Well, I said I would...Though, it's not exactly a fun one... The Community Post #154 Image by OinkTweetStudios Equality for All or ELSE Great googily moogily! Am I really talking about this thing again? Yes. Yes, I am because this is the most bizarre episode element I can think of. We've seen creatures that feed on love and affection, we've seen the lord of chaos, various characters have had mental breakdowns, highly dangerous insects have turned up, we've seen an alternate reality where the entirety of a peace loving nation is forced to go to war and there was even a creature made purely for the princess of the night to self-flagellate with nightmares. And yet, the Cutie Mark Cult is the most bizarre element of Friendship is Magic I usually point to. They do their best to present this whole thing in a half-decently PG airbrush but it still doesn't shy away from actual practices of real life cults. The required isolation and shunning of outside influence is present. There's the ritualistic surrender of individuality in the form of replacing cutie marks with an equals sign that nullifies everything about the individual that makes them exceptional. There's even a definite leader that governs the town and keeps them in line. So...The internet and everyone in the world that saw this stood in unison and shouted: 'COMMUNIST!'. This being the internet, everyone just went along with it! Whut? I get it. 'Communist' is a funny 'Scary' thing to throw into something randomly to make a punchline. Like 'Nazi' or 'EA Executive' but it kinda flies in the rather obvious symbolism that is nakedly dancing with the sign that says, in 40 foot lights 'IT'S A CULT'! Did we just use up all our cult jokes when we decided Fluttershy ought to be a cult leader or something? Still, maybe there's something to it, right? What I'm about to do is so stupid and needless but sod it! It's practically my thing now... OK! So, again we have various flavours of ideology to pick over. Communism isn't cut and dry, straight up governance. The central idea is to tip the balance of power so that the Working Class is running things but there's a little toing and froing on what exactly that's supposed to entail. So, here's Communism Classic, Marxism, to give a rough idea of how Communism is supposed to work. Sort of... "Hello. I am Karl Marx. Historically, no one seems to listen to a word I say so just remember I'm the one with the amazing beard." The Bourgeoisie (borge-wah-zee) is a class of people in a society that are rich, often influential and generally live in opulence. They are what we'd probably call 'The 1%' these days. The fabulously wealthy or powerful. Like a king maybe. Usually someone who owns a means of producing things people need or want, like food or cars or bobblehead dolls. Communism doesn't like them very much, in any strata of it you find yourself in. The Proletariat are everyone that actually works for a wage. They are the work force that keeps things rolling. They actually make your loaf of bread or...Bratz doll that you can't go without. The general thought of Communism is that a system like Consumerism, which most of the western world has right now, oppresses the Proletariat by attempting to find new and exciting ways of paying them less and less for the same amount of work, just to ensure that the products they make stay competitively priced. Communism tends to favour these guys. A handy diagram of what I mean, not preliminary sketches from 'Finding Nemo' Marxism, from as much as I could figure out from my reading on the subject, instead says that the Bourgeoisie ought to be overthrown by the Proletariat and then the wealth and power is shared out amongst the populous. From then on, everyone works in order to produce what's needed for everyone. Everyone has a stake in everything and you'd be working to earn what you'd need to live, not to earn money. Make sense? Good. What does this have to do with the Starlight Glimmer Cult? Nothing. While all the characters are 'equal', there's clearly a leader, keeping everyone in check. There's no toppling of some higher class. It's straight up oppression for an entire people. She's ensuring that everyone keeps in line, working to ensure that this is the best place in the world. Happy sunshine and expunged individuality. Joy of joys! I explain what Marxism is to explain what most of the other variants on the same idea seem to stem from. It is the original idea for the ideology after all. But, what we all think of as being 'Communism' today appears to be something kinda different. It seems to look like something called 'Stalinism'. Yeah...Dressing 1920's and 30's Russia up as an Aesop Fable isn't really helping, Orwell! It's still as depressing as watching a Snowman melt in the rain! For those that don't know, Joseph Stalin wasn't very nice. That statement is rather like putting a hat on a missile and then remarking that your effect on the weapon's deadliness was 'minimal' but there it is. His plan for ruling a country fell on a few secret weapons. First off, he had a Cult of Personality going for him that meant he was showered in titles, praising him. My favourite being 'The Gardener of Human Happiness'. Yes, really. He had awards and prizes named after him. He was even allowed to re-write history to give himself a bigger part in the revolutions in 1917 that got him into power. All to ensure he was adored and followed loyally. Next, there was fear, mass death and huge industrialisation of everything. Stalin ended up building tones of factories as soon as he can, giving people plenty to do. On top of that, he basically turned the Bourgeoisie into a boogieman that everyone was encouraged to sniff out. If he went ahead and pinned the badge of betrayal on every single opposing individual he had just to get them out of the way so that he was entirely unquestioned, then it wouldn't have been unreasonable to expect that you could be considered a Bourgeoisie sympathiser and quietly dragged away where you'll never be seen again. Thus, a little bubble of fear and trepidation where it's possible you could never be completely safe and this is getting grim quickly so I'll stop there... Apparently, it's a popular subject for Mr Orwell here... Reading up on this stuff probably will do more than I can to speak on this. Again, not much to do with some ponies in a village following some nutcase almost blindly. Maybe a few, I guess? First off, Starlight Glimmer must have the gift of gab to have succeeded in persuading all of these ponies to give up their cutie marks so, there's a slight link there. If you want to stretch it a little, most of the equalised ponies are then expected to work in the new society built, though it's not for the same reasons. As far as I can tell, Stalin built Russia as tall as he could with all the factories because he wasn't able to spread Communism outside his borders, plus the West could out produce them hugely. Buying from the West wasn't an option, it seems. Apparently, he then just turtled up, building everything as much as he could to keep things running smoothly, without anything needed from anyone. Starlight Glimmer never has a specific reason to keep ponies working other than Cult maintenance. Keeping a cult busy means that they're less likely to think about the life they left behind. She wasn't planning on spreading out until she happened to have a princess fall in her lap. I have got to be on about thirteen different watch lists just for what I had to Google for this article! It would be hard to explain why I'm researching cult methods and practices then relate that back to ponies without raising alarm bells. The fear of the place kinda matches up but Stalin manipulated law in order to ensure flimsy excuses for law breaking would label someone an 'anti-revolutionary' then get them shot. Starlight Glimmer's tactics appear closer to 'You don't want to loose everything you have and get shunned by everyone that loves you, do you?'