#especially since she grew up in the post 9/11 propaganda era

[softenji]

my mom likes to watch the news a lot so when coverage of the *ahem* issue comes up i just mute it because the propaganda literally makes me physically sick

[a-green-onion]

The He*archate vs Umberto Eco’s “Ur-Fascism”

ok it looks like I haven’t already done this, so! A lot of fictional Evil Empires use the visuals of fascism (iirc the Star Wars original trilogy did this), but not all of them follow through on making the Empire substantially fascist in ideology and practice. Machineries of Empire certainly has fascist visual components, with its regiments of black-shirted soldiers. Umberto Eco, a writer who grew up in Italy under Mussolini, wrote an essay about growing up under that regime and his ideas about key features of fascist and fascist-like movements (I’ll link it in a reblog, I don’t want Tumblr eating this post. I really recommend it, it’s very accessible and well-written). I want to see how much the he*archate correlates with these. It’s easy to get caught up in all the flashy space battles and gory exotic tortures, but YHL is very into military history, and that’s one reason his despotic regimes work so well--they’re taken from real life.

This is horribly incomplete because in my reread I’m only about halfway through Ninefox Gambit, but...I wanna Post.

An important note to start: Eco uses “fascism”, the name for Italian political movement, to refer to a variety of different totalitarian regimes and philosophies, because “fascism had no quintessence. Fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism, a collage of different philosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions.” Further, “Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist.” Thus, the common characteristics he lists are not features of every fascist movement, and are often features of non-fascist repressive movements. The he*archate does not have all these features, but I think it makes sense to analyze it as a fascist empire.

Without further ado:

1. The cult of tradition, including syncretic occultism. “As a consequence, there can be no advancement of learning. Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message” (Eco).

The he*archate does not do this. As I pointed out in an earlier post, there are no foundational religious beliefs behind the High Calendar. No holy texts, no prophets, just a way of life, a set of practices, and endless heresies.

2. Rejection of modernism. “Even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon Blood and Earth (Blut und Boden)” (Eco).

I don’t think the he*archate does this? I might be forgetting something though, feel free to chime in.

3. Action for action’s sake. (Eco)

Kel Kel Kel Kel Kel.

4. Inability to tolerate analysis. “Disagreement is treason.” (Eco)

Yeah that’s precisely how the High Calendar functions.

5. “Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders.”

So, we don’t get to see much of the heptarchate in its earliest forms, and what we do see is in the third book, which I don’t remember super well. I think the he*archate does this, but it’s more obvious how in the context of Eco’s points 5 and 9.

6. “Derives from individual or social frustration” and features an “appeal to a frustrated middle class.”

Again, this talks more about how fascism begins than how it continues. The he*archate is an established, stable totalitarian empire, not a burgeoning movement (which is interesting because by rights this house of cards should have collapsed centuries ago). It would be interesting to look at how the hexarchate uses propaganda but uhhh iirc that’s mostly in the second and third books and I don’t remember them that well.

7. Nationalism, and the obsession with a plot, both as an outside and an inside threat. 

Reflected in how the heretics (an inside plot) are iirc assumed to be aligned with the Hafn (an outside threat). See also point 9.

8. “The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. [...] However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.”

...I think the he*archate might win too many wars for this to be applicable?

9. “Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy [...] life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such a “final solution” implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. No fascist leader has ever succeeded in solving this predicament.”

The he*archate absolutely does live in a state of permanent war, against heresy which is everywhere. The he*archate seems to have solved this predicament by achieving a placid, high standard of living for the majority of its citizenry, contingent upon those citizens’ complicity in the ritual torture of prisoners of this “war.” Thus, every citizen is both invested and involved in the fighting and encouraged to identify with its sacrifices, but also able to live in a true golden age. I’ve always thought about this aspect of the he*archate as in conversation with Ursula K. LeGuin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” but that’s an essay for another day.

10. Contempt for the weak and popular elitism. “Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party. But there cannot be patricians without plebeians. In fact, the Leader, knowing that his power was not delegated to him democratically but was conquered by force, also knows that his force is based upon the weakness of the masses; they are so weak as to need and deserve a ruler. Since the group is hierarchically organized (according to a military model), every subordinate leader despises his own underlings, and each of them despises his inferiors. This reinforces the sense of mass elitism.”

This one isn’t an obvious component, but I think it’s present, especially looking at how the Kel talk about “crashhawks”. I’m going to keep a closer eye out for it as I reread.

Cheris is “un-Kel” because she cannot do this. One of the first things we see Cheris do is order her soldiers into a mildly heretical formation to keep them alive, and we see again and again how well she knows, respects, and cares for the people and servitors under her command. 

On the flip side, Kujen is able to become the system’s architect precisely because he despises his inferiors, and sees everyone as an inferior. As we learn in the third book, this does not come naturally to him, but inducing this state of mind in himself is necessary for his success.

11. “Everybody is educated to become a hero. [...] This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. [...] In non-fascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness. By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.”

