So after discussing this with several friends, I decided to create a book where I write metas and analyses regarding the Naruto manga. Most of the content derives from Asks I've received on Tumblr and a good portion these revolve around Madara, so o...
The cult of tradition and how Fascism speaks "Newspeak"
The Will of Fire (WoF): to be fair, it's more a spiritual philosophy that Hashirama interiorised during childhood, but Tobirama weaponised it to an extreme and spread it like wildfire, specifically as a measure of countenance to constrain the Curse of Hatred that, er, tragically afflicted the Uchiha (which I believe is actually incorrectly translated, it should be Chains of Hatred, not Curse), a trigger term which he coined in his endeavour of othering them.
WoF entails bearing hardship through cooperation, right to the bloody end, and quite idiosyncratically for the sake of the village at that. As Hashirama lightly puts it, shinobi are just people who endure to reach an end goal.
This new dogma is based on fascist gnosis and is meant to be syncretistic by definition. In this sense, "Syncretism" isn't to be interpreted as the mere combination of different forms of beliefs or practices; such a combination must tolerate contradictions.
Every Konoha shinobi blessed with the Will of Fire must love, believe, treasure, obey and battle to safeguard the village, as prior generations had done before them. The entire village must be perceived as one, like an extended family that transcends blood and clan...
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All these catchphrasey axioms do contain a germ of wisdom, but when they clash with the other facets that permeate Konoha's ideology, producing oxymoronicity, it's only because they all allude, allegorically, to some primitive truth.
It doesn't matter that Leaf's horrific expansionist endeavours sacrifice countless children in the process, despite Tobirama's fervent emphasis on how striplings must be adamantly protected as they're destined to be the successors of WoF, because fascism incorporates incongruous and conflicting edicts by definition!
As a consequence, there can be no advancement nor development in the village's testament. The truth has already been announced once and for all, and shinobi can only continue to interpret its obscure message: with an impoverished vocabulary and limited instruments for complex and critical reasoning, shinobi can never challenge the status quo. There is only one acceptable language, and it's rooted in reverence of the village.
All hail Tobirama and his gnosis fuelled by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements!
Identity in the fascist State
Now, if Tobirama's legacy can be epitomised in just one stem of his ideology, I think it's to be found in how he emphasised the importance of abandoning the sense of clan, no matter the disparate heritage, for a more global identity: there is no clan, only village.
To those who lack any social identity, Fascism offers the grandest privilege of all, that of being born in the same nation. At the heart of it, this is the origin of "nationalism".
Furthermore, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are external "enemies". Thus, at the root of fascist psychology is the obsession with conspiracy. Adherents must feel besieged.
