#accidentally hyperfocused for 6 hours today and spat out this so. enjoy!

[miafeystits]

political thought and the thought cabinet

or, how disco elysium makes a political argument through game mechanics

so, let’s talk about the political alignment mechanic in disco elysium. specifically, I want to talk about the politically-aligned thought cabinet projects in the game, and how the mechanical consequences they induce serve as another way to comment on what adherence to each political ideology means for harry’s development as a person

(note: i’d like to dig into associated political vision quests in the future, but at the moment i’ve only fully completed one (communism) and I’m not through my moralist playthrough yet, so I’ll hold out on commenting for the moment)

because, and I don’t think this is really a controversial take, we can pretty easily read the acquisition of skill points as a metaphor that systematizes harry’s character development throughout the story, as evidenced through the way that skill points, whether invested into specific skills or into new thoughts, are mechanical decisions that shape harry as a character through the ways he is able to interact with the world (especially seeing as certain skill levels are often necessary to not only complete certain tasks but to obtain certain parts of potential narration)

political thoughts, then, and the effects that they have on harry mechanically both during and after their completion can and imo should be read as commentaries on what those political ideologies do on a personal and interpersonal level (taking into account, of course, that you as a player basically have no choice but to play a harry du bois who is extremely invested in his ideology of choice, because hdb is nothing if not a man of extremes. the only way to play a more “moderate” or “apolitical” hdb is to opt out of completing any political thought at all. even the ‘indifferent’ political dialogue choices ultimately lead you to developing the moralist thought, and if you ever decide to research said thought and go down the moralist questline that does mean playing a harry that is deeply invested in moralism as an ideology—you can play harry as a centrist, but you can never play him as a moderate)

(note: this is something I’ve seen people discuss to various degrees before, but the ones I’ve seen have tended to focus on fascist runs of the game and how much disco elysium makes being a fascist suck—which are worth checking out for the record, as I’ve never played a fascist run of the game myself. so while I’m probably not pointing out anything new in that regard, I really want to point out how all of the political thoughts in de have mechanical effects that provide political commentary through gameplay, and how they contribute to the game’s larger political points)

so, taking all this into account, it’s super interesting to note that even though disco elysium allows you to play harry as a communist, moralist, ultraliberal or fascist, of those mazovian socio-economics is the only thought that offers additional xp

meaning, if we’re reading the acquisition of xp and skill points as a ludic illustration of harry’s character development throughout the game, the benefits of internalizing mazovian socio-economics make an argument that communist ideology is, mechanically, the political ideology that gives harry the most substantial tools to develop as person. 

this is despite having its own possibly negative effects on harry, shown mechanically through those negative skill bonuses:

there’s a critique here in regards to how far communism can take harry personally– at the end of the day, it is also an ideology that gives him a pessimistic and somewhat skewed view of the current world (from the solution description: “All he has managed to do is make himself *sad*. He is starting to suspect Kras Mazov *fucked him over* personally with his socio-economic theory. It has, however, made him into a very, very smart boy with something like a university degree in Truth. Instead of building Communism, he now builds a precise model of this grotesque, duplicitous world,”) which manifests in those negative stat bonuses to authority and visual calculus. 

but compare this with the other political thoughts in the game:

moralism, in contrast, has mechanical benefits (and on the surface may appear more uniformly positive than the communist thought), but that main benefit is making harry feel better about himself, which is different than allowing harry to improve himself 

looking at the mechanical boost healing +1 morale alongside the (mostly theoretical) boost to volition (giving you a potential for high morale in general) & the fact that volition is described in-game as a skill that “At high levels…makes you hyper-sane. When you’re about to get funky, it keeps you normal. It’s a bit of a party-pooper,” we can see reflected here what the game says about moralism textually: that moralism is an ideology about maintaining the status quo, maintaining stability (although, stability for whom?) at the expense of any actual change, personally or socially—and part of how it maintains that is through professing ideas that feel good, but are ultimately more fluff than substance (the conversation with the Sunday friend being a great example of this in practice)

now, the raised learning cap to logic is a mechanical detail i find slightly trickier to interpret if i’m being honest. my initial guess as to its purpose is that it serves to aid the player in the moralist quest later on, which necessitates that harry succeed on at least one major logic check to complete it. however, there’s also something to be said about how moralism frames itself as the most ‘logical’ and ‘objective’ of its ideological contemporaries, as a way of justifying its continued power and the human cost that it necessitates. moralism’s argument for its own existence, the future ‘kingdom of conscience’ is also notably one that appeals to harry’s own internal sense of logic, as seen in the passive check below (from the initial ‘kingdom of conscience’ thought):

then there’s ultraliberalism, which is pretty easy to figure out imo—people subscribe to this ideology because it makes them money. if earning money is what’s important to you, subscribing to this ideology sure will make that easier, at the expense of empathy towards others.

