Oh Wile E., why must you get cynical about a silly sci fi book? Why can’t you just enjoy it?
I can have some fun and remain critical.
For one this book has given me perspective on the cognitive dissonance baked into the depiction of the imperium of man. Like the very first page tells you that this regime is the most horrific thing you could imagine ruled by a corpse on life support powered by human sacrifice.
Kinda makes you think the imperium are villains here.
But then read on to find the imperium’s posterboys, the Ultramarines, being called heroic and noble and just rulers. Same guys that work for the decaying “carrion” emperor and his brutal dictatorship.
And then read on page 18 that in the imperium, “Even the most equitable of rulers needs must become an oppressor if they hope to keep their people alive.”
So I feel conflicted over whether this kind of writing serves as propaganda excusing parallel national defense efforts in the modern day or whether the absurd circumstances of the imperium satirize the modern national defense. I think it depends how you look at it.
On the one hand the imperium is literally under siege by armies that can’t be reasoned with and seem to want the destruction of humanity. E.g. the space bug army of tyranids that want to eat everything (they “have but a single purpose and desire: to feed” [172]) and/or mutate everything into a tyranid. So in this context the stakes are literally fight back or die. Maybe diplomacy with the hive mind could get developed one day but in the meantime the imperium sees fit to stave off the tyranid threat with war.
Here a military state gets justified, but justified because of extreme unreal circumstances which only mirror modern day justifications if you believe the enemies of your country are unreasonable monsters. which in America… well it seems like many buy into that demonization if the other rhetoric, hence the widespread racism across our history and the recent wave of discrimination against Muslims (or anyone who could be mistaken for Muslims).
But even in this scenario where humanity must fight or get eaten, how does it follow that all rulers must oppress their citizens to ensure their survival? The book gives the justification in vague terms that since each imperium planet can get isolated and beset by invaders, these circumstances necessitate oppressive government. Again we must admit that the circumstances of the imperium are unprecedented. And yet I cannot help but suspect that someone who thinks desperate situations naturally lead to oppression shows a lack of creativity. I encourage these authors to look into some real world stories of peaceful resistance to Nazis in World War 2 for evidence that fascism has been undermined without violence – see Denmark as a case study. But I recognize that for a wargame company such stories don’t sell plastic tanks the same way war stories do.
So fine, let’s imagine a world where militarization really does hold the key to survival. Even in that world I can imagine a government that doesn’t oppress their subjects. And apparently the authors do too becuase they call the Ultramarines just rulers in this very same book they say all the rulers must oppress people in? Does that mean the ultramarines oppress people but like in a noble way? Noble oppression to me is a contradiction.
Hence I think this telling of the imperium is inherently dissonant for me, at odds with my own understanding of justice. And I know enough people believe in the ends justify the means nature of the military state that I suspect the 40k authors might buy into that as well. This saddens me.
I am reminded of the documentary Citizen Four, a record of Edward Snowden’s reveal of US government mass surveillance. And in that doc a speech by then president Obama plays of him saying that in order for America to be free it had to sacrifice some privacy. That security and privacy were mutually exclusive. I think this rhetoric is disgusting. A rationalization of government overreach and a sign of paternalism in our ruling class.
So there. My thoughts on 40k logic. For reference to understand Wile E.’s politics or something.
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