I’m Going to Become the Disco Cop by Doing Nothing
*spoilers for disco elysium i guess*
Disco Elysium is a game that speaks to the soul. Not in the spiritual sense, rather, the game airs itself with a certain sense of uncertainty. It begs the player to ask weird questions, pursue the abstract, and at the end of the day discover oneself. The game is vast in its scope and depth yet feels claustrophobic at times the map is large, but the way one moves around it is precise and limited to designated paths. It plays with not only time but also space, attempting to carve itself into existence through its characters, and setting. Martinaise feels like it is suspended in space, yet the city of Revachol feels like a not-so-distant city that exists in history books.
Much like the settings the characters feel alive and exist on much of the same plane; people in poverty, children with no place to go, philosophers in denial about the systems that they believe in not working, and business owners just scraping by. These are the people who live in Revachol yet these are also people living in the real world. Disco Elysium is a game about people just trying to get by. This mix of reality and make-believe makes parts of the game feel almost like a fever dream and others like a bucket of ice water. It’s a game that puts the player in the same morally difficult positions as its characters. It provides a place to discover not only who Harry Du Bois is but also who we are as players of the game.
Disco Elysium revolves around a detective named Harry Du Bois. At the opening of the game, Harry wakes up in a trashed hotel room with amnesia. He doesn’t know where he is, why he’s there, or what happened to him. Upon stumbling out of his room he learns that he is a detective assigned to a murder case. The victim, an undercover assassin named Levy, was found hanged in a tree behind the hotel. Harry and his partner, Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi, are tasked with solving the case as it is embroiled in a dispute between The Wild Pines Group and their employees who are a part of the union that rules over the city. As the game goes on, we learn that the city of Revachol, a once-great metropolis is now struggling with corruption, political turmoil, and social unrest.
It is a dialogue-based game that relies on the choices made by a player but also the traits assigned to Harry before the game starts. Its a game that can be taken as seriously as the player desires with objectives that are optional and a story that is never quite completed in one go. The mechanics of the game rely on the luck some dice and their outcomes are unpredictable and unsatisfying. Its a game that has something to say to anyone willing to listen.
This game is also a joke. It’s unabashed about it. The game’s core premise, its politics, are played up for importance, but at the end of the day, it plays out as being the true villain of the game.
There are four main ideologies within the game: Fascism, Communism, Ultraliberals, and Moralism. Each of these ideologies is determined to be the one and only martyr. In a way, they are more dependent on failures of each other than they are on success because if your ideologies fail, then mine must be superior. While all this finger-pointing and pandering is going on within the game, Revachol is still a dump and the people who live in it are still struggling to get by.
These ideologies are also played up to the extent that they are nonsense and reflect little of their real-world counterparts. Despite what you think about any of the ideologies in the game, except fascism because it’s bad, they are used to express inaction and how it can affect people directly.
The Fascists in the game are only willing to assert their ideology to the extent of blaming foreigners for the state of Revachol. They don’t seek to act upon it through eugenics or genocide, rather they just make racist comments throughout the game. They are fascists in name only, a title used to subjugate themselves against the once-ruling communists. Revachol hasn’t seen a ruling class that has not considered itself communist or some variation of it. This makes the direct opposition of the of the ruling classes’ ideology to be that of fascism. When looking at it this way, there is an odd perspective that arises in which people who don’t agree with a particular ideology latch on to the direct opposite perspectives. This is not to defend the beliefs and actions of the characters in the game, I think racism is bad, but rather to bring nuance into a more segregated perspective. Most of the characters who declare themselves fascists in the game are overtly hypocritical either through their inaction or by virtue of being a part of a union. They want to be a part of a union because they benefit from the higher wages and better working conditions, yet they denounce the communism that facilitated the environment for it to happen. Thus they become fascists.
The Communists in the game are also perpetrators of inaction through their stubbornness and denial. The students, Steban, the Student Communist, and Echo Maker are scorned by their academic upbringing and believe in a manifestation system of communism, where, if you believe hard enough, everyone’s problems will be solved. They saw the downfall of the previous regimes and want to find a version of communism that would work. At the same time, they are in denial about the past, and claim that the version of communism that happened in the past were not the “true version.” Arguing, that if the “true version” were to happen, it would succeed and fix everyone’s problems. On the other side, Evrart Claire is ostensibly a tyrant and uses the union as a way to assert his power and maintain his power in Revachol. He has no interest in creating a prosperous Revachol, as he benifits from the infighting that occurs from such a detached government. He wants to be in power and reap the profits of being the de facto ruler.
The capitalists are, well, capitalists. They refer to themselves as “ultraliberalists” in the game, but I think it’s obvious where their loyalties lie. They see the money and profit potential in Revachol and not necessarily the people. The personality trait in the game associated with Ultraliberalism is the Indirect Modes of Taxation and you can get it by making money and taking bribes. One character in the game, the guy in the storage unit, will only give you money if you can pitch him a business proposal that he deems good and important. At the same time, Joyce Messier, the main Ultraliberal Harry talks to in the game is one of the few characters willing to discuss the history of Revachol. She also points out many of the flaws in the current and past systems of the city that facilitated its downfalls. Unlike the other characters in the game, Joyce isn’t a resident of Revachol and as soon as she is done with her job she will leave and probably not turn back. This makes her inaction the most predictable and unsurprising. She doesn’t care about Revachol, only the profit that can be made from the union getting back to work.
