U7SI, U8, Soviet communism and archetypes
Moscow Dragon
about the Soviet communism, mythological, archetypal and Freudian roots of
it.
The links to U7SI and U8 worlds are just amazing! I love the idea of
commies being the force of Air and Fire, while the West is the forces of
Earth and Water. In fact, any magic-like and myth-like ideas which match the
reality of 20th century are beautiful.
Here is my short attempt to create an English digest of that text.
Communist ideology. West is a "kingdom of money", "unjust land", "land
of no rights", "unrestrained market force", "being unsure in tomorrow day",
"greedy capitalists who destroy food while the poor ones are starving" etc.
In short, West = Chaos.
USSR as a "country with planned economy", "scientifically based
country", "being sure in tomorrow day", and order, order at all levels -
destructing the old tiny streets and passages to build the Bright Prospects,
Governemental Standards on anything, straightening rivers just to avoid
disorder (!), and so on. Collective above all - organized parade of
sportsmen instead of chaotic mob of egoists. In short, USSR = Order.
The Cold War was the War of Imbalance vice versa. The real history of
the USSR decay was really - Ethicality without Tolerance = Prejudice (of all
kinds, including ethnical ones officially banned), Logic without Emotion =
Ruthlessness (to combatants on all kinds of wars, to females making
abortions, and even to own disabled people), Discipline without Enthusiasm =
Apathy (the general apathy and lasiness of all parts of society).
Propaganda pictures. Anti-communist forces are pictured as Hydra, or as
large-belly large-teeth "devourers" of dark color. This is called "Htonical
forces" by mythology researchers. Again the forces of Chaos. The forces of
Earth and Water. On the other hand, communists are pictured as red (the
color of Fire), as the Smiths of Happiness ("smith" is the "demiurg"
archetype like Prometeos and such, the force of Fire), the "Fiery
Revolutioners".
Also note the mania of flight, aircraft and parachuting in the Stalin's
USSR (pilots, designers and other near-air people were the most renowned
people), later transformed to the mania of spaceships. This "dream of
flight" (Stalin himself was a great aircraft fan) is surely the archetype of
Air.
Hammer & Sickle. The well-known icon of communism - The Union Of
Proletarians And Peasants. Hammer dominating over Sickle. Metal
(->smithwork->Fire) dominating over Earth. Also note Sickle. Also an iron
thing. The first sickle in myths was the sickle by which Uranus was
castrated. Sickle is not a phallic, fertilizing archetype like several other
agriculture tools. It is the castrating archetype. Nothing amazing in the
fact that communism was really devastating for agriculture.
Proletarians are male force, while Peasants are female, fertility, the
force of Earth, the Htonic force, thus hostile for communists. Thus
communists tried to impose governemental institutions (legally) and metal
machinery (technically) between Human and Earth Fertile.
Communist propaganda loved everything artificial, plastics were
considered to be more advanced then leather, and even experiments with
artificial food were made and widely advertised as a Good Thing. Using
artificial was good and pro-communist, being "back to nature" was more or
less not so recommended by the propaganda. Again machinery is Fire, and
nature is Earth and Water.
Now the cult of blood and the red color. The official explanation of the
Red Banner was - "blood lost by the freedom fighters of all times in their
struggle". And all those "bloody Party tickets" of the war heroes and such.
The cult of Blood and the magic of Blood are one of the most powerful
archetypes.
Now the dam hydro powerplants, and their cult during Stalin as the Great
Achievements. This is Hydros tamed! Economically they were not so useful.
After the Great Achievement fetish moved from the dams to the second
Siberian railroad, communism started to fade :-)
Now the crawling enemies. Enemies always imposed as crawling. Remember
"Battleship Potemkin"? The revolution started from worms in meat! From
crawling worms. Not from just lack of meat.
Now the rest of the world as Another World. Only gossips were about
Another World. One was - American IT workers must have cars, and if they go
by foot to the work, then they are paid a compensation for each step. In
late 1940ies, the propaganda have tried to prove that all significant
scientific discoveries were done in Our World and not Another World.
Being afraid of spies and paranoid - being afraid of crawling spies,
again being afraid of forces of Earth.
