FUNCTIONISM

As the cultural lens through which every individual is codified into a set of useful functions and slotted into place, functionism has held strong throughout the reign of the Grand Architect, allowing him to create an empire of Cybertron and all its colonies.

Structure

Classes

The social classes of functionism are determined both by frametype and by upbringing or social connections. It’s not a very intuitive way of judging, so there are a lot of “disparities” with, for instance, a good number of beastformers in high profile positions like politicians. The best way to chart it would be something like this, with a few examples listed:

the Grand Architect: obviously the highest of the high, untouchable, sovereign
Megatron: he’s a labor ground frame, but his parents are well off, Lugnut in particular, and so he enjoys inheriting their high social status and the privilege that comes with it
Orion: he’s also a labor ground frame, raised in the pretty solidly middle class Pax Compact, so he’s average all around
Sentinel: despite having a frame pretty much the same as Orion, he’s high class because of being raised in the Major Compact, a high class group home
Starscream: given what happened with his former aerie in Vos, he has a bit of a complex about social superiority, both about class and just relationships in general. He’s approximately middle class thanks to both his frame and the Safeguard Aerie
Nightracer: lowest of the low. A starving gutter child living with other junkers out on the streets. Her frametype is inconsequential in comparison
Prowl: now here’s an interesting case. As Chief of Iacon’s Enforcers, he was pretty high class, and then all it took was daring to make a gutter child his family to drop his status down pretty severely. Because his frametype (wheeled grounder) is fairly generic, it has less of an impact on his class, but it also means his individual skill can be overlooked because he’s “just” a ground frame, he’s not special. The greater impact came from his influence and social connections, much of which were established by his upbringing
Springer: the flipside of Prowl’s situation. Being a triple changer, he’s always going to be “lesser” than someone of another frametype in the same class. but while his adoption meant a dropping of social status for Prowl, for Springer it meant elevating from junker to middle class, a miraculous leap!
Shockwave: he may be a senator, but he isn’t a comparatively super important one. Why else would he have the time to run a school instead of do politics? His ambulatory vehicle alt mode isn’t particularly special, but he proved himself genius enough to earn alt mode exemption, and later made the right connections to find his way into politics, so he’s high class because of the network of influence he’s established
Maccadam: and then there is the size null. Mecha such as Mac are absolute conundrums to the class system. He could be placed anywhere on the chart and it would be a little bit accurate. He actually has a lot of social influence as the owner of Cybertron's oldest and most popular bar, but that's nothing official or function-related. His alt mode isn’t special, but he’s outside of the typical sizes. He’s very old, has seen and knows a lot, and would make for an inconvenient opponent should he decide to work some social magic and start a revolution. Size nulls, especially when they’re well-known or have well-established careers and a broad set of friends, are often left well enough alone and given decent class statuses so they don’t mess the whole thing up

Exaltion and Exemption

To be alt mode exalted means one is the very best of the best of one's frametype, the most perfect of one's function. For example, Dispensor is alt mode exalted, the greatest of all vending machines. His reward for being exalted was to be placed in the senate building, taking care of a little amenities shop and folding up in alt mode to dispense canned drinks whenever someone wandered by. It was the most boring, depersonalizing, stupid job of his life. Even if one becomes alt mode exalted, they are still confined to their function, so it is no escape from the system of functionism.

There is also alt mode exempt, which means one's function is not tied strictly to one's alt mode, but it has no effect on class status. This is usually something to be earned after awhile in an assigned career, proving that someone is more adept at something unrelated to their alt mode, and applying to be sorted into a different function because of their skill, expertise, or interest. There are also “gifted kid” programs for children who are clearly meant for alt mode exemption that allow them to go straight into their more fitting function as an adult. It isn’t uncommon for mecha to be made alt mode exempt, but it is a bit difficult, and exemption can be revoked.

