Morning Ed: Society {2017.10.31.Tu}

Kolohe says:

So2- Wang is spot on about how the Targaryens, by being so far above the rest of Westeros society, both figuratively and literally, were able to keep the (relative) peace for many years. It’s the same way a superpower prevents this mimetic destructive competetition between long time rival nations.

I don’t think he’s right about mimetic competition being the downfall of Robert, nor more generally, that there is a sharp distinction between a mimetic competitive threat and an existential one. Robert was undone in part by jealously, true, and by third party actors who wanted to elevate their own status – which is the classic mimetic motivation. But he was also undone by people that (correctly) thought that the airing of a secret would pose an existential threat, and thus were willing to do whatever it took to keep that secret a secret.

The mimetic fight between two peer rivals almost always becomes existential, whether its the Capulets/Montagues, the Lannisters/Starks, or the USA/USSR. Particularly if one party in that feud has had a recent brush with an event that almost ended their way of life. The world Tywin Lannister grew up in, the Lannisters were a joke, and were it not for the skill and extensive efforts of Tywin, would have been replaced as a Great House in his generation. (similarly, part of the reason the USSR was more than slightly paranoid in the late 20th century was that the Nazis had nearly destroyed it in the mid century).

Last, I think he’s right in his analysis of Show Snow’s death. Book Snow’s death, on the other hand, has sufficiently different details (e.g. Ser Alliser Thorne is not present, Ollie doesn’t even exist, and the Pink Letter) which creates a subtly different dynamic that makes the death more understandable, though no less tragic (but definitely Shakesperean – Martin is clearing riffing on Juilius Caesar’s stabbing)Report