What is the Gundam's franchise's obsession with aristocracy? It seems every single Gundam series involves a fight with or against an aristocratic government.
>>13902654
Tomino didn't like japanese imperialism
Also princesses, everybody likes princesses
Because when mankind keeps blasting itself back to the Industrial Age over and over, people are bound to regress to baser forms of government.
Besides, look at LoGH. The Galactic Empire was one big aristocracy, centuries after mankind left Earth, and with all their recorded history. How would you expect Gundam to fare any better when they manage to destroy even historical records so that they don't even know that previous eras had also created mobile suits?
>>13902654
>What is the Gundam's franchise's obsession with aristocracy? It seems every single Gundam series involves a fight with or against an aristocratic government.
When you have a democratic government, you automatically start to justify killing the voters for what their government does. For example, both CE governments are elected in Gundam SEED, and since both had genocidal maniacs who got voted in, the civilians of both sides deserve to die.
Aristocracy allows us to spare the civilians.
>>13902674
I kind of agree here. Aristocracy, gives us a nice group of people we can point to and go fuck these guys they're the problem.
>>13902671
I think LOGH explored a theme that's closer to the true subject matter at hand here but which you can also see in many Gundam shows; That the Japanese seem to believe that might makes right, the victor is always righteous. I don't know how to better explain it, it just seems like a theme throughout a lot of anime with societal conflict. In LOGH Reinhard represents "Enlightened Absolutism" but as Yang points out there, bloodlines makes for a poor meritocracy which even Reinhard chose to accept in the end. Democracy might not produce stronger leaders and often replace good leaders with bad leaders, but term limits and constitutions (which a long war can wreck havoc upon) limit both the damage and good an elected leader can do whiles kept in check by a parliament.
Outside of LOGH I can't remember an anime where "democracy" was the answer to a problem, perhaps it is to be expected in view of the Japanese experience where LDP has held on to power for so long it's influence and power made it fertile soil for nepotism and political aristocracy.
A "strongman" sweeping away corruption in the name of justice and righteousness can, just like during Reinhard's ascension in LOGH, seem very appealing to a populace.
>>13902678
The main idea of the military conflicts is someone's economical or military appetites. The first should satisfy the businessmen, who are wishing to raise their profits.
We always know who is the guilty in our problems, but they would try to put the blame on someone else. "WWI was lost? All because of jews and commies!" or something like that.
>>13902674
...holy fucking shit I never realized this.
Jesus I forgot about that B plot point from of all things LOGH but yeah.
>>13902692
>perhaps it is to be expected in view of the Japanese experience where LDP has held on to power for so long it's influence and power made it fertile soil for nepotism and political aristocracy.
That's not why the LDP has held on to power. It's actually a combination of clientelism and a centralized economy.
I stumbled upon a video about it just last week. Quite interesting, but I would put it on as background noise because it's quite literally a powerpoint presentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG-UEE0a3aI
>>13902674
Well, I can't really agree that Blue Cosmos was elected in any shape or form, they were the Military Industrial Complex who although guided by racist ideology, were motivated by profits and power. Blue Cosmos was behind Bloody Valentine IIRC. But compare the corrupt democracy of EA and the coup d'tat in PLANTS with the Enlightened Absolutism of ORB.
>>13902717
Well, I'm a swede so I'm no stranger to Corporatism, which is also very strong in Japan
>>13902720
Either way I would recommend watching that video. It actually brings a lot of insight on how a party can stay in power when it is very unpopular, and in fact hasn't won the majority vote since 1963.
>>13902654
Tomino is a big fan of Julius Evola.
The uniforms are amazing.
>>13902717
>That's not why the LDP has held on to power. It's actually a combination of clientelism and a centralized economy.
The economic side isn't any different from what Bush did for his friend during the war though, or what Clinton did during the Haitian Eartquake relief actions - shovel money into the pockets of people close to you for services that are either subpar or not delivered and expect kickbacks down the line.
The problem was that they used a first-past-the-post system that ended up with a vote in a sparely populated rural district being worth four times as much as a vote in Tokyo or other major cities. They bought those rural votes by means of extravagant infrastructure projects and other kickbacks, which were generally built or supplied by companies with connections to the LDP and paid for by the densely populated coastal cities. I wouldn't call it a case of centralized economy as the system apparently only really covered the construction industry.
>>13902674
>Aristocracy allows us to spare the civilians.
Wasn't this one of the main ideological points of Cosmo Babylonia? That the aristocracy are supposed to fight for their people, and the people aren't supposed to fight themselves?
>>13902692
>Enlightened Absolutism
Reminds me how in every Code Geass production they keep trying to prop up monarchy and aristocracy
>>13902670
And blonde women...
