This is a short discussion on the themes of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure season 6: Stone Ocean. From here onward, I will refer to it as “Stone Ocean.” The story revolves around Jolyne Kujo, the 19 year old daughter of one Jotaro Kujo. Jolyne is wrongfully convicted for manslaughter because of a plot in order to bait Jotaro into trying to save her. The main villain, Enrico Pucci, is a priest at the Green Dolphin Street Prison with connections to Jotaro’s past, and seeks Jotaro for information on how to complete his plan. Jotaro is knocked out and rendered useless for most of the story, so along the way Jolyne has to take company with some of the other inmates, including Hermes Costello, her cellmate, and Weather Report, a mysterious man who’s forgotten his identity.
The story and concept are particularly interesting because Jolyne is a female protagonist in an unconventional medium for the time, and the author, Hirihiko Araki was unsure how fans would process the mostly female cast due to half the entire season taking place in an all female prison, save for Jotaro’s few appearances and Emporio, a young boy who was born in Green Dolphin Street to a prisoner who had died there. The previous 5 seasons had an entirely male cast, and this season represented a major change in one of the major themes that runs through Jojo: That of family and fatherhood, and individual agency in their story versus how one’s birth shapes one’s destiny. Jotaro is a protagonist from earlier in the series and many fans know him and have seen how he’s changed over the seasons and how different he seems now that he’s a dad in this season. Jotaro abandoned Jolyne when she was young out of concern for her safety, worried that people associated with Pucci would come to find him and seek Jolyne as a way to get to him. Jolyne comes to understand this aspect of her father, and how he cared about her from a distance without getting involved. Jolyne feels stuck in a world she is not a part of, but only roped into by her dad’s involvement until the second half of the story where she willingly goes back into the prison and gives up a chance of escape to save Jotaro’s life. She moves from feeling unable to place herself in a strange world to being the master of her own destiny thanks to the family ties that bind the Joestar Bloodline.
Araki wants the readers to ask why Jolyne would make the sacrifices she does to save her father, who she believed to not care about her, and he wants to ask what Jolyne would be feeling during all these events happening so quickly and dramatically and why she changes her thoughts about her dad.
Author’s note: You may want to preface this reading by learning basics about a political compass, extremist ideologies and the notable 4 that arise at the 4 separate corners of the political compass. Inspired by the YouTube series “Centricide” by Jreg. Enjoy!
Tankie: “Mic check- yes, okay, we’re rolling. Привет, comrades. Welcome back to “Yo, is this classist? I’m your host, Tankie.”
Ancom: “And I’m your other host, Ancom.”
Tankie: “If this is your first time joining us, we’re glad you’ve finally opened your eyes to the reality that which grips us: that as Marx said, all struggle is class struggle.”
Ancom: “And that because all struggle is class struggle, all social orders and hierarchies should be abolished!”
Tankie: “Yes, I quite agree, Anarkiddie. So who are we? I’m the Tankie, a representation of hard-line authoritarian left ideology not unlike Stalinism… I actually really like Stalin. He wasn’t so bad. Cut that part out later, sorry.”
Ancom: “And I’m the Anarcho-Communist, a representation of anarchist left ideology. Together, we make up the left half of the political compass. Ah, leftist unity. I’m glad we can finally work together to establish our utopia, Tankie.”
Tankie: “Ahem, indeed comrade. What we do here on this show is identify class struggle in our current society, as would be portrayed by Marx, and examine why it is unjust.”
Ancom: “And why we should overthrow the establishment to bring justice and equality to all classes and races!”
Tankie: “We’ll get to that, Comrade Ancom. Patience. Rome was not built in a day.”
Ancom: “Aw, but I’m not building anything. I’m tearing it all down! All the banks! All the corporations! All the government institutions!”
Tankie: “… he gets ahead of himself. Anyhow… Today, we’re going to be examining class struggles across the globe during the coronavirus pandemic.”
Ancom: “Excuse me Tankie! I never said I was a him! I go by Quee/Quem, thank you very much.”
Tankie: “Yes, anyhow… it’s time to introduce today’s classist clips!”
Ancom: “In the midst of the current corona pandemic, 1/4 of working people in the US have lost their jobs. Not me, though, I didn’t have one to begin with.”
Tankie: “Which is why, obviously, the government should be centrally planned so all people have the right to work for government businesses.”
Ancom: “Government? I think you mean nobody should work for the government because we shouldn’t have a government.”
Tankie: “Just roll the clip…”
A short clip plays of a long line of various people outside of a government building, likely somewhere in the United States. All the people are of differing ethnicity and genders. There’s a good mix of protesters and people waiting for food stamps, or some kind of government aid. The footage cuts to the US Congress building with a text caption that says “Bailouts for billionaires. Where’s the bailouts for everyday working class Americans?” a graph flashes on screen discussing the bill proposed as relief, emphasizing the money going to propping up corporations and businesses.
Ancom: “Wow, I knew it was bad, but wasn’t sure how bad. They’re spending that much to perpetuate the failure of capitalism?!”
Tankie: “In money collected wrong from the workers no less, to perpetuate a system where they are victimized by the system they are forced to support.”
Ancom: “These people can’t even feed themselves right now, and so they sit by as they’re wronged by their failing government…”
Tankie: “Because they’re out of work! Just like I said. Peace, bread and land, Anarkiddie. That is what the workers of the world deserve.”
