Let's talk about Nazis!!!

[seriousfic]

So I've been reading a lot of post-apocalyptic stories lately to get in the zone for my own post-apocalyptic epic (don't worry, no zombies. I have a little self-respect). And there's one thing I've noticed over and over again that really bugs me. And that's Nazis.

Don't worry, I'm not going to go into a spiel about how Nazis are the worst thing ever and therefore we should all be ashamed of ourselves for using them in pulp fiction. It's just that in this particular genre, their inclusion does more harm than good. See, the implicit question in the post-apocalyptic genre (just like "Will they or won't they?" is usually the question in the romance genre), is "How far would you go to survive?" That's what defines the protagonists; they have a moral code that the villains are lacking. The villains are always just a little ways off from the heroes. If our guys slipped, they'd end up just as bad.

Nazis completely trash that little thought experiment. Do we have to ponder how desperate they are to survive, or what would save the hero from acting the same under similar circumstances? Nope! They're skinheads! Apparently as soon as the TV stopped working, they shaved their heads and started rounding up Jews! By identifying as Nazis, they're basically card-carrying villains; it's impossible to feel any sympathy for them. They're just videogame characters for the heroes to mow down.

Of course, you could say the same for the evil militiamen, who are super-overplayed at the moment. If Nazis show up annoyingly often, the evil militia always shows up. Obviously, survivalists are going to survive your average apocalypse, but I always wonder why these white supremacist assholes grin and bear it, but never any of America's standing army. See, we have these things called military bases where soldiers hang out, and a thing called the chain of command so that even if Washington DC was wiped off the map, there should still be someone calling the shots. I can't imagine hundreds of crazed survivalists roaming the countryside, being all antagonist-y, and no private saying "Hey! Why don't we use one of the million bombs we have and blow those guys up?"

Then there's your standard mutant cannibal crazies. Yeah, they showed up in Max Max, the archetypical post-apocalypse story, but there they served a purpose. Max explicitly wondered if he was turning into one himself and in Road Warrior, they provided contrast to his redemption story. Even though they were weird sadomasochistic leatherboys, they had thematic resonance.

I can understand wanting to play with the same toys that others have already used in the post-apocalyptic sandbox, and there's some fun to be had there. The cannibal gangland chavs in Doomsday have no point, but, you know, neither does Rhona Mitra in a tanktop. But still, we can aim higher, especially considering that the premise of the post-apocalypse genre is that people from any walk of life on the planet have survived the apocalypse. So you could have a ravenous horde of Quebec separatists. Just saying.

Comments

[azarias.livejournal.com]

It's a bad book in a lot of ways (and has one of the more WTF endings in military science fiction I've ever read) but David Weber's Out of the Dark features functional military commands after an apocalypse (Earth's bombed from orbit by an interstellar real estate scam). I love that book despite everything.

There's also S. M. Stirling's Emberverse, where modern technology abruptly stops working and the villains of the first trilogy aren't survivalists; they're members of the SCA.

[mayireadtoday.livejournal.com]

Obviously, survivalists are going to survive your average apocalypse, but I always wonder why these white supremacist assholes grin and bear it, but never any of America's standing army. See, we have these things called military bases where soldiers hang out, and a thing called the chain of command so that even if Washington DC was wiped off the map, there should still be someone calling the shots.
TRUTH!

[mcity.livejournal.com]

In the webcomic Dead Winter (zombie apocalypse), there isn't an evil militia. Evil individuals, sure, but the military does show up. And they are in opposition to the cops. Naturally, the protagonists get caught in the middle.

And in Falling Skies, our protagonists basically are the rag-tag militia, and they do their level best to blow the aliens up. Most of the military was killed by the aliens, though there are a few soldiers left over.