And sure - those people in the USSR which came to conclusion that
communism is not OK, just turned to idealizing West instead of devaluating
it. The simplest possible move. And this is not psychological "splitting"
(one of the most illogical, pre-logical and childish personality defences,
occurs in adults only if they are hysterical or such). This is Another
World, and anything is possible there - one can perish, or can have a
princess as a wife. The fantasy land.
USSR people were unable to differentiate one Western country from
another, and sometimes even Eisenhower from Hitler. Both are West, both are
devaluated by communists, and thus both are idealized by anti-communists (it
occured even such - idealizing both Eisenhower and Hitler in one row).
Another moment of communists was very specific respect to wording. The
criminal lawsuit on anti-communist activity. It was never written - "he said
bad things on Stalin". It was - "he said bad things on one of the leaders".
It was never written - "US". It was written - "one of the capitalist
countries". It was not called - "ministry of nukes", it was called "ministry
of middle machinery". Or the classic "brotherly aid". This is a good old
magic. "Do not say the true name" - remember Bane and Vardion? Exact wording
is important in spells, though not so important in official documents.
Another things of verbal magic and spells in the USSR. All those huge
"Long Live The Party!" slogans installed everywhere instead of ads. These
are amulets of protection, but from Muslim tradition, not Christian - only
Muslims used sacred writings on buildings to protect them.
Another example of communistic magic thinking. Punishment for destroying
the flags or the portraits of the leaders. Or punishment for installing the
forbidden flags. Again irrational reasons.
The belief in the power of words was very strong. Thus the communists
never said they have problems. They only had "minor drawbacks". Gorbachev's
"perestroika" was inspired by the same idea - just name the "minor
drawbacks" loudly, and they will disappear. Surely, what is created by
spells can be destroyed by spells too, or even by naming a true name :-)
Now on Soviet Gods. Stalin as "demiurg". Not a world creator, but a
mankind's helper. And also a Father Of Nations and The Best Friend Of
Sportsmen. Lenin as "resting god". Some myths have the supreme god, which is
not a subject of cult, since he is long ago "retired" and the world is ruled
by a bit lesser gods. Compare - the "always living" leader in the Mausoleum
who "lived, lives and will live" - and the active current leader.
The very brain-damaged idea of Mausoleum is a explicit hint of awaiting
resurrection, like Osiris in Egypt (yes, even now Russian commies are
against Mausoleum being closed). "Dying and resurrecting god". Usually he
dies due to murder - thus the gossips of Lenin being poisoned. And now the
interesting thing. Such a god must have a spouse of equal power, who helps
him to resurrect. And Soviet pantheon had no female goddess - Krupskaya,
Roze Luxembourg and Iness Armand were too weak for such a figure. Thus Lenin
cannot resurrect.
This is yet another moment of anti-female bias of Soviet myths. Neither
of leader's spouses could impersonate fertility. Lenin & Krupskaya had no
children. Thus the sterility of Soviet idea.
Also minor gods - ministers - of particular branches of economy, cities
named for them. If the god is weak, then the whole branch can die. Now add
the importance of wording for the communists - and this is the explanation
of why the communists kept the leader's diseases secret till the very end.
Again "do not call the true name", or The Way To Kill Vardion.
Also the Evil Gods. Leon Trotzky is the same archetype as Christian
satan or Tolkien's Melkor. The "rebel in might" who then have fallen.
Originally second after the Creator, but then lusted for power, befallen and
now leading the Evil Forces.
There are traces that this whole mythology was created by Stalin.
Khrushev was laughed at and thrown eggs at. The reason is that he started to
lose the mystical part of the myth by making it more rational. Also Khrushev
visited the West too often. This is an archetype of "trixter" - the mediator
between good and evil, like Eddic Lokky.
Trixter is usually parallel to demiurg, but creates either useless or
vile things. Like planting corn in the nearly polar latitudes :-). By no
means trixter can be a leader, thus lack of respect to Khrushev.
As about Brezhnev - he could not be a god by any means, just more or
less decent hierophant.
Now about Peter the Great. Another great Russian ruler. Had respect to
Order, created a regular army instead of "chaotic" musketeers, was
metallurgy fan and artillery fan (cannon is a phallic thing), was charmed by
Holland who tamed Water and was a fan of channels. Created the navy and
built a new capital St. Petersburg with linear planning and many channels.
