via
https://ift.tt/2QgT18O21st-century-flapper:
…or, why trying to find out which type of real-world government/state the FO is most like is an exercise in futility.
I’ve never been happy with people calling the FO “space Nazis”. Mostly because the only space Nazis are those from Iron Sky, a movie about, well, Nazis in space. People calling things that aren’t Nazis Nazis is a pet peeve of mine, probably because I’m German.
Well, what about fascists, then? Also doesn’t quite fit the bill. Military Junta? Close, but still not good enough.
See, the problem with the FO is that it’s unlike anything seen on this planet because it lacks two things all governments, regardless where they fall on the political spectrum, have: a civilian populace and a country. The First Order has neither.
The FO is a military that roams through space. They have no planetary base of operations, and there are no civilians. That much is made clear in the Visual Dictionary for TLJ. The closest thing they have to a “home base” is the Supremacy (which is now cleaved in two, which could make for a very interesting metaphor re: a possible uprising of Hux and Hux-loyalists vs Ren and Ren-loyalists.)
So, let’s see what we know about the FO. They are nomadic, and although their society is stratified in that they have ranks and a distinction between the Troopers and Officers, everyone serves the singular purpose of war against the one true enemy: the loathesome Republic. Members of the FO are brainwashed from early childhood onwards, and at least for the Troopers, we know that they are taken away from their families to be raised by the collective. We don’t know if this happens with the Officers, too, but I strongly suspect that it does, since they, too, serve in the military from a young age - the Visual Dictionary speaks of “sub-adults”, which can only be read as teenagers. Just like the Troopers, the officers who were raised in the Order are fiercely loyal and believe in what they’ve been told, mainly the absolute supremacy of the FO (something that seems to be a bit lacking in the old guard of ex-Imperials).
Now, what does that sound like?
A cult.
In a cult, everyone serves the same singular purpose: to attain some sort of salvation for themselves, mankind in general, the earth, or even the whole universe. Even if the cult in question talks about equality for all, as soon as they grow above a certain size, there will be some kind of stratification. Take a closer look at oranizations like Scientology, Jehova’s Witnesses or the LDS, and you’ll see that the social ladder is angled pretty damn steep. And of course there’s the (supreme) leader, whose word is law.
Another interesting fact is that in a lot of cults, the family bonds are re-directed from blood relations to the organization, sometimes by taking children away from their parents for most of the day or, in extreme cases, completely. Children are raised by the cult so that they will believe in its tenets and teachings without question (this is also why a lot of cults will discourage mingling with non-members/non-believers).
Scary fact: there are actually armed cults. They’re ready for a violent apocalypse, and some of them are even willing to start it.
IDK, maybe it’s because cults are one of my many strange special interests, but I’ve always wondered why all of this never seems to come up in discussons about the FO. Probably because, like so many directors, JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson used the “to make sure everyone knows they’re the baddies we’ll make them look like Nazis” visual shorthand, and because most people think of cults as something confined strictly to the religious sphere.
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