Till all are One ?

Till all are one? I am baffled by this motto from the Autobots. How do you interpret that? It begs the question, what are the motives of the Autobots? This motto is reminiscent of other slogans such as: "Workers of the world, unite" or "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". A bone chilling idea that the Autobots may be promoting an Un-American ideology. The Autobots were the labor class, the proletariat, oppressed by another class. The purist of Bolshevik theory was inevitable one world union of socialists.

Lets explore this idea of the Autobots as proletariat revolutionists.

Pulling modern parallels, 1984 was an intense time for our Bolshie Bots. IRA bombing, Chemical weapons, USSR boycotts Olympics, political unrest in India, crack epidemic, Palestinian hijackings, US trade deficits, homeless vets, AIDS. We didn’t start the fire, but it certainly wasn’t dying down when Transformers debuted.

After the third Cybertronian war the Decepticons do own the means of production, leveraging the labor class’ skills and hard work for their own personal gain. Yet this is not as straight forward as the Russian Revolution of 1917. Autobots were not oppressed by the education, and wealth of a bourgeoisie Decepticon class, it was through blatant violence and Tyranny. To put a model on Decepticon governing policies and principals, it has been brought to my attention that a Shogunate system overlays nicely. Samurai philosophy has often been inspirational literature of the aggressive CEO.

If not the oppressive elite of late 19th century capitalism, could the Decepticons represent the malevolent nature of the modern mega-corporation of the late 20th century?

Transformers G1 was an American show, and at the forefront of American foreign political concern was The Cold War. Both sides of the superpowers standoff anticipated a battlefield of technology, and their modern war-machines became inspiring symbols for each nation. Starscream and his seekers transformed into F-15 Eagles, still today an engineering marvel.

Where did that massive stockpile of American military hardware go anyway?The Mig 29 and SU 27 are both kickass jets as well, but clearly the Depticons are sporting American technology. Being the bad guys of the show, Decepticons can't possibly represent the American people, but of the modern aggressive corporations that flourished under Reaganomics.

As small business markets being dominated, and the government bent to the will of the military industrial complex, do the Autobots rekindle Bolshevik theory.

It seems the transformers struggle parallels American domestic issues. Was Transformers ever about the superpower stand-off of the Time? With historical perspective The Cold War officially ended in 91, but the stand-off really was thawed by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987. The USSR stirred the motivation of reform from within, regardless of United States military escalation. By 84 containment was working, sort of. Today we still have Taiwan and South Korea.

If not with Lenin, why are the Autobots chanting "Till all one"

The leader of the Autobots is a red, white, and blue 18-wheeler; easily an American symbol as well.

Fright trucking is the backbone of American and NAFTA economies; transporting billions of tons of freight across all of North America every year. An 18-wheeler is also the means of blue collar entrepreneurship. Trucks being within price range and services always in demand; our red, white, and blue "Chief Optimist" can represents the spirit of the common working class. With the Megacorperation buying and extorting the entire market, small business is reduced to wage slavery. In this light the Autobots become a skilled labor union, fighting to maintain the middle class heart of America.

The timing of this concept is impeccable to the economic situation of the time. In 84 the economy was climbing out of a depression of the mid 70s' stagflation. This is price inflation coupled with low export and consumption, leading to unemployment and recession. A noodle scratchier for the Keynesian economics of the time.

Keynes' model was of a mixed economy, where state and private sector both play a role in market forces. The school of though was total demand for goods and services drove the economy, where demand creates its own supply. The government can price adjust with tax to cool a market, or implement subsidies and spending on infrastructure will heat up a market.

This school of thought had its golden era in FDR's New Deal and through WWII. With the recovery of WWII complete and with each national economy becoming independent, demand for American goods fell. Demand fell and with the oil crisis of 73 and 79 unemployment was on the rise. The Keynesian response would have been government spending, but the USA had never really stopped spending and thus far tolerated the inflation rates.

Government control of particular industries also contributed to supply shortages.

Acknowledging the need for a new economic model there was a swift De-Regulation of thus far tight government controls, one of these being Trucking. The economy was further thrown into chaos as industries forged new standards of wages and prices.

To combat the inflation Paul Volker, the chairmen of the federal reserve in 79, significantly raised interest rates until 83. This time frame called, disinflation session, saw unemployment rates spike since The Great Depression.

This era of desperation and uncertainty was laid on the blue collar class and it is from this we get the creation of the Autobots.

With America in the wake of the Go Go 60s' and the Me Decade 70s', the Autobots fight for the right to work. A return to progress by the sweat from your brow, they fight for fair wages for fair labor, and with every episodes victory shows the indomitable will of the American workforce.

"Till all are one" showed up in the 86 movie, and does not capture their motivations. Blame the writers who also brought you "ba weep gra na weep ninny bom" as the universal greeting.

Robots in Disguise !

With all this new movie Hype I have been reminiscing of the good old days of the classic 1st gen cartoon. And it hit me, Why are the transformers fighting. I don't know, did I ever know. Was all my bot vs. con excitement based on such thin plot that it wasn't even note worthy of my memories? The answer is still inconclusive. Netflix has 1st gen season 1 on the dreaded "availability unknown" list. After a web dive of various site I have assembled a frame work of the motivations behind such an epic battle to span generations, and I am truly impressed.

Back in 84 the plot was quite simple, Decepticons want to conquer the world and frivolously expend our planets resources. Autobots with to share their technology for the good of all humankind in exchange for a launching point to re-take Cybertron. From a collection of various TV series, comic books, and the movie we piece together the full story. The Transformers are pitted in a Civil war.

Their story begins with an original race for framework. Much like the Ancients of StarGate, The Robotech Masters of Macross, our robots in disguise started as slaves from their creator race. The Quintessons twelve million years ago were the original natives of Cybertron, and they liked to build intelligent robots to do everything for them. Robots to labor, robots to protect, robots to entertain. Eventually the Quintessons evolved into cyborgs. Their sentient slaves revolted in a massive war. Eventually a rebel leader arose, A-3. A-3, or Alpha Trion, created a Coda-Remote to shut down the loyalist robot military, The Dark Guardians. The Quintessons retreated across space, and are forever no longer major players in this dimension. After some internal fighting order was established, but the golden age of Cybertron would be brief though. The military and gladiator bots dissatisfied with equality started the Third Cybertronian War, subjecting the labor bots to the lowest of class. A-3 seeing a need to again fight tyranny re-forged a fallen comrade, Orion Pax, into Optimus prime and creating the Autobots.

The Autobots fled Cybertron, found earth, and created a way to transform into native technologies not to disturb the locals. The Decepticons were left with only the most rudimentary understanding of Cybertrons' legendary infrastructure, and energy reserves already spent on nearly endless fighting. Knowing full well that the Autobots if left with some resources and time would easily overtake Cybertron, The Decepticons establish dominance by invading earth.

After all these years I am intrigued by the super-science of this setting, the principles and dynamics of the characters. It has the audacity of 70s' pulp sci-fi, and the vision of late 80s' digital revolution.