Revolution, societal change, and reactionary ethics in the Cosmere
Lithos Maitreya
Character Witness
- Location
- United States
Hi! Years ago I had a thread for essays about RWBY. That thread was a shitshow, because the RWBY fandom is a shitshow (or was at the time, maybe it's changed?) and so is spacebattles (that one hasn't changed).
So this time, I'm starting a more generic essay thread and I'm doing it here. Feel free to leave any responses or thoughts of your own, whether in essay form or not!
Here's my first contribution. The spoilers to note for this one are: FULL SPOILERS FOR BRANDON SANDERSON'S COSMERE.
I want to preface this by saying that I love the Cosmere. Adore it. Like, you all how no idea how far ahead I am in drafting Of Many Colors already, and that back catalogue of chapters in the editing pipeline is only growing. It's an incredibly rich setting, and in many ways I find it much more philosophically palatable than just about any other fantasy series I've read.
But there are a few big exceptions to that rule. The first of these is the extremely reactionary attitude it presents to societal change.
To be clear: I'm about to say some things about the emergent philosophy of the Cosmere based on the subtext of the books that have been written so far. That does not mean that I believe these themes are going to be present in all future Cosmere books, nor does it mean I believe Brandon Sanderson actually holds these beliefs. I don't actually believe either of those things. Privately, I think he is in the process of reexamining some of these assumptions, and we will see much more nuanced engagements with many of these topics in future books.
Let's talk about caste systems.
We've seen rigid caste systems in quite a few of the Cosmere's worlds now. In fact, they've appeared to one extent or another on every world in the Cosmere that we've visited, as far as I can remember. But the best examples are on Sel, Scadrial, and Roshar.
I want to talk mostly about Roshar, because it's the most fleshed-out. Anybody who's read more than a few pages of a Stormlight Archive book is at least passingly familiar with the lighteyes-darkeyes divide in those books. There are further subdivisions within those two castes, but there is some social mobility between those levels (dahn and nahn). There is none between the lighteyes and darkeyes castes. The only exception is that the acquisition of a Shardblade gradually lightens a person's eyes and grants them the rank of a fourth-dahn lighteyes—a major noble and direct vassal of a highprince. But given that there are only a couple dozen Shardblades known to exist in Alethkar at the start of The Way of Kings, that's not really social mobility.
This is lampshaded directly in the text. We see several examples of Kaladin grappling with these smoke-and-mirrors examples of upward mobility—the rumor that a bridgeman will be set free if he survives a hundred bridge runs, the tradition of raising Shardbearers to the fourth dahn, the ability to acquire a more comfortable life by selling oneself into slavery in the ardentia. The text acknowledges that these things are, for the most part, illusory ways to keep the masses satiated with a diet of false hope.
And the masses need to be kept satiated. Kaladin's experiences in Bridge Four show just how terrible things are for slaves and low-nahn darkeyes in Alethkar. Their lives are, quite literally, less valuable than a single soldier's gear. Highprince Sadeas throws away darkeyed lives without even a first thought because doing so simply makes economical sense to him. (There's another discussion to be had about whether he's causing an impending population crisis by doing this, but for our purposes here I'm willing to take his calculus at face value.)
Here's the problem with all of that. We've seen that the caste system is institutionally violent, worse than most of the systems we have here in the real world that work to keep disadvantaged populations from achieving equality of opportunity. And we've seen that the Alethi lighteyes use tactics employed by real-world dictators and elites to keep their serfs, slaves, and underclasses dreaming of a false hope built into the system so that they won't look to break the system entirely.
But when change finally does begin to come to Alethkar, when someone finally stands up and says that this system is broken beyond repair and must be changed? Who is that person?
Well, there are two. The first is Moash, and the second is Jasnah Kholin. Do you begin to see the problem?
Moash is a darkeyes who, like Kaladin, has experienced the absolute worst horrors of the Alethi system. He reacts to this by attempting to assassinate King Elhokar, and replacing him with the only lighteyes whom he's actually seen treating darkeyes with respect—his uncle Dalinar, who set Moash and his fellow bridgemen free. This assassination attempt precipitates Moash's descent into being one of the most hated villains in the entire series, for many good reasons.
