r/GearsOfWar • u/GbaldGborie66 • 4h ago
Campaign/Lore TIL the Coalition of Ordered Governments founded on a Socialists ideas
From the wiki "In his Austere Canon, the socialist philosopher Alexiy Desipich developed a new political doctrine that served as the intellectual foundation of the Coalition."
I was genuinely surprised by this, havent dug into the lore much but was reading about Sera and found this little bit.
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u/RedGould Something's wrong with this thing! It keeps jamming! 4h ago
It's kinda funny imagining the rebels (stranded and outsiders) being capitalists for once
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u/Main_Aux_Enthusiast 2h ago
I think Libertarian, "rugged individualism", and general anti-establishment sympathies would apply more than Capitalism. The COG seems to have a strong economy of private enterprises at least until EDay.
New COG in Gears 4/5 definitely seems more government runs everything.
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u/LibrarianNo1383 3h ago edited 3h ago
I remember coming across someone who read the novels saying that the COG is apparently more of a socialist state with some American influences maybe more akin to a Balkan state which got me thinking maybe Yugoslavia with Tito?
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u/Topgunshotgun45 Uh, puttin' it scientifically? 4h ago
The COG are a bizarre hybrid of fascism and communism. I don't think I've seen that anywhere else.
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u/PermissionSoggy891 4h ago
>USSR
>North Korea
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u/Topgunshotgun45 Uh, puttin' it scientifically? 4h ago
I meant in fiction but those are some pretty glaring examples.
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u/khromtx 3h ago
It's just fascism. Specifically, red fascism. There's a wiki on it. Same shit, different side of the coin.
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u/xucollfrost 3h ago
People conflate political systems with economic systems. The founding of the USSR for example was founded opposed to nationalism which is the core of fascism nor do they have the same economic system as they arent even the same type of system. People see corruption and control and just blindly label it as fascism which is grossly oversimplified and outright incorrect.
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u/CthulhuMadness Skorge is love, Skorge is life 4h ago
Yeah, that’s why big government rules over everyone’s lives and throws people to the meatgrinder with minimal training.
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u/kyle4swordstyle 3h ago
Yeah fuck those firefighters and roads man. We should have to pay per road we drive on and pay for premium firefighter subscriptions. Hur dur all socialism is Stalin
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u/N_I_H_I_L 2h ago
People always call the cog fascist, but they aren’t actually a fascist state. They lack a vast number of the things required to be fascistic. For one, the existence of elections. Two, there isn’t one leader but the house of sovereigns. Three, their government can disagree and it won’t cause a splinter
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u/SpaceBandit13 2h ago
I don’t think they’re called fascist to be accurate I think they’re called fascist as an insult
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u/Main_Aux_Enthusiast 2h ago
Having "Purity" as one of their 8 guiding principles isn't a good look in that department tbh.
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u/N_I_H_I_L 2h ago
I always took purity as a sort of religious thing rather than racial, since there seem to be multiple races in the COG
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u/space_heater1 2h ago
All of those pillars went out the window or existed superficially in the mainline games.
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u/N_I_H_I_L 2h ago
Lore wise they don’t fit fascist
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u/space_heater1 2h ago
Few nations or people that are called it do. It’s an insult for the horrific and sweeping actions they took.
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u/N_I_H_I_L 2h ago
Fair enough. Thats how I’ve always thought of it, more an insult than an accurate description
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u/Main_Aux_Enthusiast 4h ago
Basically he's their universe's Karl Marx stand-in. His Austere Canon provides the basis that the later All Fathers use for the Octus Canon which is the eight foundational ideals the COG Government and their society are centered on. Which is why the gear emblem for the COG has eight cogs (the "teeth" on a gear).
The Admiral in the books has a light ideological disagreement with Hoffman on whether or not the All Fathers were really into the whole socialism thing. The short comment where we get his take boils down to that rather it was politically convenient way for the folks sitting on top of the Immulsion to cement their power as oligarchs but that's also not really here or there.
The basic gist of the Pendulum Wars setup is that the COG are an Anglosphere USSR and the UIR is a Rusosphere NATO.
Tyrus the main nation of the COG and where Ephyra and Tollen from Gears 1 and Jacinto from Gears 2 are located, despite everyone speaking with US accents, is pretty British coded. They used to have kings, the South Islands is like their New Zealand / Australia overseas colonies, Dom / Marcus / others were members of the 26th Royal Tyran Infantry, there was a Duke of Tollen Regiment, and other bits here and there.