The Politics of Star Wars

The Politics of Star Wars
By Daniel G. Jennings
Nothing shows how inane and insipid political debate in America has become than the silly attempts to read political meaning into the latest Star Wars film “Revenge of the Sith.”
On the right some conservative groups have denounced the movie as left wing propaganda and its creator George Lucas as a blue state elitist. On the left, the moronic activist group called Moveon.org has created an idiotic TV commercial portraying federal judges as Jedi Knights and Republican Senator Bill Frist as the Evil Emperor.
Our society has become so divided and politicized that we see political meaning everywhere even where it doesn’t exist. We can’t even enjoy a good movie without some idiot attacking it because it isn’t propaganda for his or her cause.
Nor can we evaluate a work of art or entertainment without resorting to the simple minded political definitions of our age. Despite the efforts of both conservatives and liberals to portray it as for or against their respective causes, “Revenge of the Sith” can’t be pigeonholed as conservative or liberal. This movie has something sorely and desperately lacking in our political culture: ambiguity.
The plot line is that the once free and democratic Galactic Republic has become corrupt and degenerate and is slowly morphing into the oppressive and militaristic First Galactic Empire. Is this a left wing warning about the dangers of militarism and imperialism or a right wing warning about the dangers of big government or both? I can’t tell it can be read both ways. Is George Lucas a liberal Democrat or an old school conservative? I can’t tell either by looking at this movie. The plot about the Republic becoming an empire evokes the writings of isolationist firebrand Pat Buchanan more than any liberal politician.
Politically, Sith is a complicated movie that provides no good or satisfying answers. The democracy of the Galactic Republic turns out to be a shallow sham easily brushed aside by the arrogant Chancellor Palpatine who like 19th Century French Emperor Napoleon III (the 1850s politician not the great conqueror) proclaims himself Emperor after launching wars of conquest and winning an election. The oily Palpatine’s proclamation of the Empire is greeted by cheers from the supposedly democratic Senate.
Palpatine practices the dark arts of the Sith a banned ancient religion that teaches its practitioners how to conquer and oppress. An allegory for Communism or Marxism and the arrogant intellectuals who adopt those ideologies. Palpatine’s words are more reminiscent of arrogant intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and the Neoconservatives who promise power and paradise through their ideology but deliver war and oppression than those of George W. Bush. The film’s chief villain, Palpatine looks and acts more like Bill Clinton than George W. Bush, Palpatine is always smiling and friendly (until he turns into the evil emperor) and constantly prattles on about peace. Although the words of the misguided Anikan Skywalker evoke Bush.
To seize control Palpatine tricks a race of alien scientists to create an army of cloned soldiers (the Stormtroopers of the classic Star Wars films) from the genetic material of the feared soldier of fortune Jango Fett (father of Jabba the Hutt’s chief hitman Boba Fett). When war with terrorists called Separatists who employ robotic armies erupts Palpatine unleashes the clones who conduct a ruthless but very effective military campaign against those areas of the Galaxy that don’t acknowledge the Republic’s authority.
Here’s where things get a little complicated the Separatists are businessmen seeking economic freedom. They are also aliens who might not want to live in the human dominated Galactic Republic. They are led by a rogue Jedi Knight named Count Duku who is described as a political idealist and their revolt is inspired and advised by the shadowy Sith Lord Darth Sidius. The problem is that the Sith Lord is also Palpatine who has inspired the rebellion in order to create a pretext for the creation of his military machine. Nor is the Separatist cause so bad, when Anikan Skywalker’s wife, Senator Padme, complains about too much power in the Chancellor’s hands and talks of democracy Anikan, the future Darth Vader, accuses her of being a Separatist.
Caught in the middle of this complicated war are the Jedi Knights the regal, aloof, arrogant, self righteous, self appointed guardians of democracy in the Old Republic. The Jedi who are apparently a heretical sect of the Sith or perhaps the Sith are heretical Jedi. It’s hard to tell, but one thing is clear the noble Jedi are almost as bad as the Emperor and in a way worse than the cloned soldiers who after all are just doing their duty. The Jedi certainly have totalitarian impulses like the Communists and the Nazis they take children from their parents and train them in the Jedi ways. The Jedi enthusiastically join in Palpatine’s campaign of repression, to the point of leading his armies against the separatists never do the Jedi question Palpatine’s orders. At least two Jedi go bad: Count Duku the terrorist leader of the brutal Separatist forces and Anikan Skywalker who becomes the Empire’s chief enforcer Darth Vader.
In an interesting complication the Sith philosophy is shown to be somewhat libertarian and the Jedi totalitarian. The Sith encourage their students to follow their passions and develop their full potential, while the Jedi emphasize mindless discipline and restraint.
The Jedi like many of today’s Christians are obsessed with apocalyptic prophecy they are waiting for the chosen one, a promised Messiah who will restore balance to the Force and usher in a golden age. The chosen one is Anikan Skywalker who turns out to be an antichrist who betrays the Jedi to their worst enemy. A timely warning for all the good Christians waiting for the Rapture and the Second Soming. The Separatists also view Anikan as a sort of savior their leadership gathers in a hiding place to await his coming. When he arrives Anikan proceeds to kill them all just as he killed the Jedi.
Eventually, the Jedi leadership decides that the Chancellor has too much power and rise up against him. They first try to arrest Palpatine in order to turn him over to the Senate but Palpatine tells the Jedi commander Mace Windu that he is the Senate. Windu responds to this by trying to assassinate a defenseless Palpatine apparently in cold blood. Only Anikan Skywalker’s intervention saves the elected leader of the Republic from murder at the hands of the self-appointed guardians of democracy.
Nor is the Democracy the Jedi are defending all that great, it is shown to be a hollow sham. All the Senators do is rubber stamp Palpatine’s fascist agenda. When they aren’t legislating, Senators go to the theater where entertainment consists of meaningless light shows.
The people of the Galaxy don’t appreciate the Jedi and their democracy very much either. When Palpatine orders Anikan Skywalker to lead an army of cloned storm troopers into the Jedi Temple in the Galactic Capitol and butcher all the Jedi inside none of the citizens of the city lifts a finger to help. Nobody comes to the aid of the Jedi even though many of them are children, except for Senator Organa played by an overweight and mustached Jimmy Smitts. Out in the galaxy only the Wookies help the Jedi when the clones start shooting them in the back., then they only help the aged Jedi master Yoda who is their old friend.
The movie ends on a downer, Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi, a regal Jedi who bemoans the loss of civilized behavior (that sounds familiar), go into hiding. They also hide the last two remaining Jedi children Luke Skywalker and the Princess Leia. Padme the one person who seemed to believe in democracy dies of a broken heart. Anikan Skywalker is resurrected as Darth Vader the Emperor’s pet killing machine. Senator Organa flees to a remote planet to lay the ground work for the rebellion that will bring down the Empire.
The people of the Galaxy have learned a harsh lesson if they want their freedom they’ll have to fight for it themselves. They can’t rely upon droids, clones, Jedi Knights, Sith Lords and self-appointed saviors to fight their battles for them.
In the end there are no simple answers or easy solutions in that Galaxy Far, Far away. Just as in our world simple political categorization is impossible and that is perhaps the real lesson George Lucas is trying to teach us. A lesson that will be undoubtedly lost upon the inhabitants of a nation conditioned to think in terms of easy answers and political absolutes.