Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! - An Economy of Fear · 10:47pm Feb 22nd, 2022
AN ECONOMY OF FEAR
I've already discussed the failures and successes in Sunny's activism, but I want to stop and dig into the politics of Maretime Bay for a second.
It's common in children's media to tell stories with inclusionary messages, and condemnations of racism. G4 did it. First with Zecora's arrival in "Bridle Gossip," and later with Chancellor Neighsay's xenophobia that spanned Season 8.
What sets A New Generation apart, however, is that it addresses systemic racism. Zecora's arrival triggered individualistic fears, and the solution was likewise individualistic. "School Daze" tried its hoof at social commentary, but at the end of the day, Chancellor Neighsay, while in a position of power to exclude non-pony races from EEA schools, was still operating on personal prejudices. The solution? Prove to him that he was wrong.
Maretime Bay is different. They have a fear-based economy. Racial distrust is an actual industry. What we see here are real social forces in motion. The reason Sprout is able to seize power so easily isn't simply because of his speech and song. It isn't simply because he changes ponies' minds. The hidden infrastructure of political power in Maretime Bay is already inherently reactionary. The omnipresent culture of anxiety and intolerance feeds into that.
MLP: ANG fearlessly ties racism to consumer culture itself. It seems an odd statement for what - essentially - is a 90 minute toy commercial, but it still makes insightful points that apply far more directly to the world we live in today than stories about hooded zebras or evil superintendents.
To be scared is to be prepared.
This is what consumer culture teaches us.
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When I was twelve years old, I got my first zit. I freaked out. I mean really freaked out.
My family went out to dinner that night, and I insisted upon sitting facing the wall so that nobody else could see. There was nothing inherently shocking about the zit. I had no logical reason to think people would stare. I was simply convinced that this was how I was supposed to react. After all, it's what the teenagers did in acne cream ads.
Commerical culture plants fears and insecurities in our heads, and tells how to react to them. All it takes to turn that into full blown fascism is a slight threat to the status quo, and a few tweaks of the message.
MLP:ANG shows us another way.
The mission. The crystals. The plan. On their own, they all fail. The way to defeat an economy of fear is not merely in magical feats of the individual. It's to come together - to organize as a community. To "choose love," as Sunny puts it.
At the end, everypony comes together, untied by a simple gesture of kindness in reassembling Sunny's broken picture frame. It is this gesture that restores magic to Equestria.
That moment is a spark - a new culture coming to life - a new world in gestation capable of replacing the old. The ponies don't expect to get their magic back. They don't hope for miracles. They choose love precisely because fear and hate are no longer bearable. Pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies - in that tiny moment, they make a real leap of faith, and they do it together. They don't know what sort of world is to come of their friendship. They only know that it must be done.
Discuss.
-Sprocket
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For all its flaws and mis-steps, MLP has consistently been on the side of right: of being more understanding, more forgiving, and more hopeful. The new generation, so far, continues that trend, which is why I'm still on this ride.
"The hidden infrastructure of political power in Maretime Bay is already inherently reactionary."
Interesting. I mean, one could draw comparisons with the pre-Equestria Three Tribes era, but the characters don't appear to be doing so; even Equestria under Princess Twilight Sparkle has faded into legend, much less what came before. I suppose we might discover in the series that earlier history actually does survive in some form and is an inspiration for Maretime Bay's culture, but I don't recall seeing signs of that in the film (and it really doesn't seem to be the case for the pegasi or unicorns). I more got the impression that tribalism is (or was, post-movie), in the view of the ponies of Maretime Bay, more "the way things are and always have been" than "the way things used to be, which we've brought back", and it's Sunny and Argyle who are the reactionaries, pointing back to the harmony and friendship associated with Twilight Sparkle's era and rule.
"Commerical culture plants fears and insecurities in our heads, and tells how to react to them."
Yeeep. You know that actually pretty normal thing about you? IT'S ACTUALLY A TERRIBLE TERRIBLE PROBLEM AND NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU unless you buy our product to fix it!!!
"The mission. The crystals. The plan. On their own, they all fail. The way to defeat an economy of fear is not merely in magical feats of the individual. It's to come together - to organize as a community. To "choose love," as Sunny puts it."
Additionally: by contrast, Sprout "succeeds" for most of the movie. He tries to take over Maretime Bay? Congratulations, Sherifissimo! He tries to get a giant battle machine built? Vroom, there it goes! He tries to knock down Sunny's lighthouse? Yep.
But all that apparent success isn't even giving him what he really wants, the approval of his mother and his peers, and depending on character interpretation, the genuine welfare of the ponies of Maretime Bay. And those ponies are pretty clearly actively worse off than they were before. The means he's using to achieve his surface-level ends are running actively counter to both his own deeper ends and the public welfare, but he's as caught up in fear and the social currents as everypony he's leading, and doesn't realize it.
(And I'd not thought of this in so much detail until contemplating your blog post here, so thanks. :D)
And thank you in general, as usual, for your thoughts. :)