2000AD-PROG 1949- The comic book fear of anarchy

Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion

Released: 23rd September 2015

Judge Death and Judge Dredd work together like liberals and conservatives, creation the illusion that you have freedom of choice, just as long as your choice is an acceptance of authority, and a lack of personal freedom and liberty. You can choose a controller, and that means that you are free. Both Death and Dredd are symbols of control, they block alternatives to mainstream status quo thinking, and channel you into a slaughterhouse of collectivised, state control.

Was it always so? Probably, but it’s really noticeable now. Dredd murders to uphold the law, and Death does exactly the same. Check out the following quotation:

‘I will teach them the virtues of order and discipline. The rule of law.’

That quote comes from Judge Death, but it could just have easily come from Dredd. In ‘Ghost Town- Part Two’ Dredd massacres dissenters to the rule of law with no feeling other than his need to maintain control over the population. He doesn’t mind killing people, its just part of the job.

In ‘Dreams of Deadworld-Death’ Judge Death shows his lieutenants who is boss, killing one before carrying out a massacre of his order following minions. This is the kind of thing that always happens when a dictator purges his own party of troublesome thugs that he no longer needs. The most famous recent example being Hitler’s purge of his own brown-shirt thugs (the 'Night of the long knives') shortly after he gained the footing his needed to control the population of Germany.

Judge Death murders so he can sit on a throne (as is shown on the excellent front cover of this comic book) whilst Dredd murders in order to serve and maintain the centralised state collective.

Looking at the differences between the two Judges is hugely illuminating, as it shines a spotlight on an assumption that is central to the ideology contained within western comic books. That assumption (an idea pushed to the idea of a cliché, but an idea that is constantly reinforced as truth through repetition) is that freedom in the west means not having a dictator.

We don’t have a dictator, so that must mean that we are free, right?

What is being pushed here is the idea that the collective tyranny of democracy (the rule of the majority, or two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner) is the best that humanity can hope for. It’s the idea that individuality must be consumed by the collective, that the collective is held together by law, and that it’s up to uniformed order followers to enforce that law, at the point of a gun.

This is the legitimisation of collectivisation, of centrally controlled tyranny, of a small group of people who know better than you, and so will tell you what to do, for your own good, of course, and if you don’t obey them, then it’s death or jail for you.

Oh, and by the way, don’t forget that you are free.

Judge Death then is a perfect villain as he reinforces the idea that the only thing that we need to fear is the dictator, and that the collectivised tyranny of Judge Dredd is how things should be, because after all, we don’t want to fall into chaos or ANARCHY, do we?

‘Only the zero-tolerance Judges- empowered to dispense instant justice- can stop total ANARCHY.’

That line always appears in the ‘In This Prog’ section of 2000AD, and it’s very telling, giving the reader a social assumption, an agreed upon lie, in order to frame what happens within the narrative of the Judge Dredd strip. The lie is that anarchy equates to chaos and murder, and that without order following murderers in uniform then it will be a big free for all with babies being murdered in the streets.

That is the assumption, and it’s an assumption that comes from the mindset of an indoctrinated, fearful slave to the state. It’s an assumption that hates humanity, and assumes the very worse of people. It is an assumption that is reinforced, without evidence, that the only way to stop us murdering each other in the streets is for us to all live in a giant prison state, for our own good, of course.

Fear of anarchy, and a willingness to accept the collectivised tyranny of the state is an ideology that runs like a stick of rock through 95% of western comic books. It is an ideology that assures the slave to the state that the system s/he has been born into is legitimate. It backs up a machine of violent coercion a machine that has made the world the boiling Hellhole that it is today.

The idea that the only thing to fear is a crazy dictator, is a straw-man argument. It’s a socially programmed assumption that works because comic book writers push it without even realising what they are pushing. They know somewhere deep within their souls that a centralised, collectivised system of violent coercion is morally wrong, but they justify it by looking at the alternatives. A lack of courage, and imagination gives them only two: 1- A villainous dictator. 2- People being murdered in the streets. That’s Judge Death, and that’s Judge Dredd. Both follow the law, both wear uniforms, both exist to control you. One of them is a cartoon villain, and the other is an agent of the collectivised state.

Judge Death makes you fear dictatorships, and Judge Dredd makes you fear anarchy, or the lack of a centralised control system. The two fictional characters represent false real-world choices, like the red and blue parties, keeping you fearful, dependant, and safely imprisoned within the collectivised neo-liberal corporate/state reservation.

I’ve already written enough this week, so I’ll leave it there, and no, this is not a typical comic book review, and it isn’t supposed to be. I’m not being paid to knock out a boring review, so I’ll talk about what I want to talk about. This week I wanted to talk about the similarities between Death and Dredd, and how they are used to reinforce the current system of collectivised state tyranny in which we all live under in the west. I think that I managed to say something worthwhile. I think that what I said was more interesting than a review about panels, colouring and personalities. Thanks for reading it, be nice to each other, and have a great comic book reading week.



Rating: 8/10 (Judge Death and Judge Dredd, a one-two punch to the face of humanity)