Jasnah, by contrast, is literally the highest-ranked person in the entire Alethi caste system. After her brother's death, she takes the throne of Alethkar as Queen. And its there, once she has that authority, that she begins to speak about the need to abolish slavery. When she does this, it's greeted with trepidation by Dalinar, who believes that the ongoing apocalypse is probably higher priority than sweeping societal changes right now. It's not yet clear, in canon, if either of these perspectives are going to be framed as right, or if it's just a difference in how Jasnah and her uncle see the world.
Jasnah isn't even shown talking to a single actual darkeyes about any of this. She doesn't talk with Kaladin, now leader of the Order of Windrunners, a former darkeyed slave himself. She doesn't talk with any of her ward Shallan's former-darkeyes Lightweaver squires and students. She doesn't, in fact, talk with anyone about the need to abolish slavery except other lighteyes of fourth dahn and higher. It's possible I've forgotten a conversation somewhere, but I don't think so.
So we're presented, on Roshar, with two different approaches to seeking societal change to abolish profoundly unjust systems. The first is change-from-below using any means necessary, through Moash, and through what happens to Moash and his moral decay we get the implication of a slippery-slope argument; that this sort of any-means-necessary approach to societal change leads to an ethical slide and, potentially, to even worse outcomes than the original problems. The second is change-from-above using the simple authority of a despot, and while we haven't really seen the outcome of that approach yet we certainly haven't seen a total ethical collapse like what Moash was already undergoing by the end of Words of Radiance.
This isn't a uniquely Rosharan problem. On Sel, and specifically in Arelon, we have the two-tiered citizenship of pseudodivine Elantrians and ordinary humans. We're told that, until the Reod ten years before the events of Elantris, Arelon was in a golden age. We're told that things were so much better for the peasantry when the divinely-chosen Elantrians were in charge, and that when the Reod shattered their power and the human merchant-prince Iadon took control, everything became worse for everyone, including the lower-class humans. Our hero is Iadon's son, Raoden, who becomes an Elantrian and eventually reclaims his throne through his authority as both Iadon's heir and the leader of the Elantrian survivors. While we don't see much of what Arelon looks like with Raoden in power, it's implied through the short story The Hope of Elantris that it looks a lot better than it did under Iadon.
On Scadrial, we have two examples. In Era 1, we have the overthrow of the Final Empire by Kelsier, Vin, and their crew of skaa thieves and rebels. This looks like a counterpoint to everything else we've seen… except that more than half of the next book is dedicated to Elend Venture learning to accept the necessity of seizing autocratic control of Luthadel. He tries to replace the Lord Ruler with a republic, but is eventually forced to concede that an autocracy is just better in this context. The rule of the masses simply leads, in Mistborn Era 1, to greed and demagoguery making things worse for everyone, while a benevolent dictator can actually improve things.
In Mistborn Era 2, meanwhile, we have the interplay between the centralized authority of the city government of Elendel and the colonial governments of the outer cities, who resent Elendel's hegemony. This subplot is mostly below the surface until the final book in the series, The Lost Metal, where it takes center stage.
In The Lost Metal, there are two primary forces working to increase the representation and right to self-governance of the outer cities. The first is the outer cities themselves, who are increasingly leveraging their resources and population to attempt to force Elendel to accede to their demands for self-determination. The other is an internal group within Elendel's representative body who are trying to moderate a peaceful outcome whereby a higher representative federation would be granted authority over all the cities, Elendel included, and be staffed by representatives of the outer cities as well as Elendel. The first of these forces is revealed to be little more than a sockpuppet for the evil, alien goddess Autonomy to facilitate her army's invasion of Scadrial. The second is headed by our protagonist, Senator Waxillium Ladrian. One is clearly framed as more morally sound than the other, and it's not the one coming from the actually disenfranchised population.
So this is the underlying problem to all of these unjust systems in the Cosmere. Brandon does not shy away from showing that these systems are unjust. However, he almost invariably argues that change to those systems has to come from within and above. Attempts to break the system by the people that system disenfranchises are almost universally treated as either easily manipulated to evil ends or worse than the systems they're trying to overthrow. And that's a problem, because if you apply that same logic to real-world structural injustices you get, well, some very problematic reactionary schools of thought. Real politics are obviously always going to be more nuanced and complex than those in any work of fiction, but Brandon could at least try to fall a little less consistently on the side of the benevolent dictators.