The Moralists are the most complicit when it comes to the state of Revachol. The institutions that they aim to uphold are the same ones that flattened Revachol and turned the economy of the city into a debt colony and buffer zone. The people and the economy of Revachol are at the whims of the institutions and yet they would rather be the neutral 4th party than commit to bettering the city. As put in the game “they rule the world.”
When looking at the politics of the game there is a discrepancy between what could be done and what is realistic. Rather than acting in a way that will help the people, politics and ideologies are putting said future into a precarious position. A large part of this bleakness stems from the almost naive nature of the main character. When playing the game and choosing the path to follow, Harry has no complaints about what political movement you have him align with and he will lean into it with all that he’s got. He will blindly follow whatever you tell him to and by doing so can change how the game gets played and the events that could happen.
Despite being at the centre of the game, Disco Elysium isn’t a game about political ideology, rather it is a game about the people who are affected by war and rash decisions made by people not connected to the community. This is a bold claim, yet I think that when the partisanism and the political alignments are put on the back burner the true essence of the game comes to light. Many of the characters within the game agree on the future and what should happen in the city. They want Martinaise to become a better place and they want the others who live in it to succeed. Despite what their ideologies tell them, they want a better and successful future. This brings a melancholic aura to the game. One where the institutions control the people and set them up for failure. This happens while the people themselves are full of hope that one day things will get better.
I think this sentiment is best explored through the seemingly useless side quests presented throughout the game. The people who are members of the Doomed Commercial Area are, for the most part, people who live on the periphery of many of the political discussions happening in the game. They want to succeed in their endeavors and many of the current systems in place inhibit this from happening. Their only horse in the game isn’t through political implementation but rather their livelihoods and the ability to keep their stores open. The reason for the area being ‘cursed’ isn’t because of ideological warfare, but rather inaction and neglect.
When it comes to public policy inaction is not only a policy decision it is also a purposeful choice. I am going to define inaction as repeated inaction or non-intervention made by the ruling class to mitigate the responsibility of policy outcomes. This can come in the form of unwillingness to do anything, ideological or framing reasons, or a lack of viable choices. Policy inaction takes a defined stance when it comes to policy decisions, it is a choice that isn’t inherently neutral. It also answers the question “Why didn’t anyone do anything about the problems in the community?”
The study of political science and public policy is relatively a new field. Scholars and governments started evaluating their decisions and policies after the Second World War. It was a time that focused on bettering society and how the government could act on positive outcomes. This led to an evaluation of the decisions being made and an analysis of the outcomes. If decision A is made then X, Y, and Z will happen. If we enact plan B, then only X and Y will occur. But what happens if we don’t do anything? This is where inaction lies, and this is how problems can’t be resolved.
In his book Power: A Radical View, Steven Lukes defines three levels of action that can occur when asserting power. The first is the power to influence political decisions, this can be interpreted as action. The second is the power to control the political agenda thus blocking issues from achieving priority attention. The third and final is the power to frame the public discourse and thus to stop certain social conditions from being recognized as ‘problems’ that necessitate policy interventions[1]. The last two can be recognized as inaction or the avoidance of debate around issues. If we don’t talk about the poor, then is poverty really an issue? The bigger issue isn’t poverty it’s the ideas perpetuated by the [insert oppositional ideology, communism/fascism/moralism/ultraliberalism].
Lukes’s book sought to look at power within the ruling class and look into how these groups make policy decisions. In other words, how do those in the dominant class assert their dominance? His book explores the idea that policy decisions sometimes work counter-productively to what is good for the ruling class versus everyone else. Tax cuts for the rich are only beneficial for the rich, yet some are convinced that they are a universally good thing that helps the whole of society.
The action of not doing anything is a clear and direct action that will always do something. Choosing to do nothing when it comes to helping the poor, has a direct impact on how people interact with poverty, and the possibility of more people becoming poor. Actively choosing to do nothing in Revachol does more for the people in power than the people living in the city.
The state of the working class in Disco Elysium is a byproduct of consistent inaction. The delinquents seen in characters like Cuno, or the drunks in the fishing village, or the vigilantism of the Hardy Boys all exist because the various groups seek to take over Revachol. They do this through inaction. In my opinion, the real villain of the game Disco Elysium isn’t Krenel Sergeant Major Raul Kortenaer rather it is politics and the act of doing nothing.
[1] McConnell, Allan, and Paul t Hart. “Inaction and Public Policy: Understanding Why Policymakers ‘Do Nothing.’” Policy Sciences, vol. 52, no. 4, Nov. 2019, pp. 645–61, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-019-09362-2.
