Mara D'Lessio Merrill
The Lesser D'Lessio
[SIZE=14.6667px]Image Source: None[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Intent: A book which exposes the pernicious evils at the heart of Mandalorian philosophy![/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Development Thread: None[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Manufacturer: Mara D’Lessio Merrill (author), available free on the HoloNet[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Model: "They Call Us All Traitor"[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Affiliation: Publicly available[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Modularity: N/A[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Production: Mass-produced, in the sense that anyone can read it; it’s data.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Material: Data. Limited physical production run.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Strengths: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]INTRODUCTION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]PART ONE: THE SIX PRINCIPLES[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Part One lays out Mara’s objections to the implications of the Resol’nare.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER ONE: IRON SKIN[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER TWO: THE LANGUAGE[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER THREE: DEFENDING SELF AND FAMILY[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER FOUR: INDOCTRINATION OF CHILDREN[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER FIVE: DEFEND THE CLAN[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER SIX: RALLY TO THE CAUSE[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]PART TWO: MANDALORIAN THOUGHT AS FASCISM[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Part Two lists several key aspects of fascism, and outlines how Mandalorian principles and practices express and grow from them.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER SEVEN: THE CULT OF TRADITION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER EIGHT: REJECT THE MODERN[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER NINE: FEEL, DON’T THINK[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER TEN: NO TRUE MANDO[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER ELEVEN: BLUE BESKAR COLLAR[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER TWELVE: OUT TO GET US[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER THIRTEEN: TOO STRONG AND TOO WEAK[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE PURPOSE OF LIFE[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER FIFTEEN: CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER SIXTEEN: HEROES AND MARTYRS[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CONCLUSION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Primary Source: Not influenced by any Chaos submissions. Characteristics of fascism courtesy of [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]Umberto Eco[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px].[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Intent: A book which exposes the pernicious evils at the heart of Mandalorian philosophy![/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Development Thread: None[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Manufacturer: Mara D’Lessio Merrill (author), available free on the HoloNet[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Model: "They Call Us All Traitor"[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Affiliation: Publicly available[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Modularity: N/A[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Production: Mass-produced, in the sense that anyone can read it; it’s data.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Material: Data. Limited physical production run.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Strengths: [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]The book may be compelling to some.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Mara’s experience with Mandalorian thought and practice is not comprehensive. As a result, any Mandalorian would find the book filled with numerous intentional or accidental errors. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Some jurisdictions may ban the book as hate literature.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]INTRODUCTION[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]The introduction begins with an expanded version of Mara’s first-hand [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]account[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] of surviving the [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]Ilum Enclave Massacre[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]. The introduction also includes a statement of intent: [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“When I set out to write this book, my goal was to discover the link between the six principles of the Resol’nare and the barbaric behavior of many Mandalorians. On the surface, these principles are innocuous, but they have guided and prompted millennia of atrocities.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]PART ONE: THE SIX PRINCIPLES[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Part One lays out Mara’s objections to the implications of the Resol’nare.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER ONE: IRON SKIN[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter One explores the first principle of the Resol’nare: wearing Mandalorian armour. Mara attaches a good deal of meaning to the links between the Mando’a words for ‘armour’ and ‘skin.’ [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“If armour is identity, anything that violates it is personal. If armour is self rather than insulation, any contact touches the self -- or involves the self touching the other. How else to interpret the ‘Keldabe kiss,’ an armoured head-butt, a combat technique? How else to interpret the Mandalorian tradition of taking offense at unusual things? A Mandalorian will shrug off what anyone else will kill you for, and kill you for what anyone else would shrug off. And if the armour is the self, an unarmoured outsider is an incomplete person, weak and vulnerable and unwary by default.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER TWO: THE LANGUAGE[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Two discusses the second tenet of the Resol’nare: speaking the language, Mando’a. Briefly, Mara reminds the reader of the link between ‘armour’ and ‘skin,’ then goes on to explore similar connections. She lists idioms that, she claims, influence and express the vicious underlying assumptions of Mandalorian thought. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“In Mando’a, when you tell someone to take a nap, you’re literally saying ‘You’re no good to me dead.’ If a child plays a game, they’re ‘nearly hunting.’ Their word for Hell has nothing to do with morality, but refers to cosmic annihilation. A common, friendly greeting translates to ‘Stay alive!’ because any departure leads toward violence. When they speak of ugliness, they say ‘wrecked,’ implying agency, violence, someone to blame. When they call someone a bore, they say ‘he’s killing minds.’ And the violent Basic idiom ‘teach someone a lesson’ is very literal in their tongue.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER THREE: DEFENDING SELF AND FAMILY[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Three addresses the Resol’nare’s third principle: self-defense, and defense of family. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“When a Mandalorian speaks of defense, he uses almost the same word he’d use to talk about setting up a blockade. He’s talking about fortification, extreme preparedness, the ability to lock you down and eliminate you if you pose a threat. And since every Mandalorian child is trained to fight, culminating in an adulthood ceremony around age thirteen, the concept of ‘family’ is comparable to the concept of ‘squad.’”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER FOUR: INDOCTRINATION OF CHILDREN[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Four explores the fourth tenet of the Resol’nare: raising one’s children as Mandalorians.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“What happens if a young person wants to follow a different culture or identity, either along with or instead of the Mandalorian way? How many Mandalorian families, squads, would tolerate a young person letting down the squad that way? How many would consider them dar’manda, soulless, disowned?”