I also agree that it's veering more towards topicness than not.
> For us, belief is a purely passive response to evidence
> presented to us - I form my beliefs about the world for the
> purpose of understanding the world as it is. But this is
> radically different from what might be called transformative
> belief - the secret of fantasy ideology.
I'd somewhat disagree with this particular point : there's a difference between leadership (transformative) and management (conservative). This is a useful distinction for HW/HQ games.
OT-wise I'd say this is the writer's POV as academic, not policy deviser, warping his analysis.
Non-OT-wise, I'd say it's a great tool for understanding the actions of the Lunar Empire or the Argraths ... :-)
> To say that
> Mussolini, for example, *believed* that fascist Italy would
> revive the Roman Empire does not mean that he made a careful
> examination of the evidence and then arrived at this
> conclusion. Rather, what is meant by this is that Mussolini
> had *the will to believe* that fascist Italy would revive the
> Roman Empire.
Excellent Seven-Mothers-ness here !
> And, of course, these fantasies can be dangerous for everyone else.
OT Warning : subtle propaganda devices : handle with care !
The intelligentsia of warring states (or "Conflicting Cultures", I suppose) will always seek to psychoanalyse the enemy position down to inept nothingness etc.
OB-Glorantha, the Lunar Empire and Sartar have opposing belief systems, crashing into and rejecting each other, and the causes of the Hero Wars are as inter-relative as the current conflict between Islam-"Evil" and the Liberal-Zionist Axis of "Goodness" (non-Right- Wing-extremist-wise).
The parallels seem quite deliberate, and this is certainly an area where Glorantha is enhanced by our knowledge of RW politics et cetera, both actual policy and its motivations, and academic (AKA airmchair) analysis thereof. Which is a game funtion.
> Fascist Italy conquered Ethiopia not because it had any use for
> Ethiopia, not because it had a damned bit of use for Ethiopia, but
> simply because the fantasy required that Italy be a conqueror.
Similar fantasies about the US being 'protector of the "Free World" ' spring to mind.
Hmmmm ... can someone please take this topic and turn it into a fullblown Glorantha one ? (so that the inevitable someone gets accused of being a God Learner, not a Nazi)
Julian Lord
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