First of all, it must be clarified that the "Starship Troopers" series (at least the movie version) is not about war, technology and ideal society. Its core topic is only one-political propaganda. In the first story, the tone of political propaganda is atheistic, showing off power and order; but this propaganda has its limits, and its audience must be powerful people and people who benefit from the existing order. . However, order inevitably creates opposition between the strong and the weak. As a kind of propaganda for the weak and the oldest in history, what will happen to religion when it serves politics? This movie solves this problem. The federation is a secular federation, just like the independent United States and the revolutionary Soviet Union. The power that unites people is not religious beliefs, but political beliefs (Civil religion in America, Bellah, 1967), which is the essential difference between them and Europe before the nation-state [1]. Before this belief has completely lost its motivation, everything is fine. But like all political beliefs, what it pursues is the goal of this world, and it will inevitably rely on the sacrifice of this world for blood transfusion, and it will inevitably be distorted by the human nature of this world. According to the instructor in the first part, the legitimacy of the federal military government comes from their ability to reorganize the chaotic order on the earth. This statement basically conforms to our historical experience. Regrettably, as Hui Shi said, "the Japanese side is stunned, and the objects are born and die." As soon as the building of order was completed, its collapse had already begun.
[1] The U.S. has a high proportion of religious people, but there are many sects and sects. On the contrary, it does not have the power to challenge the secular government like the Catholic Church. The true national belief in the United States is a political theology with patriotism at its core. In fact, the main supporters of conservatives in the United States today still come from the military, just as the supporters of liberals mainly come from academia. One piece of evidence in this regard is that no matter how enthusiastically the former calls for the small government, he would rather risk being accused of hypocrisy and will never touch the little finger of the ever-growing military budget. I have an immature theory, which is that this confrontation is actually a continuation of the conflicts between church and state in ancient Europe. The conflict between state and church is basically the only way for European countries to realize modernization: Henry VIII of the United Kingdom kicked off Rome to establish the state religion, and closed the academic institution in the sense of the time: the monastery, turning the church into his own slave. The establishment of this nationalist ideology was an important factor in the growth of British national power during the Elizabethan era. The Sun King of France established the first centralized power in Europe by suppressing and using the Catholic Church, and his successor continued to manipulate and threaten Rome to achieve the goal of controlling the entire European political situation. This idea can even be traced back to the reforms of Akhenaten in ancient Egypt. Understanding the relationship between the military service group and the monk group is the starting point for understanding the entire Western politics. This is a very interesting topic. If you can write a whole paper, it will not start here.
All fascist regimes have to face the same problem: if war is not launched, it is not a self-sustaining way. A high degree of organization brings a high degree of production efficiency, and excess production capacity must always be released through channels. The impact of alien zerg meteorites, whether deliberately or accidentally, has finally become an excellent reason for federal military expansion, helping mankind complete the most important but also the most difficult part of military mobilization. Once this link is completed, the entire military machine can be put into operation. This is the main plot of the first part. [2]
[2] The first film has a very cryptic expression on this issue. Although the propaganda film of the Human Federation pointed out that a meteorite fired by the Zerg hit Buenos Aires, it is obvious in the explanation given later. The solar system and the home planet of the Zerg family, Kerandasu, are located at both ends of the Milky Way, and the meteorite that hits the earth is probably just a meteorite. Even according to the original story, the Zergs projected meteorites only to throw worm eggs to colonize other planets, not to deliberately harm humans. But don’t forget that the purpose of this war is not to defeat the Zerg or plunder the Zerg’s land and resources, or even to exterminate the Zerg group. Its purpose is the self-sustainment of the human federal government. So what better way to achieve this goal than defeating the Zerg? The answer is to maintain an invincible state of war.
As the war entered a stalemate, the wartime economy also began to show signs of fatigue. Any society will have discordant voices, which is normal. The problem is that discordant voices are particularly harsh for highly tense, fully mobilized militarism. This dissatisfaction was released in two ways: First, the turbulent anti-war movement. In the film, the anti-war veterans who were slandered by the official media as terrorists and Zerg spies could not help but make people associate with history; but at this time, pursue the other side. The world, new religions that promise human salvation, are beginning to rise again. At this time, the Federation had to deal with the crisis on both ideological and political fronts. As Marx said, religion is the opium of the people. On the one hand, it relieves the tense social opposition, on the other hand, it also makes people lose the will to fight. This is a double-edged sword for the Federation. On the one hand, the Federation does not want the people to resist, but on the other hand, cannon fodder cannot completely lose the will to fight. In this regard, the Federation had no choice but to brainwash the people with entertainment propaganda that contained the subtext of militarism. The federal air officer who was really serious in the first film has now become a clown acting; if the air officer before that also meant power and responsibility, the air officer now is just an empty symbol. Of course, behind him, an efficient military machine is operating in an orderly manner. Just like this invisible war, it has kidnapped the entire country and has its own behavioral logic. It doesn't matter who is the next air officer. The ubiquity of entertainment and consumerist culture reveals that the military government’s sole legitimacy of "maintaining order" is gradually losing, because the people have seen that cruel wars, political deception and oppression have also become part of this order. Not surprisingly, it cannot stop the rapid spread of religion. Religious theme is a brand new topic discussed in this film. As shown in the first film, the social atmosphere of the Federation is strange. There is both a high degree of equality between men and women and naked class oppression; both developed economic and scientific activities and pervasive indoctrination; television; The scenes of cattle slaughtering in the past must be mosaics, but the death penalty is broadcast live to the whole people. There is a unified logic behind these seemingly contradictory phenomena, that is, in a totalitarian society, the evaluation criteria for anything is only the value of its political use. In the same way, the Federation had originally opposed the religion that was damaging the hearts of the army and the people. However, with the development of the situation, federal officials gradually realized that after seizing the pulpit of the church, religion can become the best conscription tool. Let's take a look at what the federal propaganda film at the end of the film says: "Federal scientists generally believe that: 1. God exists; 2. He is on our side; 3. He wants me We win. "People who understand the history of Christianity and the Roman Empire will smile at this time. Christ has completed the magnificent turn from public knowledge to king. Even if you are not familiar with Roman history, just look at the Russian Orthodox Church today. Of course, if this is just An anti-war movie that targets humans is nothing. The cleverness of this film lies in its indiscriminate irony. After stripping off the indiscriminate images of the Federation, it turns the pen and reveals that the Zerg is not a good kind. The female generals of the Human Federal Intelligence Service manipulated the political situation in a cruel and capable way, sending soldiers to death, letting informants evaporate, and spreading lies in the media. The way the Federation operates is becoming more efficient and shameless. But everything in the end proved that she was right. The human air officer has become the slave of the Zerg, and the Zerg does have a plan to destroy mankind. But how can this kind of thing be known to the people? Noble lies are the most face-saving things. So you see, the real Zerg spy and the human air officer received a decent funeral, while the anti-war veteran was hanged. It’s the old saying: The criterion for measuring everything is its political value. The conscription ad at the end of the movie once again shows the screenwriter. The wisdom of this film, how can such a movie that is so ironic, have a happy ending like a total victory of mankind? Having said that, in fact, every scene in this film is like a happy ending, because any political propaganda needs Set up a utopia of the world of ideas. But under the surface we see another world. The Federation has fought new blood, the war continues, and humans and Zergs are torn down in the galaxy forever and exhausted. If you If you understand a little bit of the entire human history, you will find that many of the details in this movie are familiar. Whether this movie is good or not depends on your experience, life experience, and maybe you are sitting on the bottom Location. But that sentence is always true: Only the dead can see the end of the war. Maybe, this is the real happy ending. Would you like to know more? 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