Great post, David! Very thought-provoking. I'm fascinated to learn that Douthat has engaged with this (there's a great interview with him in the current New Left Review which has been v helpful to me in understanding the American conservative landscape https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii152/articles/ross-douthat-condition-of-america).
I really enjoyed Andor and I'm not at all surprised that Gilroy wants to avoid any kind of political coding in the current climate. And I guess this explains why the rebels in Andor are so weirdly neutral on politics. We catch a glimpse of a 'manifesto' at one point but it seems to be just a kind of pastiche. They revert always to generic language about freedom and repression and doing 'what's right'.
And this very deliberate avoidance of politics means we can't really tell what anyone's position is: the rebels have a kind of vaguely indigenous/nationalist positioning. In the staging, when we meet them on various jungle planets, they look a lot like shots I've seen of Shining Path or the Colombian groups - only minus the Maoism obvs - and with slightly more comfortable accommodation.
And I would love to explore the relationship of Andor with The Battle of Angiers - a film that also has a very effective torturer!
I’ve only seen parts, but there is some line where mon mothma says her valet is a spy, and Luthen says something like “good, they can’t afford to pay everyone in the galaxy to be a spy”.
The idea more generally is that authoritarianism is unsustainable. Without genuine buy in to the system all you only have people who obey out of avarice or fear. This is logistically impossible to hold together.
The end of the imperial era is when the empire exhausts its genuine or even subtle sources of support and it left only with blunt force to keep people in line.
In the real world isn’t that wishful thinking, though? North Korea is quite oppressive, and it seems to be chugging along just fine. Fear and terror and propaganda really do seem to work to keep people in line. When totalitarian governments fall, it seems to require a fair amount of external input.
Well, NK is kind of the gold standard for a totalitarian society. It's also a pretty tiny and compact society by world standards. And the price of its being a gold standard is that it's a poverty stricken hell on earth. Only nuclear weapons keep it from being invaded.
I would think of the Galactic Empire more like a sprawling multi-ethnic empire in the real world. The Russia, British, or Soviet empire couldn't hold it all together. The vibes in Andor are clearly "imperial". The central state is trying to squash all these different communities. North Korea is not an "imperial" state.
I was watching The Order with Jude Law which is about white supremacist bank robbers in the 1980s. If you take away ideology, they are just dashing outlaws going up against cops and banks. But then the film gets into how they were assassinating Jewish talk show hosts and synagogues. “Resistance” has no ideology.
The trouble with surface-level political reads is that it's just as easy to take a right-wing interpretation as a left. It is easy for a right-winger to view the climax of the second season as an intensified version of January 6, pointing to law enforcement allowing the protestors in, and the use of the incident to wave the bloody shirt and crack down on alleged vectors of right wing radicalism. I would not be surprised at all if you could sit down two opposing political viewers, and the left winger would claim the Ghorman Massacre is just like ICE in LA, while the right winger would compare to the 2021 capitol riots. It's too easy to infer allegory where there is none.
an issue would be lack of coherent way to define ‘left wing’ for many viewers who describe it as such. core premise is that any authoritarian condition is unnatural and untenable, isn’t an endorsement of any political ideology in itself.
I had virtually zero intention of watching this show and now I’ve got it queued up for this evening. Great review.
It’s possibly the best Star Wars content ever, and perfect for people who are ambivalent about Star Wars.
Great post, David! Very thought-provoking. I'm fascinated to learn that Douthat has engaged with this (there's a great interview with him in the current New Left Review which has been v helpful to me in understanding the American conservative landscape https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii152/articles/ross-douthat-condition-of-america).
I really enjoyed Andor and I'm not at all surprised that Gilroy wants to avoid any kind of political coding in the current climate. And I guess this explains why the rebels in Andor are so weirdly neutral on politics. We catch a glimpse of a 'manifesto' at one point but it seems to be just a kind of pastiche. They revert always to generic language about freedom and repression and doing 'what's right'.
And this very deliberate avoidance of politics means we can't really tell what anyone's position is: the rebels have a kind of vaguely indigenous/nationalist positioning. In the staging, when we meet them on various jungle planets, they look a lot like shots I've seen of Shining Path or the Colombian groups - only minus the Maoism obvs - and with slightly more comfortable accommodation.
And I would love to explore the relationship of Andor with The Battle of Angiers - a film that also has a very effective torturer!
I’ve only seen parts, but there is some line where mon mothma says her valet is a spy, and Luthen says something like “good, they can’t afford to pay everyone in the galaxy to be a spy”.
The idea more generally is that authoritarianism is unsustainable. Without genuine buy in to the system all you only have people who obey out of avarice or fear. This is logistically impossible to hold together.
The end of the imperial era is when the empire exhausts its genuine or even subtle sources of support and it left only with blunt force to keep people in line.
In the real world isn’t that wishful thinking, though? North Korea is quite oppressive, and it seems to be chugging along just fine. Fear and terror and propaganda really do seem to work to keep people in line. When totalitarian governments fall, it seems to require a fair amount of external input.
Well, NK is kind of the gold standard for a totalitarian society. It's also a pretty tiny and compact society by world standards. And the price of its being a gold standard is that it's a poverty stricken hell on earth. Only nuclear weapons keep it from being invaded.
I would think of the Galactic Empire more like a sprawling multi-ethnic empire in the real world. The Russia, British, or Soviet empire couldn't hold it all together. The vibes in Andor are clearly "imperial". The central state is trying to squash all these different communities. North Korea is not an "imperial" state.
wonderful article no notes
Thank you! I’m flattered.
I was watching The Order with Jude Law which is about white supremacist bank robbers in the 1980s. If you take away ideology, they are just dashing outlaws going up against cops and banks. But then the film gets into how they were assassinating Jewish talk show hosts and synagogues. “Resistance” has no ideology.
The trouble with surface-level political reads is that it's just as easy to take a right-wing interpretation as a left. It is easy for a right-winger to view the climax of the second season as an intensified version of January 6, pointing to law enforcement allowing the protestors in, and the use of the incident to wave the bloody shirt and crack down on alleged vectors of right wing radicalism. I would not be surprised at all if you could sit down two opposing political viewers, and the left winger would claim the Ghorman Massacre is just like ICE in LA, while the right winger would compare to the 2021 capitol riots. It's too easy to infer allegory where there is none.
Try The Expanse
It may not be, but it'd Disney Wars so not true to Star Wars with their retcons. Long live the original Expanded Universe!!
an issue would be lack of coherent way to define ‘left wing’ for many viewers who describe it as such. core premise is that any authoritarian condition is unnatural and untenable, isn’t an endorsement of any political ideology in itself.