Ponies and Proles: Things I learned after finally finished My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (In my 20s)
Equestria is a communist utopia. Kind of
I’ve been toying around with this idea for an article for a few months now. When I was in middle school at some point or another (forgive me for the details are fuzzy) I latched onto My Little Pony, as a closeted (and at the ((somewhat)) time unaware) queer / trans kid I latched onto Rainbow Dash as a sort of representation that I didn’t quite understand myself. I watched the show first on YouTube via reaction channels where men in their 30s would provide unnecessary commentary on each individual episode. Needless to say, the show had an effect on my malleable child mind. Now, in my early 20s, I decided to give My Little Pony a second shot with my roommates to see if it still holds up.
Personally I think it does, it’s a fun show that is mostly consistently entertaining, of course it has its stinkers (mostly located in seasons six through seven) yet much of the show is endearing, charming, and genuinely quite funny with well written characters who go through slow but impactful development. It’s fun, it’s good, but, I noticed something interesting when watching. During her introductory episode 'The Cutie Map' antagonist Starlight Glimmer runs a town that (at least on the surface level) appears to be ideologically communistic. Every pony’s cutie mark, (an indicator of their passion in life / what they’re meant to do in life) has been replaced with an equal sign. Furthermore, the pegasi have given up their powers of flight, the earth ponies their innate metaphysical connection to the land, and the unicorns their more traditional magic all to live in perfect equality. The first thing that probably comes to any leftist’s minds when viewing these episodes is that MLP is just another in a long line of kids shows spreading anticommunist propaganda, yet, upon further examination, it becomes clear that the problem MLP has is not with communism itself, but instead the misappropriation of its imagery and messaging by opportunistic forces, and beyond this, it becomes clear that MLP’s political intentions are deeply socialist.
Now, there’s a few issues that make themselves know when exploiting this topic: the existence of monarchies, lack of politics, and the nature of wealth in Equestria are some that immediately come to mind. The first one is the easiest to tackle; princess Luna and Celestia exist as rulers in Equestria. What separates these two from other tyrannical rulers is that these two are not granted their authority by some divine right of kings or inheritance, instead the pair of sisters are Gods. Divinity given material form, their jobs are quite literally to raise the sun and the moon. These rulers are not rulers merely because of their proximity to capital and possession of private property, they rule because they are Gods, also, it should be noted that politically the sisters serve more as figureheads. They never deeply involve themselves in government issues, whether local, national, or international, and while this isolationist policy is imperfect, at points even feeding into systemic racism found within pony-kind, the political system of Equestria is not adherent to capital, and for awhile under Twilight the nation and its people (ponies) is better able to shed some of its more xenophobic and exclusionary attitudes by accepting other cultures. Equestria is flawed, and in a time where the online left finds itself obsessed with moral purity, it is important to remember that imperfection is okay, on an individual level and a systemic level. Imperfections can be improved when the system is built to account for change and progress. All of this is to say that the material conditions of Equestria are fundamentally different then our own. Some purists may wave their finger and cry that communism only exists purely as a reaction to capital, which is not only a racist argument that completely ignores the communistic nature of many of the groups that were colonized by western imperialist, but is also just boring. No, Equestria did not have a problem with labor abuse which led to the creation of a communist party and unions, but Equestria was founded through ponies with differences and violent tensions putting said differences aside for the good of the community during a particularly dangerous winter. It is important to note that while the ponies did come together on Hearth's Warming Eve to ward away the rabid weather, they did not band together to kill some grand 'other' or existential threat. MLP does not fall into the same Goebbelsian hole that nearly every single American action movie seems to. Instead, they did it to help each other and to stay warm, and found not only that living in community benefited them in a protective sense, but also generally made the population happier. Equestria is a nation founded on community, what could be more communist than that?