. Again, cult mentality, where the subject has spent so long swallowing the doctrine of the group that being forced to leave it is scary. It's unfamiliar as well as likely to have been made into a more frightening prospect by whatever the cult leader has preached about the outside world. Plus, all the worldly possessions of the member would be with the cult. They'd generally have to leave with little or nothing. Stalinism has various people with guns just waiting to brand you a menace to society the instant you do something the higher ups, that aren't calling themselves higher ups, don't like. Not quite the same thing. There's a difference between threatening to take away everything that's been familiar and loving to you if you don't comply and the high chance of random prosecution. See? A bit of research clears things up. It also freaks you out immensely. I don't begrudge it though. It's ballsy to write in an actual bloody cult into the show. An actual, real life boogeyman of this world is introduced that has ties to terrifying connotations the more you look and think on it. In a kids show. I love reaction pictures. This isn't new, sure. But it's pretty blatantly there. But there's no outrage. No anger, no crying out about the children or anything. No one is fussed apparently. A cross-eyed pegasus gets parents riled up but not an a functioning cult? What?! One of the things I enjoy about this iteration of My Little Pony is the unexpected elements. Everything from small details to central concepts that catch you off guard. They're not always subtle but it's good that there's a little surge of genuine drama or spectacle in these episodes every now and then. The most surprising for this series was the actual chill I got from watching King Sombra force the Crystal Ponies into armour for an upcoming invasion of Equestria. Heck, that entire section of the episode was a pantomime of horrors we barely got to see. Honestly, I hope they don't lose that touch. The ability to surprise you with where they're willing to take a story is the best reason to watch. Partly for the spectacle, partly to read around why that chill is there in the first place. To Starlight Glimmer, the most terrifying villain in the entire show It's not that she's powerful. It's that she could not be the only one out there. - Recommended Reading Right...Someone cheer me up! VG_Addict was on the case recently as he reported on what EqD reported from the German MLP website. The leaked information there in the website revealed the name of Princess Cadence and Shining Armour's soon to be born baby. The name is...seriously? Your kidding, right? Princess Flurry Heart. Well done, guys! That's a name of a pampered poodle or a very confused McDonalds item. What does that even mean? A flurry suggests snow so...is she an ice pony? Can she do ice things? Wait...QUEEN ELSA CONFIRMED FOR MLP SEASON 6! OK, an interesting post. I like this one about what would MLP have to do to get you to go ballistic with amazement. It rather ties into what I said here at the end about MLP being unexpected so, whatever you say might come true... Hacktivist movement Anonymous has attacked Japan for their slaughtering of Dolphins and capturing a journalist, keeping him locked up in a cruel fashion. No one's said if Japan has reacted to this yet but...yeah. That's not really on... Next, newcommer Animation100 asks 'How would you feel if MLP:FiM one an Oscar or something like it?' Yeah, most of the answers are kinda sarcastic or cynical (mine included in that), but it's fun to dream, isn't it? Reviews! Reminding me that I haven't written a single one all month! I need to get on with that... First up, Morphin' Brony talks about X-Men: Days of Future Past. You'll remember that as being one of the few decent X-Men movies. Crimson Lionheart is looking at hyper-muscled over the top anime spectacle Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. And Delain Azara gives us her quick thoughts on indie smash hit Undertale. Check them out and let them know what you think! Do you agree? Let them know! Next, some music. Under the name Eile Monty, new member Alex376 has created a few instrumental covers of a few well known pony tunes! 'I am Octavia' and 'The Magic Inside' are available for your ears joy and jubilation. Yeah...Yeah, I know 'I am Octavia' is actually just that 'Titanium' song by David Guetta and Sia which was popular years ago, so removing the lyrics makes it identical to that song but...I like both so, who cares? I'm just nitpicking. Lastly, not only does Flying Colours show us his true face, but we get to see his cute little birdy too! DAAWWW! Right! Done! I am out! I'm off to go write up some reviews because I am clearly falling behind on that. Also! If I catch anyone calling Starlight Glimmer a communist, so help me Celestia! I'll explain to you in great detail why your wrong using all the material I didn't use in this article! Ye be warned!
Nice! For the next post, if you're taking ideas, maybe try something you've never tried before. A write-up on Hamiltonian theories about national debt and their application in modern political economic policy. A social experiment, or heck, a chemical one (bonus points for explosions). Mix things up and get a little crazy. Or do another cool movie review, because those are actually pretty solid (I love Star Wars and LOTR, so you know my recommendations are the same as they always are).
I cannot be arsed...*sleeps for a thousand years* I really ought to put the reviews in my review blog...Though, I'm sure I'll think of something.
Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity. Adlai E. Stevenson P.S Starlight Glimmer is a commie, come on guys shes basically Stalin Glimmer hey hey
Wrong, wrong and wrong. Starlight's group has way more in common with Cults and the maintenance of them. Nothing to do with Communism at all. Read this!
The university building in which I have all of my classes for my major and both my minors is named after Stevenson. What a coincidence.