>>13902654
In the original Tomino manuscripts of the Gundam series, it's somehow serves the purpose of saying "Look, the real evil its the leaders and not the commoner people. Are the evil leaders that make people kill eachother!". In the Gundam novel, and also in G Reco, you can see that, "Oh, look, all of ours leaders are dead. Jeez, I think we dont have more motives still fight now, right?" And what better for the purpose of showing this, than an aristocracy?
This is very simplistic and pathetic way of seeing the world. Its a way of trying to lift all the blame from the civilians.
>>13902671
>people are bound to regress to baser forms of government.
Aristocracy isn't a government form, it's a social form.
I can see aristocracy arising in a colony system where a ton of the people are descended from technical people, who if there was enough of a Functionalist twist to their society, could easily over the generations acquire "status".
>>13903577
Why would anyone blame the civilians?
>>13902717
clientelism is how you maintain your 'aristocratic' status m8
>>13903630
Total war can only be carried out when legitimized by the population. They represent the nation's will to fight, provide the bodies necessary to prosecute a war, and the material necessary to finance it. True conscript armies simply neither work nor exist any more in this day and age.
You fat fuck.
>>13903643
Civilians are being brainwashed by the owners of the mass-media, who also have their benefits from the war.
>>13903671
>brainwashed
More like TRUTHIFIED.
>>13903643
>Total war can only be carried out when legitimized by the population. They represent the nation's will to fight, provide the bodies necessary to prosecute a war, and the material necessary to finance it.
They control none of that in a totalitarian society. There really isn't any wiggling room between fighting or being dropped into a suicide unit in such a polity. Heck, even in a democracy like the US, less than five percent of the population ultimately decide about who's going to be the nation's next lord of war.
>>13903630
Because they are the greatest accomplices of any kind of government. Do you really think that the japanese population didn't like when their nation was stomping other nations across asia? Or like when the Ukies start voluntarily to hunt and beating the crap out of their jews, after the germans entered the country.
Civilians are always the first eager to go to war, eager to follow something, and the first to put the blame on someone else. They will say that they have been brainwashed, to justify their conduct, but in the end, they know that they wanted it. They wanted to take part of something bigger, they wanted to feel great above others and so on.
The commanding classes only intensify this felling with propaganda.
I remember a phrase of an allied soldier after they taken Roma, that was something like that: "Before we arrived to the city, Roma had 40000 fascists, now they have 40000 pro democracy citizens."
>>13903706
>They control none of that in a totalitarian society
A totalitarian society only exists by the permission of the civilians, anon.
Just this decade alone you've seen time and again what happens when people get sick of that shit.
(lynchings)
Concentration of wealth is concentration of power.
Aristocrats own the banks and the governments.
>>13903761
No, Jupiter, with their monopoly on Helium-3, own the banks and the governments.
Jupiter controls the aristocracy.
>>13903716
>Japanese
Not the whole population, but some people did hated it.
>ukies
Don't blame the whole nation for the sins of the minority of collaborators.
The civilians are constantly being brainwashed, no matter who is in power.
>40000 fascists
It's like calling every member of the CPSU a true communist.
>>13903761
And to defeat the aristocracy of our days we should fight the capitalists of the Earth Federation.
>>13903775
>>13903671
"Brainwashing" is a term invented by the CIA to explain people changing their beliefs. Note that the CIA is retarded.
"Brainwashing" has about as much validity as so-called Stockholm Syndrome.
>>13903720
>permission of the civilians
If by permission you mean killing all the reasonable opposition and civilians.
See shit like the Night of the Long Knives.
Something something samurai
>>13903720
>A totalitarian society only exists by the permission of the civilians, anon.
As the other dude said, the wholesale destruction of all other political movements and at very least the detainment of everybody who'd have the skills to start fresh ones within a country is usually the first step towards total war.
"The people", as in any sizeable enough group of people, need certain structures or plattforms to formulate and act upon their needs and the destruction of all such structures safe their own was the first thing fascists went on about. There was no plattform for the people to rally around, no structures to pull a Whiskey Rebellion even..
>>13903716
>Or like when the Ukies start voluntarily to hunt and beating the crap out of their jews, after the germans entered the country.
Some recent book on the topic pointed out that the countries in which the greatest percentage of Jews were killed were those that had been ravaged by at least one, but usually two armies and shit was so rekt that cooperation with those armed dudes was the only safe option, because nobody'd do shit if they'd shoot you. Not arguing that the eastern europeans never were particularily fond of jews, what with them having enough pogroms before AND RIGHT AFTER the war to feed a steady stream of Jews who'd rather try their luck in the near east...
