#these thoughts are not fully formed yet either but close enough ❤️

[rescue-ram]

Myth x Values = Power

I've been pondering this excellent meta by @deadendtracks off and on all day and it has given me many good thoughts and reevaluation of parts of the show that ticked me off and made me deeply appreciate the underlying narrative of the show.

Their meta is about the family myths of the Shelby family which holds Tommy as this powerful authoritarian figure, in contrast to their actual material autonomy, and the ways that myth let's them benefit from his efforts and travails while psychologically distancing themselves from the consequences of their actions, to summarize some very interesting and well written ideas in a single sentence. (Go read the meta!) It's using family myth more in the psychological/addiction/codependency sense of the word, but it made me think of a political theory my dad really dug, called Myth Power Value.

To again summarize some complex ideas in a few sentences, MPV tried to explain how societies, and their political elite, use cultural myths and values to justify and sustain their hold on power. A cultural myth is exactly what you think it is- American Exceptionalism, the march of history and the triumph of progress, legends of our noble ancestors, etc. Value is primarily virtues, like grit or entrepreneurial spirit, but can also be material. If I control a river crossing, that gives me economic power over the surrounding area, and the myth of my noble ancestors owning it for generations or the divine right of kings legitimizing a landgrant let's me keep it. You can use this to analyze politics in a couple ways- looking at people in power and "dividing" them by the myths they tell themselves to derive what their values are, or looking at political aspirants and what's important to them to predict and understand the narratives they craft to drive their rise towards power. There is A LOT more to it, but that's the summary salient to this meta.

Because thinking about Peaky Blinders through that lens was very interesting? And you can see it very clearly, even in the first few episodes. Tommy Shelby self-consciously cultivates myths around him, the unkillable man with a plan who's always in control, and a lot of these myths are deeply rooted in his ethnic identity. (I am being as vague as the show runners, manifesting evil intentions towards them for their absolute bullshit confusion of GRT peoples) Like his introductory scene is an act of mythmaking in pursuit of power, performing the "powder trick" to increase bets on his horse in a race. When his power falters he appeals back to myths, performing rituals to break curses, and in the logic of the show this is usually successful.

By contrast, his values are solidly and almost incongruously English, and upper-class English at that. He values money and power and the material signifiers of the upperclass status, he calculatedly but seemingly unironically appeals to loyalty to the king, and my read on his war service (admittedly, I can't recall what was explicitly stated or implied in the show and what's my own reading between the lines) is that he volunteered for service in the war to prove and legitimize himself as an Englishman- a "gypsy" Englishman, but English nonetheless. He craves the stability and safety money and power brings, and tries to acquire it by taking for himself the values of the imperial power.

Tommy squares that circle, and successfully combines the two in the acquisition of power- but in doing so runs smack into the English Englishman institutions of power. Their cultural myth is that, by dint of blood and breeding, are fundamentally superior to Tommy, and they have the material and institutional power to back that up on a life and death level, controlling and exploiting him. When Tommy plays by their values in their system, he cannot overpower them, and it highlights the incongruity between his roots and the values of the system he's trying to find a place in. I have to admit, I did not dig the increased political plots of the later seasons when I watched them, and took a long break because at a certain point it just no longer felt like the show I signed up for. But looking at it through this lens- the closer to power Tommy gets, the more intense the conflict and contradictions become, and he is physically, spiritually, and psychologically destroyed by it over the series- I appreciated it more. The show was telling a political story from the start, I just didn't pick up all the pieces at first.

It also gives me Thoughts about the longrunning communist subplot in the show, but they're not fully formed yet.