and honestly, you might benefit mechanically from this thought in some ways—namely through the ability to more easily buy status-changing clothes, medicines, and drugs—but it’s important to keep in mind that those stat boosts are always temporary. the clothes can be taken on and off, the drugs wear off eventually, and medicine will only ever heal you to max health, never increase it. the only permanent stat change is that negative boost to empathy, which is the price of doing business.

and then lastly, we have fascism. and being a fascist, mechanically? sucks ass. i’m not the first person to say this and i probably won’t be the last. it gives you a negative stat boost that lasts the whole nine hours it takes to think about it– nine hours!!! that is, by my count, the second longest time to internalize a thought in the whole game. the other ideologies also give you negative stat boosts while you research, but the longest of them (mazovian socio-economics) takes only around 3 hours. notably, there are very few thoughts of this research length that induce a negative research bonus at all—most of the thoughts that clock in around 7 or 8 hours of research time, with some exceptions, have no effect during research. also, the only thought with a longer research time than this one is wasteland of reality, clocking in at 20 hours, which is the thought that mechanically mimics the process of trying to get sober after years of alcohol addiction

there’s also probably something to be said here in general about the time it takes to internalize each political thought—moralism (1 hr 25 min), closely followed by ultraliberalism (1 hr 45 min), are easy to internalize presumably because they’re the reigning ideologies of the world you live in—you are surrounded by their logics and their arguments, and it’s easier to maintain the world than seek to change it.

communism is presumably more difficult to invest into—you can see evidence of its defeat all around you. it is a decidedly radical position to take in a post-commune of revachol world

I’m honestly still thinking about why exactly fascism takes so long to internalize. my current theory (and a big thanks to @obeetlebeetle​ for helping me figure this mystery out as best as we can) is related to a specific line in the description for the revacholian nationhood thought (emphasis mine): “They've fucked this place….You have only a vague idea what this means, but it's clear that a *good strong state* must be erected upon the ruins, if any of us are to have a future.” as we see in looking at other fascist characters in the game– rene, measurehead, gary– their idea of both what is wrong with the world and how to ‘fix’ it (as well as who is the in-group and out-group in their worldviews) are so deeply rooted within a specific historical, cultural, and theoretical context and tradition, which harry “just lost his whole memory” du bois doesn’t have access to. as we see in the description above, a fascist harry is written as coming from a place of defensiveness, of wanting to blame the world’s problems on an out-group so as to absolve himself of sin or personal responsibility, but he only has the vaguest idea of who he’s blaming, and why– meaning this research time may, in fact, be needed to research, or to at least recover those memories

who knows though– maybe, perhaps, the time difference is so great because fascism is less about understanding the world around you than it is about evading anything resembling truth? not about stability, or personal gain, or changing the future, but returning to a past that never really existed. to quote a friend on this, it’s an ideology based in false and subjectively constructed narratives (which you can see in the aforementioned main 3 fascist characters’ differing visions of the world), an approximation of which even harry is even able to cobble together. perhaps, more so than the other ideologies, fascism is really a lie you have to take the time to fool yourself into believing, because you need to make up a story to go along with it.

but anyway, let’s go back to what happens when you internalize revacholian nationhood. 

if you decide to go all in on fascism, spend a whole nine hours on it, what does that get you? just an increased proclivity towards alcoholism (more specifically: a mechanical boost that encourages the player to roleplay harry’s continuing alcoholism) and a -1 to your morale anytime you say something fascist

being a fascist, and attempting to enact fascism out in the world, sucks. the game does not want you to be a fascist. it makes you worse, and continuing to try to spread fascism only hurts harry—the destruction inherent to fascism manifests as self destruction as well. and the boost that it does give—making alcohol more effective—is a temporary one, and requires you to continue keep drinking to maintain its effects

(note: I know that it’s possible to level up a skill while it’s increased via drugs or alcohol and it will stay that way, but i’d argue that such raises ultimately come down to increasing the skill cap, which is mechanically distinct from giving the player more xp– and notably, to maintain that boost when not using drugs or alcohol, players still need to use previously earned skill points, which this thought does nothing to aid you in acquiring)

so, in conclusion I guess: I think the reason that disco elysium’s exploration of different political ideologies works so well for me is that it’s not just fluff. harry’s politics, whichever direction he leans, will change him as a person, and those ideologies are not equal or neutral: some of them will give you more tools to survive this world and to better yourself than others. and when they also affect gameplay it makes it clear that the ramifications of those politics are inescapable on a personal level as well as a wider social level, and makes those effects inescapable to the player as well.