Besides that, most people I know who have degrees and high-paying jobs still have no idea what actually constitutes propaganda – so again, a necessary education regardless.

It has to be said, though, that the Communist brand has always had rather less of the narcissistic projection in form of stern-jawed half-naked musclemen with ancient ironmongery than the Fascist, not to mention a conspicious lack of the creepy racialism of Nazi art.

Blindness to unintentional irony is also a shared trait.

That said, a thick enough book or similar WILL stop an arrow or a blow pretty well; pile enough of *anything* in the way and this holds true for nigh any attack. Whether this is doable against the battlefield hazards relevant in the context without overly encumbering the combatant is of course a different question entirely, and the exact reason armourers spent millenia honing their craft.

By the time that sorry archipelago was allowed into the EEC the standard of living was below that of Italy, I hear.