There are no class names. People are sorted according to their individual job and general frametype, instead of concrete labels like “Science Caste” in other canons. Everyone is kept neatly in their places, without the division of labels. Labels, after all, would just separate people and give them an identity to stand on. There are plenty of frame labels and stereotypes, however. The term seeker is a general name for any size 4 plane or jet flier. The connotations it carries include dramatics and mood swings, petty grudges, witty conversation and constant gossip, pretty and preening, intelligent and yet somehow not educated or competent in their field. They are, essentially, expected to be entertaining arm candy, carrying on a constant social telenovela for the amusement of those around them. Starscream has absorbed a lot of this mentality, which is obvious in his behavior.

Since everyone is forged with a unique frame, it’s not easy to broadly categorize class from just what type of frame one has. A wheeled grounder could have racing as their optimal function, or being a courier, or an escort, or land surveying. It depends on the individual specs and strengths of their frame and personality, so frametype categories can’t be wholesale shoehorned into one class. However, there is a general spectrum of valuable-worthless that’s upheld through biased culture and legislation. From least to greatest, it goes:

Mutacons
beastformers
uncertain function frames
toolformers
beast triple changers
other triple changers
labor ground frames
aquatic frames
labor flight frames
specialty toolformers
specialty ground frames
specialty flight frames and spacers
alt mode exalted

Culture

Assigned social classes are rigid to the extreme, relying only on the circumstances of forging instead of current affluence or poverty. A high class mech gone bankrupt will not suddenly become a middle or low class mech, they’ll simply be a very poor high class mech who failed their function. This is always communicated by pronouns, personal grooming, and accessible areas. A high class mech in poverty will still be in the high class portion of the city, no lower class mech should be able to get there in the first place. It is possible, although difficult, for low class mecha to climb the ladder a little bit, and for middle class mecha to fall a bit. Lower class mecha can become junkers more easily than others, but anyone who refuses their function runs that risk.

The rigidity of the classes means that close association with dramatically different classes is a big risk. For example, Prowl adopting Springer. As a gutter child, Springer was part of the lowest possible class. While the hotspot he erupted from and the group home he was taken to were both middle-lower class, he was legally adopted as a sparkling by the junker Impactor, immediately making him a junker too. While it’s incredibly rare for junkers to have the capability to legally adopt, it can happen, and Impactor decided to do so for unknown reasons. As an outspoken activist, he may have been trying to secure a successor for his movement. Some might have called it cruel to adopt a sparkling into a life of permanent street living and starvation.

When Impactor was arrested and executed, Springer should have been either left on the streets or reprocessed into a penal home, but Prowl made the unusual decision of taking responsibility for him, which led to legal adoption. As a middle-upper class mech in a position of political and legal authority at the time, this was scandalous. It cost him his reputation, his connections, and his job. He very well may have plummeted all the way down the social ladder to become a junker himself, if his luck had been particularly bad. Instead, he was personally hired by a senator to run a very important Academy. Prowl has the unusual distinction of not losing his standing in the social hierarchy despite close association with a junker, and Springer has the incredibly unusual distinction of being a former junker who is now at least middle class. A dramatic climb of the ladder, and something that shouldn’t have happened under functionism.

Even casual association outside of necessary interaction is frowned upon. Since sparkfields can affect each other just by regular close proximity, intermingling functions and classes are discouraged, though it’s not always possible to prevent it. But everything up to and including physical infrastructure is not geared towards interaction with a diverse crowd. Even furniture and every day tools like utensils aren’t universal, they come in different size classes. A place meant for one frametype or size class won’t have accommodation for others. A grounder’s restaurant won’t have open-backed seats for winged fliers, and a minibot library won’t have doors that could fit a size 2 adult, much less size 5.

The one area where this rigid boundary gives is with close family. Adults of one frametype can adopt children of a different frametype, and group homes can have multiple frametypes as long as they have the correct accommodations for them. For Endurae relationships especially, class borders soften a bit, but bond with someone too far removed from your place in society and the both of you become tainted. Of all the reasons mecha somehow change classes, higher or lower, Endurae relationships are the most prevalent, closely followed by adoption.

