Ever see the 1958 cult classic The Blob starring Steve McQueen? No? Seriously, it's pretty good (and by good, we mean one of those "it's so bad it's good" kind of things).

Plot line: a giant blob of red jelly from outer space lands on earth and grows at an uncontrollable rate, consuming everything representing America, freedom, and democracy in its path.

Did you catch the part where we said it was a red blob of jelly? Because the entire movie is just one giant metaphor for the red communist threat and the Cold War taking place at the time. And, as it turns out, this idea of an unnatural, menacing growth representing the Soviet Union taking over the world is also used by Truman:

The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. (103-104)

If you know anything about gardening, you might know that weeds, like giant red blobs of jelly, easily spread to unwanted places…and can be hard to kill. Truman uses the way a weed or plant grows from a tiny seed to enforce the idea that the communist ("totalitarian") threat facing the world is growing.

The only reason these awful seeds can grow, however, is because the conditions for growing them are right: misery, want, and "the evil soil of poverty and strife" are Truman's versions of the sunlight, water, and nutrient-dense soil needed to grow an actual plant.

We love this metaphor not just for its imagery, but also for its purpose. One of the major sub-points of the speech is that the U.S. and the rest of the world are responsible for creating the problems (growing conditions) for the spread of communism by refusing to help others. The only way to stop the seeds from sprouting (the blob from blobbing) is to make sure the growing conditions are no longer there. And, according to Truman's doctrine, economic and military aide are the pesticides needed to get the job done.

You hear that, Uncle Joe? Find some peanut butter, take your jelly, and go blob somewhere else.