Err, I didn't mean to imply that religion is the justification for the logic, only that where I've seen the logic introduced, I've also seen concurrent references to god (not necessarily religion, just "god" and often simply as "this is what god wants" or "god is on our side" -- a very vague kind of religious reference, really). And, too, most often when you get the dogwhistles (godwhistles?) it's also a quasi-European setting, like in the various Gundam series, which also do the whole big-war-big-peace thing, but with their own mecha twist.
One is that the threat of war unites the people so that the dastardly villain can take over it by presenting himself as a public protector, concealing the fact that they caused the conflict in the first place like in 20th Century Boys.
Incidentally, a favorite method of military coup -- if it weren't for the fact that Mustang and his cohorts really are the good guys, they'd match that route perfectly, of presenting themselves as good guys who are, in fact, not. For that matter, from the POV of the bad guys, that's exactly what Mustang does when his group turns the tables by presenting themselves as fighting in the Fuhrer's name.
There are variations on the war-to-peace action, but the bottom line is pretty much this: somehow, by virtue of a massive nearly scorched-earth action, the final result is that the people will embrace pacifism. I mentioned some of the variations, like Eureka Seven's (slightly hyperbolic here) version of "I'm so depressed, the whole WORLD should feel my PAIN!" blah blah blah white man's burden (koffkoff), or Gundam00's next-generation variation in which the intent is to make oneself the bad guy to focus everyone else (and get them to stop fighting each other). Eureka Seven does do the argument that peace comes from, well, everyone being dead, but other series -- like Naruto -- are going with the notion (which I've seen more often) that basically and bluntly, it takes a truly horrendous and horrific experience to scare the everloving crap out of everyone such that they all wise up and realize they never ever want to come within a hundred miles of any such horrific experience like that again. In other words: if you could teach the lesson that embarking on war has the inevitable result of a Hiroshima, who the hell would ever be insane enough after that lesson to even remotely contemplate the thought of military action?
However, while the godwhistle isn't always consistent (and it's most prevalent in those animanga, from what I've seen at least, that have futuristic and/or global or quasi-global storylines, most often with mecha), one thing that is somewhat consistent is the fact that the civilians are supposed to have our sympathy. Whether they've been duped, or they're genuinely convinced whomever leads them into war is righteous (ignorant of the end the viewer knows is coming), or whether their eyes have been opened (or were always open) to the mad logic of big-war-makes-big-peace, the representation still almost always posits the citizens as the victims, helpless to some degree, definitely wanting to live but at definite risk of not doing so if Our Hero doesn't get his ass in gear. Or his mecha fired up in time.
Although granted that that last bit -- Our Hero must get there in time -- is not because it's a socio-cultural detail to stand around and wait for someone else to rescue your ass, but because of the nature of many of these stories: the hero is supposed to be our Everyman, our in-story stand-in who saves the day. We sympathize with the sheeople about to be pulverized by the madman's plans, but our sympathy is most often a kind of pitying protectiveness, because this kind of world-will-end story most often revolves around a singular hero who wants to "protect the helpless". That's a major major theme in Japanese pop culture that I see over and over and over ("protect those precious to me" and "a warrior gains true strength from having something to protect" and so on) and it's a good thing to promote the protect-others value, but it's also a double-edge, because that posits that those you protect must be helpless, to show your strength in contrast.
(Not that I'm saying this is always true in fiction or in life, only that in the hands of bad writers -- who can't write a truly strong character -- the lack of strength means other characters have to be undercut. (For an excellent discussion of this, see snarp's discussions of how Bleach treats its female characters, wherein "female characters" are that story's version of "helpless citizens". A good writer, like Arakawa, has no fear of the main characters being strong enough even when supporting characters are strong, which is how you can have kick-ass characters like Izumi, Gen Armstrong, Hawkeye, and even Rebecca Catalina and Maria Ross -- Arakawa writes strong enough main characters that her female characters don't have to end up helpless lumps of wet bread dough just so the main guys look good in contrast. Kishimoto, with Naruto, does seem to try to have female characters show some strength, but he's not quite as secure with it as Arakawa, though admittedly he's nowhere near as bad as Tito. Or Tibo. Or whatever that mangaka's name is.)
