Jor Kvall
Ain't found a way to kill me yet
The Death Watch illustrated in canon is an organization which prizes honor, tradition, and above all, the masculine virtues of virility and violence. Whether or not the creators intended it that way, the Death Watch embodies the ideals in which men attain purpose, camaraderie, and self-actualization through warfare and violence. A true masculine warrior cult. The Death Watch is also totalitarian and hierarchial, lending it more towards the realm of fascism or perhaps a proto-fascist tribalism.
In this thread I will shed some light on historical examples of men who embodied these same ideals, both well-known and unknown, in the hopes that you might draw some inspiration from real-world people and events. One possible parallel between Mandalorians and the real world would be the Futurist movement, pioneered by the italian poet Tommaso Marinetti. The futurists were a group of young artists who were violent revolutionaries in nearly every sense! They were strong nationalists who embraced technological innovations as a way for man to triumph over nature and increase his own strength. They looked not toward the past for inspiration, seeing nothing but contempt for the glorification of the old and the imitative. Instead they promoted the ideal of bravely looking towards the future, and in this way they became a major influence on Mussolini, who once said that fascism was not about nostalgia for the past, but about being a man of one's own times.
In 1909 Marinetti released his Futurist Manifesto. The eleven tenets of futurism he outlined were as follows:
MANIFESTO OF FUTURISM
1. We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.
2. Courage, audacity, and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry.
3. Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep. We intend to exalt aggresive action, a feverish insomnia, the racer’s stride, the mortal leap, the punch and the slap.
4. We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath—a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.
5. We want to hymn the man at the wheel, who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth, along the circle of its orbit.
6. The poet must spend himself with ardor, splendor, and generosity, to swell the enthusiastic fervor of the primordial elements.
7. Except in struggle, there is no more beauty. No work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece. Poetry must be conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces, to reduce and prostrate them before man.
8. We stand on the last promontory of the centuries!… Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.
9. We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman.
10. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.
11. We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot; we will sing of the multicolored, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons; greedy railway stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents; factories hung on clouds by the crooked lines of their smoke; bridges that stride the rivers like giant gymnasts, flashing in the sun with a glitter of knives; adventurous steamers that sniff the horizon; deep-chested locomotives whose wheels paw the tracks like the hooves of enormous steel horses bridled by tubing; and the sleek flight of planes whose propellers chatter in the wind like banners and seem to cheer like an enthusiastic crowd.
As you can see, the futurists were famous for their colorful language and oftentimes over-the-top provocations. But one interesting thing about futurism that could inspire our own action is: how should Mandalorians view technology? With futurism, we have a possible answer. Technology is often viewed as the driving factor which changes society, but this is not correct, because technology is only the summation of what man makes it. Technology is a mere reflection of the men who use it, and it can be used for good as well as ill. We can use technology to turn ourselves into soft bugmen who order McDonalds deliveries from the comfort of our couches while we watch Game of Thrones, or we can use technology to sharpen our minds and bodies and embody the warrior ideal.
So, Mandalorian. That holocommunicator in your pocket is one of two things. A portable library of Alexandria, or instant access to degenerate Twi'lek pornography. Which do you choose?
In this thread I will shed some light on historical examples of men who embodied these same ideals, both well-known and unknown, in the hopes that you might draw some inspiration from real-world people and events. One possible parallel between Mandalorians and the real world would be the Futurist movement, pioneered by the italian poet Tommaso Marinetti. The futurists were a group of young artists who were violent revolutionaries in nearly every sense! They were strong nationalists who embraced technological innovations as a way for man to triumph over nature and increase his own strength. They looked not toward the past for inspiration, seeing nothing but contempt for the glorification of the old and the imitative. Instead they promoted the ideal of bravely looking towards the future, and in this way they became a major influence on Mussolini, who once said that fascism was not about nostalgia for the past, but about being a man of one's own times.
In 1909 Marinetti released his Futurist Manifesto. The eleven tenets of futurism he outlined were as follows:
MANIFESTO OF FUTURISM
1. We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.
2. Courage, audacity, and revolt will be essential elements of our poetry.
3. Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep. We intend to exalt aggresive action, a feverish insomnia, the racer’s stride, the mortal leap, the punch and the slap.
4. We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath—a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.
5. We want to hymn the man at the wheel, who hurls the lance of his spirit across the Earth, along the circle of its orbit.
6. The poet must spend himself with ardor, splendor, and generosity, to swell the enthusiastic fervor of the primordial elements.
7. Except in struggle, there is no more beauty. No work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece. Poetry must be conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces, to reduce and prostrate them before man.
8. We stand on the last promontory of the centuries!… Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.
9. We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman.
10. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.
11. We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot; we will sing of the multicolored, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons; greedy railway stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents; factories hung on clouds by the crooked lines of their smoke; bridges that stride the rivers like giant gymnasts, flashing in the sun with a glitter of knives; adventurous steamers that sniff the horizon; deep-chested locomotives whose wheels paw the tracks like the hooves of enormous steel horses bridled by tubing; and the sleek flight of planes whose propellers chatter in the wind like banners and seem to cheer like an enthusiastic crowd.
As you can see, the futurists were famous for their colorful language and oftentimes over-the-top provocations. But one interesting thing about futurism that could inspire our own action is: how should Mandalorians view technology? With futurism, we have a possible answer. Technology is often viewed as the driving factor which changes society, but this is not correct, because technology is only the summation of what man makes it. Technology is a mere reflection of the men who use it, and it can be used for good as well as ill. We can use technology to turn ourselves into soft bugmen who order McDonalds deliveries from the comfort of our couches while we watch Game of Thrones, or we can use technology to sharpen our minds and bodies and embody the warrior ideal.
So, Mandalorian. That holocommunicator in your pocket is one of two things. A portable library of Alexandria, or instant access to degenerate Twi'lek pornography. Which do you choose?