Kel Kel Kel Kel.

12. “Machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality).”

The he*archate absolutely, emphatically does not do this. Plenty of gender equality, plenty of nonstandard sexual behavior. 

But! There is another component to point 12. “Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons—doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.” This might be relevant to the commonness of dueling as a form of entertainment, both as a participant and a spectator sport? I don’t think dueling is particularly eroticized but it’s certainly linked to exchanges of power.

13. Selective populism. “In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of view—one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. Having lost their power of delegation, citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction.”

Not a strong theme in MoE, but arguably, this is how the calendar operates: on the Will of the People, carefully channeled by the appropriate authorities.

Also, not strictly relevant, but everyone needs to see this line: “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” Hm.

14. Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning. But we must be ready to identify other kinds of Newspeak, even if they take the apparently innocent form of a popular talk show.”

Again, I’d like to take another look at the propaganda that gets sent out in later books to talk about this properly! The Kel make heavy internal use of euphemisms, but that’s not quite the same thing.

***

Anyway, that was fun, and I hope everyone learned something about how fascism emerges! I encourage you to read the entire essay, chew on its ideas a bit, think about if they apply to other fictional words and to real life.

[varisrollswithadvantage]

As always, thank you @perenelleflamelle for tagging me!

1. What are your pet-peeves?

Probably (and this is purely the pre-law student in me) when people try to explain a complex and nuanced topic and broad terms that over-generalize and simplify things that ignore important factors. Did I mention I’m studying law and public policy? *rolls eyes at self*

2. Describe your fashion sense.

It varies obviously but generally sort of very “Americana” if that makes sense. In the summer I usually wear khaki shorts/cargo shorts and a t-shirt or basketball shorts and a t-shirt. But the large part of my fashion comes in the fall and winter. I mostly love wearing blue jeans with my boots and a t-shirt with a sweatshirt and maybe a jacket on top. If I’m feeling like dressing a little nicer I’ll wear khakis or chino pants and a sweater. And I did speech team in high school so I know how to look good in a suit ;)

3. What music genres do you enjoy most?

It depends on my mood. Sometimes I love listening to Disney movie music and musicals like Les Mis, Hamilton, Chicago, stuff like that. Then I have my Panic! and FOB moods, and then sometimes I like to listen to my favorite ever Propaganda. Depends on the day.

4. What movie genres do you like?

I like action movies, MUSICALS AAAHHH but like for real I’m a hoe for a good movie musical. Historical movies/political thrillers I enjoy. Pretty much anything except horror movies.

5. What cultures are you most interested in?

I’d love to learn more about ancient Greek and Roman culture. So much of the philosophy and law that influences our modern government and legal structure came from there so it would be fascinating to learn about. Also France just seems really alluring to me, since I’m a quarter French but yeah.

6. Favorite mythology and why?

Lol so not an official “mythology” I guess but DC comics mythos to me I love so much. Especially Green Arrow. GA comics have discussed so many cultural and often controversial issues and I love it. But the larger DC mythos is so fun to learn about.

7. What are your favorite TV shows?

Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Last Week Tonight, Parks & Rec, PSYCH

8. Are there themes/motifs/cliches that you’re obsessed with as far as literature/film goes?

Idk, I’m not a huge film aficionado but as far as literature goes I love me some good extended metaphor. Like the Great Gatsby is great because the literal story is great but when you dig deeper into it and what it represents there’s so much more. But I love watching movies and reading so yeah lol.

9. What other decade besides this one do you think you’d fit in well with?

Ooh I’d love to live either in the early U.S. like 1790s. Just all that law and philosophy in starting the country and such impressive people to be working with. Oh, and the writing! I want to write love letters and write heated letters to be delivered on horseback in the night with a full era outfit. Either that or the 1950s. I’d love to wear those tight suits and practice law in the time when the Civil Rights movement was starting up and to enjoy that post-war economic boom would be very fun.

10. This or That: Numbers ending in ‘0′ or numbers ending in ‘5′? Floral or woodsy or musky or food related scents? Pie or cake or cookies? Latin or Sanskrit or Hebrew? Shuri or Okoye or Nakia? Atlantis or Road to El Dorado or Treasure Planet? Star Trek or Star Wars? Narnia or Lord of the Rings?

Numbers ending in 0; don’t ask me idk why. Woodsy :))). Pie for sure (my mom makes this chocolate pecan pie that is AMAZING). Latin for me, I already speak Spanish and want to learn French. WHY WOULD YOU MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN THESE THREE WOMEN??? But I’d have to say Okoye, she kicked major ass. El Dorado, only because my sister is Miguel and I’m Tulio. Star Wars and Narnia, I grew up on that good shit. Also C.S. Lewis is writing goals for me. 

11. What’s a dish/recipe you’re good at making? 

I love making salads. I can usually make lots of different types; Caprese, Caesar, Wedge, Garden, Strawberry/spinach, and maybe my favorite, fruit salad.