Chapter III
Welcome to the third chapter of our Commentaries series. This is part of a journal series that contributes to the thesis that culture matters.
With this chapter, we at Vigatour wanted to explore the philosophical and religious ideas that shape our world, and to go deeper than we have gone before. We respect your intelligence as a reader, and so we have drawn on more complex, thought-provoking ideas that affect our day-to-day lives.
Read together, these pieces circle one question: how do power, belief and the systems around us shape what we accept as culture?
We hope you enjoy reading this chapter, one that has extended the frontier of what we are building at Vigatour.
3 September 2026 — Orwell that Ends Well
Good morning, human.
Welcome to your world. The culture you have is not your culture. Your culture is obedience, for conformity’s sake. You agree with the masses. You have no thoughts and your feelings are a sin.
The thought police hear you. Listen to your voice. They know your thoughts. You type to it and it gives you an answer. Not the best answer. Just an answer.
Then there is the world you live in. You were told you were equal to the next person. But your boss says otherwise. You are equal alright. But some are more equal than others. Know your place, you farm animal.
This isn’t the world of Orwell. This is 2026. Good morning, human. You’ve just woken up.
This is why, culture matters.
3 September 2026 — Geordielust
It’s cold. It’s dark. It’s windy.
No matter.
In the background bellow the bells. Church bells. And all so suddenly, they’re drowned out by fans. Newcastle fans. The crowd erupts in a chorus of chants. It’s not the local hero, but the then hero who adopted them. BRUNO! BRUNO! BRUNO!
In this place, football is the dominant religion. No time for church. The prayers are said for the players and the result. A Sunday well spent.
In this city, where you have aged bald men in abundance, Greggs as the name on every corner and the caws of seagulls, the black and white is the icing on the stotty cake.
That’s Geordielust.
8 September 2026 — The Systems that Allow Evil
What if evil rises because a grander system wants it to happen? What if the same systems we place our trust in support these evils because it benefits them? Support of systemic evil is a negative cultural playbook used in organisations of varying sizes: micro to multinational.
In 1930s Germany, many of the ex-army elites supported Nazism because it allowed them to keep their prestige, their titles and their standing in the system. In 1920s Italy, King Victor Emmanuel III supported Mussolini as prime minister, because it would protect his throne.
There are examples where evil grows in our world and yet nothing happens. Why? Because there are systems that benefit from such evils: governments, weapons companies, etc.
There is a lot to explore, but this commentary serves as food for thought.
13 September 2026 — The Opium of the People
Karl Marx called religion: the opium of the people. But why? Opium in the 19th century served as an embodied duality between being a medicine and a drug, depending on the user. The same is true of religion. In some people's hands religion heals and in others it becomes an instrument of hatred, far from the love of the original leaders.
Jesus, Muhammad ﷺ, the Buddha, Guru Nanak. Each taught a way and believed in it. But none of them imposed their will on others. They showed the path and let people walk toward it or away from it. The dichotomy in the culture of religion is not between religions themselves. Merely, it is between the individuals who assume ambassadorship without looking at the essence of what they believe in and those who show a way and trust others to walk it.
Imposition speaks to the ego of the one imposing. For example, the belief that: "my god will bless me because I converted this person". Through this lens, it has never been about the one being converted, but the selfishness of the converter in receiving a blessing such as heaven.
If a person wants to follow a way, let it be. And as any tradition worth the name would want, no way should ever be forced. The culture of religion can be toxic. The culture of these greats was not. Theirs was to show people a path and to trust people to discern and follow for themselves. Religion should be a pain reliever rather than the bearer of pain. That's the culture that was meant to be.
15 September 2026 — The Nazi Connection to Star Wars
This commentary does not state that George Lucas advocated for Nazism. In fact, his life and work suggest the opposite. Rather, this is an exploration of the historical influences that can be seen within Star Wars and what they tell us about the way culture evolves.
With that introduction complete, let us begin.
When watching Star Wars, there are clear parallels between the evil Galactic Empire and Nazi Germany. The Empire's military aesthetic, strict authoritarian rule and emphasis on absolute power all draw comparisons with the Third Reich. Even the term "Stormtrooper" carries historical significance, having been associated with German military formations and later becoming strongly linked in the public imagination with Nazi organisations such as the SA. The design of Darth Vader's helmet also bears similarities to the German stahlhelm. Through these visual and linguistic choices, Lucas sought to portray the Empire as one of the most oppressive and feared forces in the galaxy.
One of the most interesting examples appears at the end of A New Hope. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, accompanied by Chewbacca, walk through a vast ceremonial hall to receive medals from Princess Leia. The scene bears a striking resemblance to imagery found in Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film Triumph of the Will. This does not suggest that the Rebel Alliance is Nazi-inspired. Instead, it demonstrates how powerful visual ideas can transcend their original context and find their way into entirely different stories. Cinema, like culture itself, rarely develops in isolation.
This influence can be seen far beyond Star Wars. Consider the Olympic torch relay. Many people assume it is an ancient tradition inherited directly from the original Olympic Games. While the Olympic flame itself draws inspiration from ancient Greece, the modern torch relay was first introduced for the 1936 Berlin Olympics under Adolf Hitler's regime. Riefenstahl herself captured the relay in the opening of her 1938 film Olympia, helping to fix it in the world's imagination. Today, the relay is viewed as a symbol of international unity and sporting excellence, yet few people stop to consider its more recent origins.
Examples such as these reveal an uncomfortable truth about culture. Ideas, symbols and traditions often survive long after the societies that created them have disappeared. They are adapted, reinterpreted and given new meanings by later generations. What was once associated with one cause or ideology can become detached from its original purpose and absorbed into mainstream life.
And it is with this understanding that we encourage you to look more closely at the world around you. The films we watch, the traditions we celebrate and the symbols we recognise often have deeper histories than we realise. Star Wars serves as a reminder that culture is not created in isolation. Rather, it is a continuous conversation between the past and the present, carrying echoes of histories that we may not always recognise or want to accept as a reality, but which continue to shape the world around us.
25 September 2026 — Deus in Machina
We are calling this commentary Deus in Machina. Translated from Latin, this means "God in the Machine", with the machine being us, the world and everything in it.
Consider this our exploration of Sufism.
The Sufi worldview allows us to break down the barriers of the mind and our inherited assumptions, revealing the beauty that already exists around us. This cultural tradition from Islam counts figures such as Rumi and Mansur al-Hallaj among its most celebrated proponents. It follows the belief that God is everywhere and in everything, and that each person is ultimately searching for the same source.
If you truly love God, surely you would love the world around you and the person within it, regardless of race, religion, gender or any other surface-level difference.
At its heart, the Sufi tradition calls for humility, teaching that no person stands above another. This tradition sees the paths of others as among the many paths that can draw a person closer to the divine. Love forms the crux of the tradition rather than division. It is with this ethos, when exploring cultures of this world, that Vigatour as a brand is built.