One more victory over Hydros :-) Was slain by forces of Hydros (flu due to
humidity), and the unleashed Force celebrated a victory by several female
rulers followed Peter. One was even more or less sadistic, a bit similar to
Mordea.
The Red Pentagram (the symbol of military side of communism) is omitted
here, due to too well-known and well-described roots of it :-) Official
explanation was - red is blood of freedom fighers, and 5 ends are 5
continents - remember, commies tried to conquer the world, and failed mainly
due to German general (IIRC Ludendorf) and Pilsudsky who did not allow them
to conquer Europe.
Also note that lack of Dragons among the Soviet symbols of
anti-communism. Dragon is traditionally a creature of all 4 Forces. Thus
Dragon would be semi-"ours" due to Air and Fire parts in it.
Max,
ex-citizen of the Realm Of Stratos (or Pyros?) :-)
Acid Queen
<snip> In the interest of my sanity...
> Also note that lack of Dragons among the Soviet symbols of
> anti-communism. Dragon is traditionally a creature of all 4 Forces. Thus
> Dragon would be semi-"ours" due to Air and Fire parts in it.
>
> Max,
> ex-citizen of the Realm Of Stratos (or Pyros?) :-)
Now I'm gonna sit and puzzle over this for three days, dammit! :) Nice
to see you still around. What are you doing/playing these days?
--
AQ
To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise
above your morals
Zac Bond
"> Now the crawling enemies. Enemies always imposed as crawling.
Remember
> "Battleship Potemkin"? The revolution started from worms in meat! From
> crawling worms. Not from just lack of meat.
Now where were you when I made my Battleship Potemkin post? :-P
-Ophidian
Lost Dragon
> female historician about the Soviet communism,
> mythological, archetypal and Freudian roots of
Hah! Dammit - I love this post!
--
--
/| .Oo__. .---.=- -= Lost Dragon, of the Grintooth Clan =- -=.---. U
{ \| ,-'' |_|_|==- To the one who tames dragons: -==|_O_| D
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<...{_)_)_''`---' My oath of fealty forevermore. `---' C
Acid Queen
dra...@cox.net says...
> > I'm reading extremely interesting text of Russian
> > female historician about the Soviet communism,
> > mythological, archetypal and Freudian roots of
>
> Hah! Dammit - I love this post!
Ok, smarty-pants. Shouldn't you be packing? I expect a commentary, in
less than 2000 words (but more than 1800) as to why you have become
emotionally involved in this. Clearly, the red representation of Soviet
policies and ideology reflect a certain muppet-like individual we all
know and revere, but I'm sure Max won't agree.
If nothing else, because he never has yet with anything I've said.
Moscow Dragon
> less than 2000 words (but more than 1800) as to why you have become
> emotionally involved in this.
People often emotionally involved with myths. This is the root of why Ultima
games are here.
Also - if myths have something similar with reality - then it is
interesting.
Max
Moscow Dragon
> to see you still around. What are you doing/playing these days?
As usually - having no time to finish U7SI, U4 and U9, all of them started
and not completed.
:-)
Max
Moscow Dragon
> policies and ideology reflect a certain muppet-like individual we all
> know and revere, but I'm sure Max won't agree.
I agree that both commies and Guardian are evil, nevertheless, they are
different.
Though U7BG's Fellowship is yes, much like commies. Also note U7SI's
Fellowship. Much like the Western left-wing commie-style movement.
Max
J. P. Morris
> I'm reading extremely interesting text of Russian female historician
> about the Soviet communism, mythological, archetypal and Freudian roots of
> it.
Far out!
This is way too much to digest in one go, though.
--
JP Morris - aka DOUG the Eagle (Dragon) -=UDIC=- j...@it-he.org
Fun things to do with the Ultima games http://www.it-he.org
Developing a U6/U7 clone http://ire.it-he.org
d+++ e+ N+ T++ Om U1234!56!7'!S'!8!9!KA u++ uC+++ uF+++ uG---- uLB----
uA--- nC+ nR---- nH+++ nP++ nI nPT nS nT wM- wC- y a(YEAR - 1976)
Claus Dragon
Moscow Dragon schrieb:
*snip it*
oh my god, i will have to print that and read it during work :-)
--
cd