions.

The Secret History of the Vedas are in five volumes. It is called a “Secret History” of the Vedas because it interprets these holy scriptures in new and different ways.

The first volume, The Vedic Dharma, is the introduction of the themes and issues which are found in all the volumes in this series. It is a line-by-line commentary of the Asyavamasya Sukta of the Rig Veda, and feature all the themes discussed in the next volumes. The One Thousand Names of Soma is about religious ecstasy as through the Vedic deity Soma. All About Agni concerns every facet about the premier Vedic deity Agni. The Vedic Astrologer concerns the Vedic scriptures applied to, well, astrology. The Vedic Alchemist concerns alchemy. It is called the “Secret History” because it presents a global, unified interpretation which lays below the mere words of the Vedic scriptures.

The forthcoming installment of the Secret History of the Vedas. The tentative title is “The Yoga of Karl Marx.” This volume concerns the political dharma and compares and contrasts and applies the Vedic tradition with the philosophy of Karl Marx. Politics aside, the writings of Karl Marx is, at bottom, philosophy and exists as a philosophical system. While there are differences, there are more similarities than you might expect. This is what The Yoga of Karl Marx is all about. The cast and characters of MH2 and their dialogue frequently illustrate the points made in The Yoga of Karl Marx.

This is where MH2 comes in. The show depicts the life of a harried housewife, Mary Hartman, who lives with her husband, Tom, in Fernwood, Ohio, during the 1970s. Fernwood is located in the heart of Middle America. The husband went to work, and the wife stayed at home to cook dinner, etc. Life was not so simple, however, and Fernwood was, as other parts of the country, inundated by all of the changes wrought by the 1970s.

Much like the Vedic dharma, MH2 is susceptible to multiple layers of interpretation. In this blog, MH2 is interpretated as a Marxist allegory. The extended Hartmans are the guinea pigs of a family bombarded by elements of Capitalistic society, indeed, to developments giving rise to Neo-Liberalism.

There will be other blogs discussing the Marxist undertones of MH2.

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