So this time, I'm starting a more generic essay thread and I'm doing it here. Feel free to leave any responses or thoughts of your own, whether in essay form or not!
Here's my first contribution. The spoilers to note for this one are: FULL SPOILERS FOR BRANDON SANDERSON'S COSMERE.
-x-x-x-
Revolution, societal change, and reactionary ethics in the Cosmere
Revolution, societal change, and reactionary ethics in the Cosmere
I want to preface this by saying that I love the Cosmere. Adore it. Like, you all how no idea how far ahead I am in drafting Of Many Colors already, and that back catalogue of chapters in the editing pipeline is only growing. It's an incredibly rich setting, and in many ways I find it much more philosophically palatable than just about any other fantasy series I've read.
But there are a few big exceptions to that rule. The first of these is the extremely reactionary attitude it presents to societal change.
To be clear: I'm about to say some things about the emergent philosophy of the Cosmere based on the subtext of the books that have been written so far. That does not mean that I believe these themes are going to be present in all future Cosmere books, nor does it mean I believe Brandon Sanderson actually holds these beliefs. I don't actually believe either of those things. Privately, I think he is in the process of reexamining some of these assumptions, and we will see much more nuanced engagements with many of these topics in future books.
Let's talk about caste systems.
We've seen rigid caste systems in quite a few of the Cosmere's worlds now. In fact, they've appeared to one extent or another on every world in the Cosmere that we've visited, as far as I can remember. But the best examples are on Sel, Scadrial, and Roshar.
I want to talk mostly about Roshar, because it's the most fleshed-out. Anybody who's read more than a few pages of a Stormlight Archive book is at least passingly familiar with the lighteyes-darkeyes divide in those books. There are further subdivisions within those two castes, but there is some social mobility between those levels (dahn and nahn). There is none between the lighteyes and darkeyes castes. The only exception is that the acquisition of a Shardblade gradually lightens a person's eyes and grants them the rank of a fourth-dahn lighteyes—a major noble and direct vassal of a highprince. But given that there are only a couple dozen Shardblades known to exist in Alethkar at the start of The Way of Kings, that's not really social mobility.
This is lampshaded directly in the text. We see several examples of Kaladin grappling with these smoke-and-mirrors examples of upward mobility—the rumor that a bridgeman will be set free if he survives a hundred bridge runs, the tradition of raising Shardbearers to the fourth dahn, the ability to acquire a more comfortable life by selling oneself into slavery in the ardentia. The text acknowledges that these things are, for the most part, illusory ways to keep the masses satiated with a diet of false hope.
And the masses need to be kept satiated. Kaladin's experiences in Bridge Four show just how terrible things are for slaves and low-nahn darkeyes in Alethkar. Their lives are, quite literally, less valuable than a single soldier's gear. Highprince Sadeas throws away darkeyed lives without even a first thought because doing so simply makes economical sense to him. (There's another discussion to be had about whether he's causing an impending population crisis by doing this, but for our purposes here I'm willing to take his calculus at face value.)
Here's the problem with all of that. We've seen that the caste system is institutionally violent, worse than most of the systems we have here in the real world that work to keep disadvantaged populations from achieving equality of opportunity. And we've seen that the Alethi lighteyes use tactics employed by real-world dictators and elites to keep their serfs, slaves, and underclasses dreaming of a false hope built into the system so that they won't look to break the system entirely.
But when change finally does begin to come to Alethkar, when someone finally stands up and says that this system is broken beyond repair and must be changed? Who is that person?
Well, there are two. The first is Moash, and the second is Jasnah Kholin. Do you begin to see the problem?
Moash is a darkeyes who, like Kaladin, has experienced the absolute worst horrors of the Alethi system. He reacts to this by attempting to assassinate King Elhokar, and replacing him with the only lighteyes whom he's actually seen treating darkeyes with respect—his uncle Dalinar, who set Moash and his fellow bridgemen free. This assassination attempt precipitates Moash's descent into being one of the most hated villains in the entire series, for many good reasons.
