Small post of appreciation for Modissa
Hello
For context i am a brazilian socialist activist. I am part of a socialist youth section, with a legal front party that takes place in Bouirgeous elections, and have been avidly doing the work for 1 year and a half. I actually got organized BECAUSE of Disco Elysium.
There’s several aspects of being a socialist that arent really common knowledge to people. Because stories about communists, actual communists, are rare. Its why Disco was such a miracle. But even in Disco, there’s not really a focus on how socialists orgs are organized, because Disco is an existentially Estonian game. And in Estonia, socialist efforts are currently very stunted. The game focuses on the, also common, sort of young commie who is still too far up their own ass to actually go in with the masses and build a movement. Very real and very powerful, but also not representative of ALL of the facets of modern organization.
Esoteric Ebb is different. Initially when i saw that the there was only one left party in the game, that they were actively running in the election and that there was no “centrist” equivalent, i was afraid the game would take a social democratic route, and not really go ás far as Disco did. I was wrong.
The way the Azgals operate, is very representative of real marxist-leninist organization. Historically it reminds me a bit of that period pre-Lenin when Engels and Marx were building the communist party in Germany, and org wise makes me think of early Bolcheviks.
The thing that kind of sucks about being in a real ML org is that you gotta interact with the system a little bit, not because you believe in it, but because you need to win the people, and it’s easier to reach the people if you have a legal front. Engels talked about it and the Third International has several texts on it. You need to enter the bouirgeous elections, not with the goal of actually achieving anything, or even to win the election. But because when the system does everything in its power to stop you, that’s when you denounce and mobilize the masses to do the real work. Before the fun part, you need to do the boring, day to day job.
This mostly means newspaper work. Thats the part that surprised me the most in the game. The newspaper is só important. I write for the one in my party for my state. Through our newspaper we go to the factory floor and talk to the workers and build strikes, through the newspaper we are able to organize massive student paralizations that spam entire states.
However, all of this doesn’t mean a party can’t go scab. Start going too far on the electoral route and start trying to consciliate with the system, believe you’ll change something through it. This is why ideological dispute os important, this is why you need to study constantly as well as act.
Modissa is a wonderful character
She has flaws. The game makes it clear her fervor comes from a personal place of being tired of personally being put down, not an altruistic desire of liberation. But even so, the game mais it clear her anger is righteous. Through her it explores the misoginistic tendencies within Marxist orgs and how the youth, as Che Guevara once said, are the most willing to drive others to revolutionary action. Because being young is to be a revolutionary.
I saw myself in her in a way I never expected to see in a game. I never thought id see a young student writing and selling newspapers with revolutionary fervor, and fighting tooth and nail to keep the party in the right track. And both Wisdom and Snell are on her side, which to me is a clear indication of who the game sees as the correct side.
Its just a very nuanced discussion (because it’s true you can’t just go crazy and start openly asking for a revolution without first winning the trust of the masses) and the game handled it in a way that shows a deep understanding of how organization works.
Her character and the Azgals in general are very wonderful. Her conflict with Rollo also is, because i like the empathy in making it clear Rollo’s actions come from the same place as her, but are infinitely more misguided. I love how the game shows she is flawed while also making it clear she is right. And even if i don’t think the narrative in Esoteric Ebb is as visceral as Disco’s was, i really, really apreciate what it did with politics, coming from someone like Modissa.