Public Agenda

While "functionism" is the technical term for the embedded method of social value determinism, it isn't commonly used by the laymech, only in political theory circles. Sociologists will absolutely name it functionism, but the average mech off the street only knows that their society is an autocracy over a coercive hierarchal class system. Even then, they probably wouldn’t use those terms, they’d simply describe the living conditions. While functionism isn’t a widely used term, framism is. It refers to any prejudice against someone decided by their frame, and it serves as a convenient catch-all for most types of discrimination. It’s most often used for prejudice against specific frametypes, like beastformers, triple changers, and Mutacons. But functionism isn’t a new idea, and the range of things it affects is too broad to call it only an economic model, a governmental model, or any other “standardized” slice of society.

It boils down to: the value and thus the rights of an individual are based off the usefulness of their frame to society, determined by the circumstances of their forging.

For a ideology that claims to be based on nothing but the function of one's frame, social connections and upbringing have a lot of influence. The hotspot a mech emerges from, the group home they’re raised in, the creators they’re adopted by, all of these matter very much. A minibot beastformer in the lower classes will be a target of derision. A minibot beastformer of a high class family will be cooed over, coddled, and expected to be entertaining in some way. Both will be subject to prejudice, but the form of that prejudice varies widely between social classes. The lower class beastformer will do menial labor, or perhaps be a service animal of some sort, emphasizing their frame instead of their personhood. The upper class beastformer may very well become someone’s decorated pet lounging in the livingroom, equally stripped of identity beyond their alt mode.

Work Between Classes

The work required of the average mech isn’t completely overwhelming. Very few mecha are worked to permanent disability or death. Work quotas are strictly adhered to, but they aren’t impossible to achieve. Free time and leisure are also resources that the population needs, and it’s handed out accordingly by the benevolent state, caring for its citizens. People are pacified with a wide variety of holidays as well, of political, religious, historical, or trivial nature. The people can’t complain if they’re allowed such a significant amount of time off! After all, it could be so much worse!

The upper classes are absolutely required to contribute to civilization by performing their function. There is no idle wealthy life of luxury for them. They are the ones meant to be looked to as a shining example of society at its best. They have a fairly even ratio of frametypes, even marginalized frames. There are a disproportionate amount of beastformers in high political positions as compared to other frametypes in proportion to the percentage of beastformers across the total population. This kind of assimilationism is yet another way to stamp down dissent. Would these people really be in power if beastformers were oppressed? Pipe down and follow their lead instead of whining about imaginary prejudice.

The real power the upper class have is not in wealth, it is in connections and the ability to leverage their reputations. An upper class mech raising a child with a frame they know is likely to be assigned to a relatively dangerous job can simply contact their peers, find overseers of the industry, and secure a place for their child within a safer position, eg. managerial instead of physical labor. The politicking, negotiating, and power plays that go on within high society dictate the pecking order, but even a child raised by a disgraced upper class mech will still have greater sway than a child of an upstanding middle class mech. This even occurs in the government itself, with the Senate acting more as a verbal battleground than a body of leaders. The only one indisputable and immovable in his seat at the highest of high society is the Grand Architect himself.

Assets

Despite the unforgiving control functionism has over everyone, all of it is propaganda’d to pit and back. “Every form has its place, every function has its space.” It’s meant to imply that society is nice and neat and perfectly fit together, where all the cogs in the machine have a niche to fit in and work so the greater whole runs smoothly. Anyone who doesn’t do their function is messing up society! Even empurata is justified in this way. And the propaganda reaches into every aspect of society as well. Even religion is coopted to dictate all the reasons why functionism is actually the righteous way to live. Primus created you for a purpose, why are you rejecting it? Do you want to be an apostate?

The general population of Cybertron mostly agrees with functionism, despite having doubts about something here or there. They enforce it within themselves, believing and regurgitating the propaganda that keeps them in this system. People who interact with those outside their function or refuse their place outright are made into social pariahs, not by legal forces, but by their own peers.