Jasnah, by contrast, is literally the highest-ranked person in the entire Alethi caste system. After her brother's death, she takes the throne of Alethkar as Queen. And its there, once she has that authority, that she begins to speak about the need to abolish slavery. When she does this, it's greeted with trepidation by Dalinar, who believes that the ongoing apocalypse is probably higher priority than sweeping societal changes right now. It's not yet clear, in canon, if either of these perspectives are going to be framed as right, or if it's just a difference in how Jasnah and her uncle see the world.
Jasnah isn't even shown talking to a single actual darkeyes about any of this. She doesn't talk with Kaladin, now leader of the Order of Windrunners, a former darkeyed slave himself. She doesn't talk with any of her ward Shallan's former-darkeyes Lightweaver squires and students. She doesn't, in fact, talk with anyone about the need to abolish slavery except other lighteyes of fourth dahn and higher. It's possible I've forgotten a conversation somewhere, but I don't think so.
So we're presented, on Roshar, with two different approaches to seeking societal change to abolish profoundly unjust systems. The first is change-from-below using any means necessary, through Moash, and through what happens to Moash and his moral decay we get the implication of a slippery-slope argument; that this sort of any-means-necessary approach to societal change leads to an ethical slide and, potentially, to even worse outcomes than the original problems. The second is change-from-above using the simple authority of a despot, and while we haven't really seen the outcome of that approach yet we certainly haven't seen a total ethical collapse like what Moash was already undergoing by the end of Words of Radiance.
This isn't a uniquely Rosharan problem. On Sel, and specifically in Arelon, we have the two-tiered citizenship of pseudodivine Elantrians and ordinary humans. We're told that, until the Reod ten years before the events of Elantris, Arelon was in a golden age. We're told that things were so much better for the peasantry when the divinely-chosen Elantrians were in charge, and that when the Reod shattered their power and the human merchant-prince Iadon took control, everything became worse for everyone, including the lower-class humans. Our hero is Iadon's son, Raoden, who becomes an Elantrian and eventually reclaims his throne through his authority as both Iadon's heir and the leader of the Elantrian survivors. While we don't see much of what Arelon looks like with Raoden in power, it's implied through the short story The Hope of Elantris that it looks a lot better than it did under Iadon.
On Scadrial, we have two examples. In Era 1, we have the overthrow of the Final Empire by Kelsier, Vin, and their crew of skaa thieves and rebels. This looks like a counterpoint to everything else we've seen… except that more than half of the next book is dedicated to Elend Venture learning to accept the necessity of seizing autocratic control of Luthadel. He tries to replace the Lord Ruler with a republic, but is eventually forced to concede that an autocracy is just better in this context. The rule of the masses simply leads, in Mistborn Era 1, to greed and demagoguery making things worse for everyone, while a benevolent dictator can actually improve things.
In Mistborn Era 2, meanwhile, we have the interplay between the centralized authority of the city government of Elendel and the colonial governments of the outer cities, who resent Elendel's hegemony. This subplot is mostly below the surface until the final book in the series, The Lost Metal, where it takes center stage.
In The Lost Metal, there are two primary forces working to increase the representation and right to self-governance of the outer cities. The first is the outer cities themselves, who are increasingly leveraging their resources and population to attempt to force Elendel to accede to their demands for self-determination. The other is an internal group within Elendel's representative body who are trying to moderate a peaceful outcome whereby a higher representative federation would be granted authority over all the cities, Elendel included, and be staffed by representatives of the outer cities as well as Elendel. The first of these forces is revealed to be little more than a sockpuppet for the evil, alien goddess Autonomy to facilitate her army's invasion of Scadrial. The second is headed by our protagonist, Senator Waxillium Ladrian. One is clearly framed as more morally sound than the other, and it's not the one coming from the actually disenfranchised population.
So this is the underlying problem to all of these unjust systems in the Cosmere. Brandon does not shy away from showing that these systems are unjust. However, he almost invariably argues that change to those systems has to come from within and above. Attempts to break the system by the people that system disenfranchises are almost universally treated as either easily manipulated to evil ends or worse than the systems they're trying to overthrow. And that's a problem, because if you apply that same logic to real-world structural injustices you get, well, some very problematic reactionary schools of thought. Real politics are obviously always going to be more nuanced and complex than those in any work of fiction, but Brandon could at least try to fall a little less consistently on the side of the benevolent dictators.