Warhammers and Sickles, Part 4: A Call to Arts for Anti-fascist Imaginologues
- N. A. Dawn
- Sep 18, 2020
- 7 min read
Yooooou... shall not... regurgitate toxic ideological claims which normalise systemic violence for the preservation of global financial elites - or pass!
Ultimately, 40k is still salvageable. It’s worth noting that individuals contributing to the product lines often include ethnicities previously erased and do justice to women protagonists. Players of the tabletop game (occasionally) paint characters’ skins shades of brown, and in the last several years, the Adepta Sororitas (the all-female faction I mentioned earlier) has gained increasing popularity as a playable faction, which has heralded new stories detailing their own heroic escapades.
Authors like Dan Abnett (a personal favourite, I might add) deserve special commendation for complicating the Imperium with a more distinctly satirical eye. His Eisenhorn Trilogy in particular follows the descent of an inquisitor into his own form of treachery, a falling from grace that reveals the corruption, dogmatism, paranoia, hysteria, hypocrisies and internal factionalism poisoning the Imperium from within.
This self-reflective style of dystopia reaches its zenith in a related short story, in which ex-soldiers suffering from advanced PTSD form a murder cult that harangues a post-industrial metropolis, itself rapidly decaying into a state of economic oblivion after generations of ecological degradation – a case Inquisitor Eisenhorn never manages to solve. Suffice it to say, 40k is like all forms of fiction in that it is only as remarkable as its authors and readers. Culture is communal. With authors like Abnett, 40k becomes a visceral consideration of how intellectual narrowness, repressive institutions and religious fanaticism can unite people against a common enemy (aliens and daemons), but only by entrenching forms of structural cruelty. (They’re also just intoxicatingly entertaining reads, and well worth a gander.)
But aside from these acts of individual creators working for Games Workshop – the authors of Black Library and the painters at Citadel Miniatures – there remains a void-sized opportunity to fill 40k with fresh perspectives. Why not have stories representing popular rebellion at all levels of Imperial society? It’s certainly relevant, and wouldn’t at all detract from the setting’s grim atmosphere. What about creating neutral ceasefire territories, like in the World of WarCraft, where characters of opposing factions have an opportunity to convene?
In fact, screw it: let’s have some interracial alliances, for Pete’s sake! Is that so inconceivable? And I don’t just mean contextual, fleeting tactical cooperation against a common foe; I’m talking about real, reciprocal relations across cultures. Why is that so hard to imagine? Bring out the queer protagonists, black protagonists, fat, crippled and neuro-atypical protagonists! Let’s tell some serious stories here! I don’t want this manicured, fascist-friendly snowflake universe where it’s somehow acceptable to say that an entire race of green, all-male, English-speaking humanoids can populate planets from microscopic spores, but having black women in power armour is implausible.
And this is where the real fun begins. Because now comes the part when reactionaries start squawking: ‘You’re just a whiny, millennial SJW annoying companies into filling your diversity quotas! You’re the real fascist, ‘cause you don’t tolerate reason, facts, logic and freedom of speech! I feel personally offended (in a manly, rational, totally not emotional way) by your criticisms (which I’ve totally considered in good faith on its intellectual and moral merits, without allowing myself to indulge my petty loyalties to my hobbies because I’m actually a hysterical paranoid wreck) and I hereby proclaim my freedom to enjoy gory fight scenes with hideous monsters, while scarcely included and scantly clad white women die to develop my impossibly dull male Aryan protagonists.’
Here’s how this usually goes: First, a person will notice that there’s some (fairly obvious) discrepancy between the way an imaginary world is created and how the real world actually is. They’ll probably mention how this highly ideological representation reinforces harmful ideas about minorities or human nature or how society should function. And they’ll probably suggest that these harmful ideas normalise harmful behaviours, and prevent us from seeing the injustices of the status quo for what they are: cringeworthy and changeable, not praiseworthy or inevitable. For example: here, here and here.
Then comes a barrage of predictable reactions, starting with insults (playground-fare ugly and stupid are common motifs). They’re usually followed by strawmen: You want everyone to fill a diversity quota so you can control the way everyone thinks and behaves, so you’re actually the epitome of authoritarianism, even though you’re just a minimally decent person saying, “Maybe we shouldn’t spend so much money creating things which invigorate bigotry in our culture”, and not, like, a state-capitalist system of tyranny with a monopoly on all telecommunications and the legitimate use of violence. But, like, that’s just a small (I mean, whopping) distinction.
It’s a fact that’s easy (I mean, impossible) to overlook, especially if you’re used to assuming you’re right about everything and seeing people who disagree with you as enemies. By now, you've spent at least thirteen to thirty-five sordid years viewing conflict as only ever resolvable through the extermination of people different than you (which is why you dox them, stalk them and send them death threats), as it is in all the media you consume every day when you get home and switch off the irreparably damaged critical awareness device you inherited from your WASPy suburban parents.