[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“Mandalorians undergo a combat-based rite of passage around age thirteen, at which point they are considered adults, suitable for deployment in combat in a much more common and proactive way than Jedi deploy Padawans. If you face a Jedi Padawan in combat, they’re usually sixteen to twenty. If you face a young Mandalorian in combat, they’re probably far younger -- and already considered more adult than the Padawan.”[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“Mandalorians can induce a state of sociopathy, what some sources call ‘flipping a switch.’ They teach this mental ability to their children as part of their survival training. If you face a fourteen-year-old Mandalorian warrior in combat, that warrior has the training, conditioning, and killer instinct of an adult military psychopath.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER FIVE: DEFEND THE CLAN[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Five examines the fifth principle of the Resol’nare: working towards, and defending, the welfare of the clan.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“The clan is an extension of the family in the same sense as the army is an extension of the squad. The welfare of the clan refers primarily to security and prosperity, with all the fortification and raiding that implies. More crucially, though, this principle of the Resol’nare can be seen as a distilled, radical version of ‘my country, right or wrong.’ If a member of your clan is in danger, you support them, fight alongside them. If your clan goes to war, you go to war. Those obligations stand whether that extended family member -- or the clan -- is in the right or not, so long as they haven’t violated Mandalorian principles. Remember that honour means something very different to Mandalorians than it does to others.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER SIX: RALLY TO THE CAUSE[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Six explores the sixth principle of the Resol’nare: answering the call of the Mand’alor.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“On a political, economic, and military level, a Mandalorian clan is a self-sufficient nation that answers to nobody but the Mandalore, the warleader. The only unity in Mandalorian civilization requires either family ties or a state of war.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]PART TWO: MANDALORIAN THOUGHT AS FASCISM[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Part Two lists several key aspects of fascism, and outlines how Mandalorian principles and practices express and grow from them.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER SEVEN: THE CULT OF TRADITION[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Seven provides an overview of how Mandalorians venerate and fetishize tradition, according to Mara’s perspective and research. One example is the Manda, a sort of communal afterlife available only to those who keep the Resol’nare. Another example is found in notable weapons and armor passed down as symbols, sometimes for thousands of years. The multi-millennia-old Resol’nare itself, as well as other ancient documents like the Supercommando Codex, and even the classical T-visor in all its incarnations, are used as supporting evidence. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER EIGHT: REJECT THE MODERN[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Eight addresses the ways in which Mandalorian culture rejects modernism. Mara’s examples include: use of child soldiers; social norms involving marriage and age of majority; fetishization of violence; rejection of multiculturalism in favor of assimilation; and isolationist tendencies.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER NINE: FEEL, DON’T THINK[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Nine summarizes the Mandalorian tendencies toward action for action’s sake, and discusses how Mandalorian impatience with considered thought cripples decision-making structures and processes. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER TEN: NO TRUE MANDO[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Ten discusses fear of difference. Comparing Mandalorian structures with the many recent Jedi schisms, Mara explores how both cultures fetishize conformity and are challenged by constant accusations of heresy. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“It’s as common in Mandalorian circles to hear ‘No true Mandalorian would…’ as it is in a Jedi conclave to hear ‘You’re no true Jedi.’”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER ELEVEN: BLUE BESKAR COLLAR[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Eleven explores social frustration and resentment in connection with the self-perceived blue-collar identity, even among extremely wealthy Mandalorians. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]“It’s all too easy to label the Republic and the Silver Jedi as effete, elite, snobbish, rich, out of touch, contemptuous, and high-handed. These labels played a major role in the Mandalorian crusade which destroyed the Republic.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER TWELVE: OUT TO GET US[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Hearkening back to the insularity of the family and clan principles, Chapter Twelve builds on Chapter Eleven to discuss xenophobia and a perceived plot. In Mara’s estimation, Mandalorians have been extremely eager to paint others’ actions as communal, existential threats. For example, she points to the Battle of Roche, which stemmed from a Mandalorian overreaction to a radical Republic nationalization effort -- an initiative which was not directed solely at Mandalorian-affiliated companies. Mara also mentions that the word for ‘foreigner’ or ‘outsider’ also means ‘traitor.’[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER THIRTEEN: TOO STRONG AND TOO WEAK[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Thirteen lays out the ways in which Mandalorian rhetoric often paints its enemies as both threats and inferiors. Contempt for the Jedi, the Republic, and the Sith has gone hand in hand with labelling as existential threats. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE PURPOSE OF LIFE[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]In Chapter Fourteen, Mara claims that Mandalorians believe struggle is essential to life and survival. She discusses historical and modern resistance against perceived or actual pacifists within Mandalorian culture, and the violence which has resulted.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER FIFTEEN: CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Fifteen addresses evidence of Mandalorian contempt for the weak. Mara reminds the reader of the semantic connection between armour and skin, and how non-Mandalorians are seen as shell-less, soft, vulnerable, and lesser beings. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER SIXTEEN: HEROES AND MARTYRS[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Sixteen outlines Mandalorian conceptions of heroism and death. Mando’a has no word for ‘hero,’ but Mara argues that this absence only emphasizes the idea that every Mandalorian is expected to rise to any given challenge or hazard to an extent that any outsider would consider heroically transcendent. She touches on the connection between valiance, near-suicidal self-sacrifice, and worthiness to join the Manda. She discusses ways in which Mandalorians venerate and emulate the notable dead.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]Chapter Seventeen explores another key feature of fascism: qualitative populism. In qualitative populism, the people are conceived of as a metaphorical being with desires and a will of its own, and the leader claims to be the voice of the people’s will. Mara ties this concept directly to the role of the Mand’alor, especially the recent crusades under Ra Viszla.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]CONCLUSION[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=14.6667px]The conclusion summarizes Mara’s objections to the implications of the Resol’nare, and ties them together with the eleven characteristics of fascism which link most closely to Mandalorian culture.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.6667px]Primary Source: Not influenced by any Chaos submissions. Characteristics of fascism courtesy of [/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]Umberto Eco[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px].[/SIZE]