Another big issue that props up against Equestria as Communist theory is the existence of Filthy Rich, the pony with the most money in Ponyville. His existence highlights a level of inequality between ponies. While Filthy does have his own fair share of funds, it is important to understand that his wealth does not come from exploitation, nor does filthy rich control any means of production. A family that does possess some control over production is the Apple family, however, the Apples regularly employ the help of townsfolk when harvesting their titular fruit, they don’t exploit their laborers and always make sure that their workers can always enjoy the fruits of their labor afterwards, ensuring that said worker still has some connection with the product. Alienation from one's work is not an issue that appears very often in My Little Pony, when business is tied more in with community than a globalist system it allows for work and consumption to be less about how to get the best deals and more about the humanness of it all. The Apples' process is never automated and they work out of love and passion. In fact, the very nature of work itself seems altered in Equestria. there is no division of labor as everyone helps out everyone else in town. Ponies work jobs not because they need the money but because they want to do what they are passionate about. At the start of the series, before Rainbow Dash joins the Wonderbolts, her job appears to simply be helping with the weather. This is not what Rainbow Dash cares about, in fact she is not particularly passionate about labor at all. She cares about going fast, and so, she spends a lot of the day not working, just relaxing or training or hanging out. Her job, keeping the skies clear or full depending on the day, is rendered child’s play because of her speed. Rainbow Dash’s job aligns directly with her values in life, allowing her to focus on what she loves.
One of the lesser talked about socialist movements in leftist circles was the arts and crafts movement. It worked as a reaction towards the increasing industrialization of Britain during the 19th century. The movement was one that was heavily rooted in romanticism, showcasing deep admiration for the natural world and all the beauty that lies therein. It was a rallying cry against mass production, interestingly though, while certain members of the movement like William Morris were against the machinery used in industrialization, it was not because the machinery had any sort of innate evil, but simply because it could never match the quality that produced by human hands. The machine rids life of its beauty not because of its artificial nature, but because it subtracts the artistic endeavor human experience. To Morris, everything in the preindustrial world was art because it was designed and handcrafted by a person who took pride in their work. Art need not be defined by a set of specific criteria, art is simply that which a human creates. This philosophy of loving one’s work, and using one’s work as an artistic outlet can be seen throughout the world of My Little Pony. Nearly every character is an artist in their own right even if they do not fill the roles traditionally assigned to an artist (painter, writer, director, etc.) Pinkie Pie’s cupcakes are just as much her art as her parties are. Same with the perfection and technicality of Rainbow Dash’s athletic movements. Each Pony has their own art which coincides with their work, and also allows them to connect with others and express themselves, all elements of the system exist in harmony with one another. This isn’t to imply that these ponies aren’t flawed. If anything, despite the fact that each character is rather comfortable and content at the start of the series, they are all deeply neurotic. Rainbow Dash is a narcissist driven by pure ego who seeks refuge in a collectivist identity (The Wonderbolts), Pinkie Pie is frequently prone to manic episodes, losing touch with reality and splitting on her friends. Fluttershy’s debilitating anxiety renders her incapable of talking to anyone that isn’t an animal. Rarity is deeply classist and vain to a destructive degree. AppleJack takes on the burden of everyone around her yet is too proud to ask for anyone’s help, and Twilight Sparkle regularly spirals out of control at the smallest provocation and isolates herself from her peers or any potential relationships, choosing instead to hide away in academia. Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle are clearly the most affected by their conditions. They are the most likely to spiral or lose control when things go wrong. Pinkie Pie specifically shows several traits of Borderline Personality disorder, the aforementioned splitting is one such example of this. I don’t bring this up for the purposes of psychoanalysis, but instead to focus on how the others react to Pinkie Pie, and what this can tell us about the role of mental illness in society.
Schizophrenia is a shamanistic trait. The people we deem as sick and damaged in our society would be revered as religious icons in another. Schizophrenia is not an illness that causes those who have it to suffer horrifying hallucinations, it is our societies' abuses of schizophrenics that leads to the horror. Western medicine seeks to treat abnormalities of the mind, we do not think about how they operate, or what beauty might lie within the mind of someone who sees things differently. Instead it is something to be dulled, squashed and shaped, made to conform to the fascistic hegemony of capital. Pinkie Pie’s perpetual state of manic hyperactivity is not something those around her try to change. She is not drowned out with pills that render her docile. Her friends may be annoyed by her antics sometimes but it is just a part of who she is. An aspect of her character that is integral to her identity. The ponies see no purpose in trying to alter one’s identity/personality to ensure they are more productive, the pony society is founded on friendship as opposed to capital, and hence it operates in a way that is better conducive to healthy friendships i.e. healthy people (ponies).