Anyway, even when the public is shown as unthinking sheep, or even completely unaware of the risks, they're still effectively victims, with no real agency of their own -- they don't really get a say in the matter. In FMA, they all simply come to the point of destruction and pass out. Eureka Seven, the public's not even sure what's going on; in the various Gundam series I've seen, the public is a mass critter of wild panic (when it's not just an uncaring and unseeing lump of humanity). They're still just victims: either they're gonna get dead, or the hero will save them in time and they won't be dead, but they don't even rate as a greek chorus, and they're certainly almost never seen as colluding or knowingly participating in any way with what's about to destroy them.
no subject
Date: 30 Jul 2010 06:33 am (UTC)One is that the threat of war unites the people so that the dastardly villain can take over it by presenting himself as a public protector, concealing the fact that they caused the conflict in the first place like in 20th Century Boys.
Incidentally, a favorite method of military coup -- if it weren't for the fact that Mustang and his cohorts really are the good guys, they'd match that route perfectly, of presenting themselves as good guys who are, in fact, not. For that matter, from the POV of the bad guys, that's exactly what Mustang does when his group turns the tables by presenting themselves as fighting in the Fuhrer's name.
There are variations on the war-to-peace action, but the bottom line is pretty much this: somehow, by virtue of a massive nearly scorched-earth action, the final result is that the people will embrace pacifism. I mentioned some of the variations, like Eureka Seven's (slightly hyperbolic here) version of "I'm so depressed, the whole WORLD should feel my PAIN!" blah blah blah white man's burden (koffkoff), or Gundam00's next-generation variation in which the intent is to make oneself the bad guy to focus everyone else (and get them to stop fighting each other). Eureka Seven does do the argument that peace comes from, well, everyone being dead, but other series -- like Naruto -- are going with the notion (which I've seen more often) that basically and bluntly, it takes a truly horrendous and horrific experience to scare the everloving crap out of everyone such that they all wise up and realize they never ever want to come within a hundred miles of any such horrific experience like that again. In other words: if you could teach the lesson that embarking on war has the inevitable result of a Hiroshima, who the hell would ever be insane enough after that lesson to even remotely contemplate the thought of military action?
However, while the godwhistle isn't always consistent (and it's most prevalent in those animanga, from what I've seen at least, that have futuristic and/or global or quasi-global storylines, most often with mecha), one thing that is somewhat consistent is the fact that the civilians are supposed to have our sympathy. Whether they've been duped, or they're genuinely convinced whomever leads them into war is righteous (ignorant of the end the viewer knows is coming), or whether their eyes have been opened (or were always open) to the mad logic of big-war-makes-big-peace, the representation still almost always posits the citizens as the victims, helpless to some degree, definitely wanting to live but at definite risk of not doing so if Our Hero doesn't get his ass in gear. Or his mecha fired up in time.
Although granted that that last bit -- Our Hero must get there in time -- is not because it's a socio-cultural detail to stand around and wait for someone else to rescue your ass, but because of the nature of many of these stories: the hero is supposed to be our Everyman, our in-story stand-in who saves the day. We sympathize with the sheeople about to be pulverized by the madman's plans, but our sympathy is most often a kind of pitying protectiveness, because this kind of world-will-end story most often revolves around a singular hero who wants to "protect the helpless". That's a major major theme in Japanese pop culture that I see over and over and over ("protect those precious to me" and "a warrior gains true strength from having something to protect" and so on) and it's a good thing to promote the protect-others value, but it's also a double-edge, because that posits that those you protect must be helpless, to show your strength in contrast.
(Not that I'm saying this is always true in fiction or in life, only that in the hands of bad writers -- who can't write a truly strong character -- the lack of strength means other characters have to be undercut. (For an excellent discussion of this, see
Anyway, even when the public is shown as unthinking sheep, or even completely unaware of the risks, they're still effectively victims, with no real agency of their own -- they don't really get a say in the matter. In FMA, they all simply come to the point of destruction and pass out. Eureka Seven, the public's not even sure what's going on; in the various Gundam series I've seen, the public is a mass critter of wild panic (when it's not just an uncaring and unseeing lump of humanity). They're still just victims: either they're gonna get dead, or the hero will save them in time and they won't be dead, but they don't even rate as a greek chorus, and they're certainly almost never seen as colluding or knowingly participating in any way with what's about to destroy them.