Ancom: “Peace after the revolution, yes.”
Tankie (muttering): “Peace brought about by ending anarchy post-revolution…”
Ancom: “Eh? Did you say something?”
Tankie: “нет, Comrade. Back to what’s important: The government intrudes upon the rights of the workers! Of all workers! The next clip!”
Another clip, this one is a bit longer. A man wearing a protective surgical face mask is riding the subway train home, he’s still wearing a jumpsuit associated with factory work and hard labor. As he boards, we see a crowded train shrink away from him as he searches for a seat only to give up and hang onto a pole instead. There’s a particular group of men in suits and ties watching. They’re stockbrokers, and are on their way home possibly for the last time. They may have lost their jobs, but they haven’t lost their sense of wealth and opulence associated with stock traders in a big city. They are seen and captioned as mocking the lone worker, laughing at him openly from their seats as he turns away.
Tankie: “This is the plight of the working class in America. They are not respected by those that profit from their labor. They are not part of the prosperity brought by their efforts. Even in a time that calls for unity, those that see themselves as the better human still stand above their fellow. The great irony of this situation, soon they will both be working the same kind of job, or not be working at all. These people possess all the power and wealth, and the to the rest, the 99%, they have nothing but their labor.”
Ancom: “Before all this pandemic stuff, people weren’t able to see it. I think this might be a blessing in disguise, Tankie. I mean, think about all the years of the status quo we’ve been through without a proper worker’s revolution. The inherent favoritism displayed by the US government to the rich is on display for everyone who’s been disenfranchised to see!”
Tankie: “The money of billionaires lines the pockets of the government officials who made these policies. It reeks of cronyism. It always has. So, we can safely say, this is classist, Anarkiddie. Corona has not improved the plight of class divide, and will only deepen it.”
Ancom: “What can we do, though, as those who need to stick up for the workers? What’s the Praxis?”
Tankie: “да, that’s right Comrade Anarkiddie. It’s time for ‘What’s the Praxis?’ Where we as your hosts discuss what can be done about the class problems illustrated in today’s episode.”
Ancom: “Oh, let’s take a few minutes to think about it, and you, the listener at home, you think about it too. Put on your anarchist’s thinking bandana! or your communist’s thinking ushanka.”
A few moments of near-silence pass, undercut by various Soviet themes in the background, which Tankie has selected. Ancom gives up on the thinking part after 30 seconds or so, and instead begins doodling on the desk with a Sharpie to draw an Anarchist symbol.
Tankie: “Well, we can always bring things to the streets, tell the government what we want, we can vote and make our thoughts and ideas clear. It is quite difficult to battle such a deeply rooted status quo, and to dismantle systemic injustices rooted in the establishment without a total makeover of the system. Any thoughts Ancom?”
Ancom: “Well. Nothing quite as good as just, yknow, overthrowing the establishment. We just wanna make sure there would never be another institution powerful enough to replace the status quo that would be able to oppress the workers again.”
Tankie: “Ancom, the whole point of the worker’s revolution is to build a strong enough state that would protect the rights of the workers. What part of that can you not see, Comrade?”
Ancom: “Power structures are inherently unjust Tankie! With a power structure in place there can never be real communism!”
Tankie: “A power structure is necessary for the success and future of the communist system! Without a power structure to uphold a communism system there can never be real communism!”
Ancom: “If any hierarchy exists then class struggle will never be end!”
Tankie: “Then there can be no more leftist unity here.”
If you’re interested in the dynamic these two have, I’ve included a bit of further research! Enjoy!
In the 21st century, it’s not a stretch to say that video games are huge. Many people of my generation who grew up with this technology, and the capacity to join in on games in many different ways. Anyone who has ever played candy crush will tell you it’s easy to get drawn in and even addicted to a very simple premise that fits in the palm of your hand- but what a lot of mobile games gloss over is multiplayer with in-depth chatting or communication functions. I know not everyone enjoys gaming, but being around other players and being able to talk to them is a large draw for me personally. However, with freedoms like this kind of communication also comes a lack of moderation. How can you censor someone’s speech in real time? You really can’t, there’s only ex post facto fixing that can be done. Open spaces with potential for anything can end with the most fundamental breakdown of human decency, where the ability to hide behind a screen causes rampant toxicity. The reason I bring this up with gaming specifically and not any sort of social media in general is that most games encourage a very competitive and intense environment, and this can compound the feelings of players on the losing side of any given type of game being upset and voicing their frustration in various ways. Why is this then that it results in racism, sexism and/or homophobia so often? Well, I don’t know for sure, but I believe that these groups are traditionally under represented in gaming, and thus being called an outsider is seen as a high level of insult. The question really is though, is this okay? Are any of us gamers, like myself, supposed to sit by when we encounter these attackers online harassing others with discriminatory language and behavior? No, of course not. By being a bystander, you are only encouraging those who stand to benefit from the normalization of racism, sexism and homophobia, not only in online gaming, but anywhere and everywhere. We need to hold people accountable for the things they say and do, and teach them that it’s never okay, in any context, so they are not encouraged or empowered by anonymity. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, we can see that being a bystander when injustice occurs will inevitably result in escalation toward violence and destruction. In the case of the story, Okonkwo has the tables of his unjust society turned by settlers, but in a more pure sense this could happen with real life- we may find ourselves in the midst of a resurgence of far-right ideas propelled by online platforms. Do your part, make the world a better place and speak up.