Equestria is a society that embraces movement. Movement of the self towards friendship, and by extension, enlightenment. In My Little Pony, friendships are dialectal, through engaging with them, and engaging with different types of ponies and creatures, one can learn not only more about the world, but themselves. In MLP there is no final state, no true actualization or final destination of the self. There is progress and change, learning from past actions and striving to do better. When ponies mess up, their punishment is not one that is handed out by the state, it is their guilt. A beautiful, transcendent and transformative guilt which allows characters to reach redemption and join the others in community and happiness. That said, much like any good communist, the characters of MLP regularly practice controlled violence, while peace and friendship is always the desired outcome, sometimes violence is the only option, especially when dealing with forces who only speak the language of violence. After all, despite its primary focus on slice-of-life didactic storytelling, MLP still has much of its roots in fantasy. Yet, despite the fantastical setting, the relationship between the characters and their world can give us one of the more important aspects to understanding what makes Equestria so fundamentally different from our own; the death-drive.
Humans have a fascination with death, this is far from a groundbreaking insight, yet the way death toys with living is far more uncomfortably ingrained into our psyche’s than many are willing to admit. Nearly all human movements are movements towards self annihilation. The human movement is one that leans away from the natural, one that seeks to deny and destroy nearly every aspect of humanness one can possess. To move towards God renders the ego completely destroyed (if one is to follow Christianity in the proper sense that is), to fully accept God, according to Pascal, one must rid themselves of themselves completely, they must understand that their identity is a result of the ego and hence vanity, to seek divinity is to seek not only death and the destruction of the body, but to seek oneness within infinity, to completely succumb to the all consuming, there can be no self within the infinite as human identity is so small in comparison to complete vastness. The self, the family, the community, everything crumbles under the weight of infinity. However, the vastness of everything is only one of the infinities man is trapped between. The opposite movement, the movement towards nihilism, towards materialism without morality is another form of self annihilation. Some would consider the movement towards nihilism to be liberating, allowing one to pursue a triumph of their will to whatever brutal ends they see fit. Nihilism results in solipsism because of just how far it removes one from their own human qualities. The human body is rendered nothing more than a collection of biological processes. People see themselves as self sufficient because they can no longer comprehend that even using someone as a means to an end (as opposed to a means in themselves) is not using your power to crush others, but instead relying on others because you do not have the capabilities to do something on your own. So, both atheistic and theistic movements are destructive to those who pursue them. What about those grand, yet still human ideas? How can movements towards honor, glory, and success be just as destructive as the two stated philosophical movements? It’s simple, they rely on legacy, upon using your time on earth to achieve self actualization through the violent means that the system insists upon. Honor in the individual can be virtuous, as can success and glory, yet when these ideas are imposed upon an entire society, the inevitable outcome is madness. There is no objective marker for any of these things, instead they are socially constructed by different cultures, because of this, even within a specific culture many can disagree on what makes an action honorable. Under capitalism the nature of success and glory become warped even further when one realizes the way mental illness tangles with all of this. If someone keeps piles of old newspapers, magazines and derelict paper bags they are labeled a hoarder, whereas those who hoard massive quantities of wealth are labeled successful. God, nothingness, honor, duty, and success become perverted, and thus have no ties to material reality, they are ideological figments created to fill a void. And because the void cannot be filled, it inevitably leads to desperate self destruction. Equestria opts to base its world on material truths, that having a lot of nice, heartfelt connections generally makes things in life go easier, and building a society around the importance of those bonds as opposed to the way those bonds can create profit is pretty good idea. The fascinating thing about My Little Pony’s argument for a communist society is that its world sees communism as the logical, end goal. MLP is not a depiction of an idealized liberal society where everyone just gets along, it's a world where people progress every day, constantly taking steps to do better and be more empathetic. It is a society focused on improvement instead of stagnation.