Political Realities in a Universe of Fantasies
source: google.com
Dragons, magic, an army of the undead with baby blue eyes, and a somewhat uncomfortable-looking throne of melted swords – even in all its rich and ‘unrealistic’ fantasy, the popular saying that “fiction mirrors reality” also applies to HBO’s ground-breaking television series, Game of Thrones. Despite how seemingly far away this fictional universe and its Medieval-inspired civilization are from ours in the present time, it can actually serve as a reflection to our current political conditions while providing us with values we can learn and apply to modern politics.
Let’s start with the “bad news” first; the unappealing truth. Nowadays, it is not unpopular for people to hold the notion that betrayal, backstabbing, secret agreements and dirty work are inseparable from the world of politics. As a matter of fact, a lot of us are pessimistic that the ethical and morally good could last let alone exist in it. Just last year, for instance, a lot of us were taken aback by the arrest of Jakarta’s former governor, who was famous for his good virtues and transparency.
The show blatantly and repeatedly depicts this unfortunate reality in politics, one of the cases being the beheading of an honorable character, Eddard Stark, who had previously unearthed a dirty secret about one of the Seven Kingdom’s Great Houses, House Lannister, and threatened to reveal it. While this was what happened to arguably, the most honorable character in Game of Thrones, it was the spoiled, tyrannical boy at the other end of the spectrum, Joffrey Baratheon, who managed to rise to power. The throne was later occupied by his deadly manipulative mother, Cersei Lannister, who had little or even no regard for the common people. Aside shining light on how grotesque politics can get, however, Eddard’s hapless death also teaches the importance of making predictions and to prepare for things to go both according to plan or not. Eddard was simply not vigilant enough, despite there already being previous warnings about his fate.
There are of course, consequences that follow from ruling arbitrarily. Joffrey was – unsurprisingly – despised and disrespected by his own people as well as those of high rank. At the end, Joffrey was poisoned to death by his supposed-to-be mother-in-law from another Great House and the kingdom’s former Master of Coins; hard to say that we didn’t see something like this coming. The poisoning itself is amongst one out of the show’s many examples of the ugly backstabbing existent in politics.
On the other hand, there is also the rather lovable Daenerys Targaryen, who conquered lands with her formidable dragons and freed them of slavery practices. Despite upholding a noble cause of abolishing slavery and having won the hearts of the many commoners she liberated, she could barely control the lands she successfully conquered – fans of the show have actually compared this to the U.S.’s quite recent experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. This brings us to our next lesson: governing is a lot harder than campaigning and winning the support of the people. It’s not seldom that we see politicians make bold promises of a “better life” to gain votes, and for them to seem highly committed to this in the beginning. Alas, the people either end up disappointed or even worse than they first started off. Rulers need to remember that it is important not only to “win”, but also to maintain good governance.
While Daenerys has dragons capable of causing wanton destruction in accordance to her will, one of her advisors Tyrion Lannister reminds her that “killing and politics aren’t always the same thing”. This can also serve as a reminder to viewers that politics is more than just brute force, toying with people as well as their hopes and destroying those whose interests are not the same as yours. As powerful as one person or state is, it is impossible to survive and grow alone – especially when you’re facing an army of the undead who now has a winged beast on their side (fun fact: the undead or white walkers are often regarded as a metaphor for global warming). You need something from another party, and the relationship is vice versa – hence, politics require compromise, negotiation, and cooperation. An example of this is when the former king of the North – a region in the Seven Kingdoms – agreed to acknowledge Daenerys as the rightful queen to the throne and the North simultaneously. In return, he gained a new ally who happened to occupy a land with heaps of dragonglass, which he could use to continue producing weapons to kill the white walkers.
Lastly, politics require making difficult choices. After striking a controversial deal with another party to maintain slavery practices for another seven years in exchange of peace, Tyrion Lannister remarked that “slavery is a horror that should be ended at once. War is a horror that should be ended at once. I can’t do both today.” There will be times when one will face moral ambiguity and conflicting relative goods, and it is important to still make the best judgment possible. Just as how both bad and good can co-exist within a person, the same applies to both the most “revered” or “worst” of leaders and their policies – we shouldn’t be quick to impose negative judgment without understanding the circumstances properly.
After all the (perhaps dizzying) political talk above, here are two additional, universal values that the series can teach us all: life can be magical in strange but wonderful ways, and little acts of kindness amidst a world filled with deceit and manipulation are capable of changing a story and the lives in it significantly.