Resources, education, and real estate are all controlled by the state, allotted out to the population based first on class and then on usefulness. This does not necessarily mean upper class mecha get excess, especially in matters like energon rations. The average heavy labor frame will consume more energon than a light build working in politics, and thus will be given more. It’s a similar principle as “each according to their need”, except it’s turned on it’s head to become “provisions and maintenance is given to every part of the machine of society in order that every part can sufficiently work to maintain the status quo.” A high caste mech will be an entertainer, a chef, a politician, a tycoon, etc. All of their allocated resources won’t be spent on their pleasure, they will be spent on the high-profile function they have in society. Corporations and states have a greater control over their resource flow than individuals do, no matter their class.

Physical Maturation

Due to the nature of Cybertronian growth, a child reaching the point of upgrade to the next maturity stage requires sentio metallico and multiple medical-grade resources, usually along with a medic and clinic to monitor the process for safety’s sake. It only takes a few days to grow from one maturity stage to the next, but if an internal error occurs or if the provided resources aren’t of the necessary quality or material, the child can be injured, end up disabled, or even die. Likewise, a child who has no access to upgrade resources will also die, because the frame cannot stay frozen at its current maturity stage when it reaches its upgrade point. They can put it off for a time, but they will eventually die.

Middle and upper class mecha have their choice of private clinics to chose from for their child. Maturation clinics and resources are also allocated by the state for those who don’t have the ability to procure them, along with community-led organizations that are the closest thing Cybertron has to charities. These maturation clinics are in licensed group homes, and some schools as well, as a sort of down payment for the child’s future labor. Junkers are an exclusion to this, as they “provide nothing to society, therefore are not entitled to society’s resources.” They end up having to scrounge and save for a very long time to get all the materials necessary for even a single child’s maturation, and even then it’s incredibly risky in comparison to a clinic maturation.

Education

Education is not so much education as it is a pipeline towards future work. The Academy has every frametype, size class, and citizenship. It’s completely unique in all of Cybertron and its colonies. Most schools cater to one class and have students sorted by age, then by function, then by frame and size. Many of them are sponsored by corporations, guilds, and conglomerates looking for an early scoop into the future workforce.

The actual educational material is typically limited only to what a particular function would need. A child destined for factory work in industrial manufacturing would be taught metalworking, machinery, electrical skills, waste management, some mechanical design, and some engineering. Why teach them much history? All they need to know is the basic timeline of Cybertron’s glorious civilization, the rise of their local city-state, and the mythologies that fuel religion.

Employment

Upon reaching adulthood, the first job every individual under functionism will take is an assigned function apprenticeship. For example, Howlback was assigned to be a patrol agent under Iacon’s Enforcers. A youngling at maturation to an adult will often have their expenses sponsored by a company to secure the new adult’s employment. They reach adulthood already indebted to the ones who paid to get them there, already needing to repay with interest the fees they have accumulated by simply being alive. The apprenticeship is not only the first payment towards that debt, but also a requirement for the legal ability to work anywhere else. If a mech wants a job anywhere in any function, they must first complete their apprenticeship. New adults who don’t want to go through their apprenticeship yet will stick around their group homes as interim caretakers, like Ravage and Dominus. The most common way a mech becomes a junker is by refusing their apprenticeship function or indentured servitude, with the second most common being disability.

For those who “fail their function” in some way, like debtors, those who fell into poverty, bad workers, and minor criminals, they’re sentenced to indentured servitude until they can make up for whatever way they failed. Usually this is within their function, but if they have proven incompetent, they are assigned a different area. Indentured servitude means they will have little to no free time or surplus wages, and no choice at all in work or living space, beyond perhaps choice between servitude or imprisonment. This applies across all classes, and a high class mech in poverty will be forced into servitude just as a low class mech.

History

The current system of government was pulled together from the ashes of the failed despotic Triumvirate. With strength and adaptability, the Grand Architect orchestrated the formation of the modern day Stratocracy, the functionist regime that unites Cybertron and its colonies into a single well-run system. That’s how the title of Grand Architect was given to him, and he continues to bless the world with his steadfast, unchanging rule. His High Council and the Cybertronian Senate arrange much of the lawmaking and running of the government, but ultimately it is him who allows these things to happen. The power he holds is absolute, represented by the ceremonial symbols he carries.

