Art of the Clone Wars: D'oh... Mandalore

As an American from the midwest; it was shocking for me to go to England, a country that has a STATE CHURCH, and yet religion was very much NOT a part of the culture there at all. Not in any way like it is in the states where billboards, commercials, TV shows, etc, bombard you at every turn. It was a bit of a culture shock, and when I asked someone about it I was simply told that the British (in the eyes of this person, who considered themselves VERY British) thought of public displays of religion as vulgar, and quite a few Labour supporters I knew had serious issues with Blair being so open about his religion.

In terms of "What is a Mandalorian?"; I think people took the Six Principles as some sort of iron-clad "YOU MUST DO THIS OR YOU ARE NOT A MANDALORIAN!", and yet their culture overall was very different. Besides, if they all operated under that same martial code, there would be no farmers, no doctors, no bankers, no animal doctors, no engineers, etc. In a sense, I think those who we see in armor are the fundamentalist Mandalorians as opposed to those who might identify as Mandalorian, and honor the spirit of the Resol'nare, but aren't dressing up in armor to plow a field.

 

Demagol apparently wears armour to perform science experiments. Those farmers might do their farm work in armour just to build up their muscle strength and make sure they're used to wearing armour for when they're called up as levies.

 

Huh, that's strange, cause I live in the US and religion never struck me as something very important or openly talked about. Certainly not religious advertising everywhere...though I do live in California.

You are right about people taking the six principles too far. From what I remember even Travis basically said that the Mandolorian identity is vague and tricky do to the Mandos nomadic past, the number of places and species that Mandos have influenced, and the number of cultures which have in turn influenced the Mandolorians. Who is a Mandolorian? Anyone who considers themselves to be one.

 

Well, living in California now, especially the Bay Area, I can tell you that it's VERY different from the midwest to the point of being a completely different culture. I can't even imagine how my Cali friends would react to just the billboards that are plastered across Michigan and Ohio and other states, let alone the culture shock that would happen if I took them into a breakfast joint and let them listen to people for an hour or two ;p

 

Yeah, from about the middle of Pennsylvania to basically Idaho, you've got tons of that stuff. "JESUS SAVES" and what not.

The West Coast is a very different sort of place.

I like this idea of a fundie Mandos running around in armor.