Like, what is it about this enclave of white millennial men that they think it's somehow an appropriate use of one's preciously short life to rant in front of a camera about issues they've not taken half a second to research, firing off ludicrous accusations at great emotional expense, all of which could be avoided had they the barest shred of humility to think that someone else might have a constructive point to make that's worthy of some reflection? Are we so neurotic that merely witnessing someone take a conscientious stand on a point of interest that we all share warrants a tantrum disguised as genuine social commentary? Have you any idea how petty your grievances are?
I mean, I hate to tell you this, but if you find yourself frothing at the mouth because people on the internet criticised your toys, it probably means you're not accustomed to exercising your critical/reflective faculties all that much. If you were, you might do some research and respond with a sincere objection, in the interest furthering connection and trust within your interest group. Don't you feel like maybe filming yourself on a repetitive tirade about high-end consumer hobbies is a waste of time and energy? Don't you feel like maybe there's a a more constructive way to articulate your opinions? Don't you feel like maybe this makes you look like a spoiled child? I don't mean that as an insult; we all act immaturely sometimes. I'm being perfectly serious: don't you realise how far beneath you this is?
You have been intellectually lobotomised by decades of living in the Matrix of alienating consumerism, and all you want to do is kill every Morpheus and Trinity who come to end your algorithmically induced capitalist coma. Worst of all, you think you’re actually the heroes, when you’re literally just an agent. Like, literally, you are defending the oppressors (i.e. people who benefit from having a society tacitly accept the routine structural violence waged against vulnerable demographics), and you’re so chronically disengaged that you can’t even see that when it's shown to you. This is really grim, and you don't have to be this at all. You don't have to be a whiny bully protecting your privilege. You can be a decent human being and show a little compassion. It's actually incredibly easy.
Because it's actually kinda sad. This way of thinking only works in the first place if you already believe everyone besides you is simply a token (i.e. not a real person). You have to be glaringly delusional, and the thing is: everyone can see it. So once these morbid antics inevitably die down, the discussion finally returns to the original source material, and the specific criticisms can be considered on their respective merits. This is when the defenders begin contorting, somersaulting and all other manners of mental gymnastics in an attempt to rationalise the plainly atrocious trends of objectification, vilification, and other reactionary tropes which run deeply throughout their favourite fandom.
Of course, as these bizarre excuses are exposed one by one, the social pathology becomes increasingly obvious. Nominally reasonable people begin to gravitate away from these insipid, clearly absurd views, towards less angry, less hateful, less tiring and cultish obsessions. They stop throwing a fit every time people who look different to them pitch up in their preferred entertainment, and realise that Star Wars is just as silly as it always was, that Marvel’s just as wacky as it always was, and that you’re not more important, intelligent, attractive, talented or virtuous than anyone else.
You don't have to be a bigoted, anti-intellectual, narcissistic man-baby. You don't have to act so dim, mean and egotistical. No one's trying to take away your toys; we're trying to protect other important people from violence by taking responsibility for the attitudes we reproduce and the companies we support. Grow up, with us. It's honestly more fun than swearing at strangers, I promise.
Alright, comrades. Time to get shit done.
A Call to Arts
In the grim darkness of the immediate present, there is only symbiosis. Everything from the sandwiches we eat to the entertainment we enjoy, the governments we elect and the natural disasters we endure, interweaves into a multifaceted whole. Behold! The collective experience we call reality. Everything’s connected, so everything (and everyone) matters, and in an era of climate breakdown and rising demagoguery, we have our mission laid out for us. But we can’t build a new world, if we’re not able – or prepared – to imagine it first.
Cultural criticism, then, is part of that imaginative project; it analyses and reflects upon our creations to consider their impacts. It's up to all of us to take responsibility for out interpretations, since the intentions of creators have nothing to do with their meanings at all. Taking responsibility starts with our immediate everyday lives: including in the spaces where we think we’re just having fun.
It’s not just playing pretend if the atrocities in your make-believe wargames are actually unfolding no further than an ocean away. We can't pretend it's merely fantasy, when it's also reality; that it's satire when it's propaganda; or that caring is hysterically irrational when it's actually the only sane thing a person can do.
Most importantly, we can't pretend shaming people who don't think like us is a viable strategy for changing the world. True: if we keep retweeting reactionary ideas in our culture at large, it’s that much harder to topple the reactionary institutions that fuel our (now suicidal) social order. But if our critiques amount only to high-horsed name-calling, we can't expect to foster the kind of radical communities willing to stand up for something other than make-believe armies.
It's time to write truly heroic stories, read them carefully and discuss them kindly. It's time to fight the real war together.
Warhammers and Sickles
Part Three: Throwing the Toys Out of the Cot
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