However, functionism predates the Grand Architect by many vorns. It was proposed during the worst of ratioism as a way to oppose the idea that common frametypes hold little value while rare frametypes are special. This idea was powerful enough to eventually inspire great riots that led to the overthrow of the Triumvirate. In a way, the Grand Architect owes his reign to functionism instead of vice versa. The original philosophers, however, would likely be horrified to see that their theories have been coopted into a sociopolitical structure just as terrible as the one they had wanted to abolish.

Demography and Population

As with anyone maintaining a complex machine, stockpiles of needed parts are prepared and held in reserve to be added to the system when necessary, except these needed parts are people of various frametypes. This is somewhat of a holdover from ratioism, a previous sociological philosophy. Due to the way hotspots work, the state cannot simply demand production of more of one frametype, and also cannot predict what frametypes the newsparks will be when they erupt. Total frame reformatting and cold construction is also not a thing, so people cannot be changed or custom made. The state can, however, keep the population steady and their “stockpiles” within their quotas by committing continual genocide. An overproducing hotspot will be plugged, the newsparks within dying and dissolving. Unwanted frametypes will be culled in various ways, including leaving them on the streets, adding to the junker population if they should be picked up by an adult. Beastformers are the usual victim of this, as the natural rate of beastformer eruption across Cybertron is far higher than the current state quota.

Foreign Relations

Cybertron is isolationist, which is a good thing because their society is wildly xenophobic and organiphobic. No other petty species could possibly compare to them and their grand function divinely ordained! It’s been many megavorns since Cybertron has had confirmed contact with alien life, and even longer since it’s had diplomatic relations. They don’t know of any other species around their space currently, and they don’t care to know. Anything taught about xenospecies or organics is always done with a heavily condescending bent.

Military

This sort of brutal, tyrannical social system wouldn’t naturally continue without constant enforcing, and a very solid consolidation of power at the very top. The Grand Architect and the High Council have total control over all aspects of society including the colonies, mandating the rights of fueling allocation, religion, zoning laws, educational requirements, medical standards, etc. While each city-state has some control over practice and equipment, the Enforcer Corps planet wide are a tool of compliance and suppression. Cybertron is very much a surveillance state, and an Enforcer can do practically anything and get away with it, even among the higher classes.

For those who rebel against the system, there isn’t a lot of mercy, and the repercussions are permanent. The kindest fate they have is criminal charges and indentured servitude. Others are executed. Perhaps the most striking consequence is empurata, a mutilation of the frame that forever marks the victim as a dissenter. Empurata removes the face, installs a single optic in the cavity, and removes the hands to be replaced with two-fingered claws. Both physically and symbolically, this takes away self-expression and skill. It also infantilizes the victim, as only sparklings have two fingers. These people were throwing tantrums against society, so now the state will baby them accordingly. Empurata victims are usually adults, but there are certainly younglings who have suffered it as well, such as Whirl. Thankfully, mnemosurgery is not a developed art, so manipulating the processor and shadowplaying a victim is not widely possible.

HIn stark contrast with the severe consequences the state carries out against those it deems wrong, society as a whole is kept very docile. Cybertron is a unified territory, so all of its citizens answer to the government of the Grand Architect. There is no standing army anymore, nor indeed really any army at all, aside from the Enforcers. Structured violence is frowned upon, to the point where the most violent activity still tolerated is sports like boxing, and even that is considered barbaric. There is no weaponry, especially since mecha aren’t forged with inbuilt weaponry. Enforcers carry state-owned equipment with occasional access to genuine weaponry if facing a bigger target, but those are closely monitored to remain in their stations once their shift is over. Personal use is completely forbidden. More violent or pugilistic folks end up Enforcers, perpetuating the brutality and heavy control of the corps over the populace.

Wrapping all that up with a pretty bow is the way extreme force is trivialized, constantly. Enforcers can beat anyone into submission if they’d like. Executions of criminals are public spectacles, a popular event for the masses to watch and jeer both in person and televised. More menial labor-oriented jobs will likely have managers unafraid to physically punish an employee for underperforming, with the excuse that “their frame is made to take a beating.” This isn’t frowned upon for being violent simply because it’s viewed as exercising authority.