Stand Strong, Stand Proud: Earth Kingdom Resilience and Identity (2 of 2)

[ljlee]

Continuing from Part 1 of the essay about the combination of steadfastness and dynamism that makes the Earth Kingdom so formidable, this second part of the Earth Kingdom culture essay is an examination of its diversity and ultimately identity.

Comments

[ljlee]

Thank you! And yes, absolutely, that stasis, even stagnancy, is a big part of the Earth Kingdom. I agree with you that the ruling class of Ba Sing Se was afraid of the consequences of industrialization, much like the Qing dynasty of China (which Ba Sing Se heavily models in its visuals) before its refusal to modernize made it fodder for imperialism.

To some extent I can understand the fear of such a traumatic social upheaval, and not just because of self-interest--industrialization is the process of tearing a society apart and putting it together in a completely different configuration. The top echelon of society would not survive it intact, but neither would the bottom, the peasants and small-scale craftsmen. The process would take on unstoppable force once begun and become self-perpetuating, as Marx and Engels put it so eloquently in The Communist Manifesto.

I think the lack of unity in the Earth Kingdom also played a role in the lack of industrialization, though it could also have been vice versa. Industrialization both requires and creates a national market, which is a product of strong government intervention as well as entrepreneurial spirit. And the governments of the Earth Kingdom, including Ba Sing Se, were bound to their localities and didn't seem to have that kind of national perspective.

This is something that will inevitably start changing after the war, and that seems to be happening in The Promise continuity though it's in the United Republic. I wonder how well the Earth Kingdom can manage that process of change. It'll take quite a feat of leadership, that's for sure, and the results will still be imperfect, but it'll be a heck of a story.