i saw a post yesterday that really made me think becauseâŚwell honestly because i really heavily disagreed with the idea the entire argument was predicated on so i will not be linking it so the people involved can live in peace from my annoying ass but. it made me think so i will be talking about it. basically the post argued that pre-res john was a leftist, and then someone else added that he established the nine houses with leftist intentions and that it all got away from him due to the actions of others. i do not think this is true whatsoever and totally scapegoats insurgents as the root of the empireâs problems, rather than a natural reaction to a growing christofascist expansionist empire. the root of the nine houseâs problem isnât that people were reacting badly to the empireâthe root of the problem is that it is an empire with concentrated theocratic power fueled by exploitation.Â
i do not think john was ever a leftist. i think john is a millenial neo-liberalâhe is canonically either a millenial or gen x, and we know this because he specifically namedrops parachute music festival, a real music festival that ran between 1992-2014, and he was underage (this means under 18 in nz) when he attended. i think he is not gen x, but a millenial, because of his 2010s-era internet references, and also because tamsyn muir is an older millenial herself and i think she based those references on her own time spent on the internet in that era. millenial neo-liberals, in comparison to their parents, often seem progressive because they claim themselves to be anti-homophobia, anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-millionaire, but they have a huge problem with individualism, which is one of johnâs biggest issues. iâll get into that later. but john appears progressive, i think, mostly because of his anti-trillionaire sentiment; but many neo-liberals right now are anti-millionaire, especially after covid-19 disillusionment, but are still not actually anti-capitalist (see: johnny harris. adam conover. etc). many of them refuse to fully interrogate the effects of capitalism as an economic system and how it intersects with white supremacy and christian supremacy, and this is something that john himself is guilty ofâobviously. some of his closest friends are a cop, a nun, a lawyer, and a hedge fund manager. these people uphold the exact power structures that led to their predicament: white supremacist colonialism and capitalism. the exploitation of the earth itself to generate profit is why we are so rapidly sliding into climate catastrophe. (i know some of these people do leave their professions for The Cause, but The Cause is a cult and not a real political group. certainly not a leftist one. and i donât think taz chose these jobs at random.)
his political views pre-res are really not that radical: even right now, in 2023, which is arguably 10-30 years before the events of john chaps, being an environmentalist is not considered a radical viewpoint. it was in, like, 2006 when people were openly making fun of the inconvenient truth, but at this point being a climate change denier is the radical viewpoint. he mentions climate change causing famines and weather catastrophes, and the global elite and powerful STEM organizations are throwing money and effort into huge scale planetary evacuation efforts. at the canonical point in time, environmentalism is beyond mainstream; it is a matter of survival. there are probably two main political camps: those who want to evacuate the planet, and those who want to rehabilitate it. john wants to rehabilitate it, but he is also actively working with the camp that wants to evacuate itâputting a lot of effort into that, in fact. this is what he built his team around: the cryo project. this does not make john a leftist, it makes him part of the mainstream center line. whatever his personal politics are, he is disregarding them to work within the already-existing system. to me, this makes him a neo-liberal; he is not interested in dismantling the systems that caused the situation they are in. he works within the system to support the planetary evacuation. even if what he really WANTS is to rehabilitate the planet, he is still actively supporting and working towards a planetary evacuation at the very start. i think this says a lot about his politics and informs how he will eventually set up his empire: still in line with historical hierarchical systems of oppression, but slightly different.Â
i think it is worth mentioning that john is a queer, indigenous man from a country that, currently irl and as far as i know continuously in canon, is still a british colony. it seems that he grew up poor, or at least in a poor community, and then attended prestigious institutions with histories of systemic bigotry. so he has undoubtedly experienced racism, and probably homophobia. the post i am responding to (and this is a widespread belief among the fandom, so itâs much bigger than one post) claims that, implied because of these things, the nine houses are a no-misogyny, no-homophobia, and no-racism society. none of these things are true. if you follow me, you know i have talked at length about the subtle misogyny that permeates house society despite its veneer of gender equality; there are women in leadership positions, yes, and biological sex does not seem to be a major axis of oppression. however, sexual violence against specifically women is present, gendered slurs against women are thrown around constantly, slutshaming exists, sexual objectification exists, and there are so, SO many issues with reproductive justice and dignity and, more broadly, bodily autonomy in house society. in this post, i discuss religiously motivated homophobia. moreover, homophobia will not go away if you base your new societyâs religion on christianity. it is significantly more subtle, and clearly being queer is very normalized in house society, but homophobia does exist, at least in parts. wrt to racism: i think the colorism present is very subtle and might be going over my head since i myself am white, but i donât think itâs a coincidence that some of the most straightforwardly awful and evil characters (ianthe, cytherea, and mercy and augustine to some extent) are also some of the only white characters. i donât think iâm the person to expand on this, but i think there is an implication being made. xenophobia, on the other hand, is HUGELY present. itâs used against ninth, sixth, second, and eighth, and oftentimes by characters from wealthier and more ârespectedâ societies, notably third. the xenophobia that exists amongst the empirical core is functionally what we would consider racism, though it is not connected to the modern-day understanding of âraceâ (which is a social construct anyway, one that john apparently did not carry over so literally). undoubtedly it exists much more violently against people outside the empire. all of this respawned in johnâs empire because he did not explicitly set out for it to not exist, and because he is not a leftistâhe is an emperor, and empires oppress.Â
i think that one of the loudest messages in the john chapters is regarding individualism, and how 21st century neo-liberal individualism will not and cannot solve our problemsâin fact, it actively exacerbates them. john thinks that, because he was gifted this power, that he alone and his disciples can solve all of humanityâs problems. he is the chosen one, he is special, he is literally a jesus figure, touched by god. he sequesters himself away from the rest of humanity, only listening to true believers, constantly surrounded by yes-men, and things could not have gone worse. and then, he builds a new society alone, then surrounded by the same yes-men who enabled him to make the worst decisions he possibly could. this is not him building a society with leftist intentions; this is him consolidating power to eventually become a dictator. it is also notable that he erased their memories; now they cannot learn from their mistakes because they cannot remember them. he did not set out with the intention of building any society other than the exact one he wanted, and one that is centered around death rather than life. he drew his aesthetics and cultural conventions from historical europe, and then he went on religious crusades to expand his territories and very literally converts entire planets to his belief system: necromancy. he also completely abandoned any attempts to salvage the earth. but its cool because you can be gay and gnc and no one cares (except for when they do).Â
i also think another big point from the john chapters is that bigotry is insidious, and it can effect the way you think on a deeply subconscious level. you would think that, as someone so personally and deeply affected by colonialism, john would not perpetuate it, but colonization is his goal. itâs a huge aspect of the houseâs military escapades. also, as i said earlier and in other posts, by erasing history and refusing to engage with it, he actively encouraged the recreation of the same bigotries that have been plaguing humanity since forever: gendered oppression, class differences, and generally the fear of the other. he created a new social hierarchy that ended up recycling these old ideas, because he did not actively prevent it. it didnât really seem like john had any cogent political goals other than to consolidate power and expand his territories off-planet in order to spread necromancy.
i think the politics in the john chapters are incredibly interesting. i think it is a very loud warning against culturally western individualism and acceptance of the system as-is. but i do not think john was ever meant to be a leftist, nor was his empire ever intending to be some sort of leftist utopia. he never challenged the fundamental issues of his situation, he worked within the system and failed, and then recreated that system by mimicking what he thought the âgoodâ parts of it were, most blatantly christianity, one of the major tools used to colonize the world, including his own countryâsomething he even mentions! in conclusion, please go read the actual star by monica byrne.
