Critique of pure (Jedi) reason

(Warning: Skip this if you are allergic to excessively geeky posts.)

Last night I watched Star Wars: Episode III for the second time and have been trying to figure out whether there is a coherent philosophy that underlies the entire saga. On the one hand, Palpatine seduces Anakin partly by convincing him that the Jedi have a narrow, dogmatic perspective and that he needs to embrace “a larger view of the Force.” This is reinforced later during the battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan when Anakin replies to Obi-Wan’s accusation that he’s embraced evil that “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil.” So, is the Dark Side a kind of Nietzschean perspectivism?

Well, this is complicated by the fact that earlier Anakin tells Obi-Wan (echoing President Bush?) that “If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy,” to which Obi-Wan replies “Only a Sith thinks in absolutes.” Now it looks like the Jedi are the relativists!

Furthermore, the Jedi prophecy that Obi-Wan thinks Anakin is supposed to fulfill is that he is the “Chosen One” who will “bring balance to the Force.” But what does that mean? On its face it would seem to imply that the Good and Dark sides of the Force exist in a kind of tension, and balance would entail bringing them into some sort of yin-yang harmony. But Obi-Wan seems to take the propehcy to mean that Anakin will destroy the Sith, and that bringing balance to the Force simply means the triumph of the Jedi.

But we, the viewers, know that it’s not Anakin, but his son Luke, who ultimately brings balance to the Force. And, I would suggest, what this looks like is not simply the triumph of the Jedi philosophy, but a modification of it in a way that neutralizes the power of the Dark Side.

Consider the scene in Episode III where Anakin has a counseling session with Yoda about his disturbing visions of Padmé’s death. He tells Yoda that he is fearful that someone close to him is going to die (his marriage to Padmé is still a secret at this point). Yoda’s response is the rather bloodless one that he simply must give up his attachment to other people so it won’t affect him if they die, plus some rather platitudinous business about not mourning because when people die they are “transformed into the Force.” Anakin, rather understandably, finds this unacceptable, which opens him to Palpatine’s offer to teach him the dark arts that can ensure his wife’s immortality.

Now, we might think we’re supposed to see Yoda as a font of wisdom and therefore his advice to Anakin should be taken at face value as the right answer. But my take is that Yoda is actually wrong and this defect in the Jedi philosophy helps drive Anakin into the arms of the Dark Side.

We “later” see Yoda give the same advice to Luke when he’s in training on Dagobah and is having disturbing visions of what is about to happen to his friends in Cloud City. Yoda tells him that he has to put those thoughts away and complete his training. But Luke’s attachment to his friends is so strong that he leaves in an (apparently futile) attempt to save them. The implication is that Luke’s attachment to particular people prevents him from realizing his potential as a Jedi.

The same Jedi philosophy is at work when both Yoda and Obi-Wan try to dissuade Luke from attempting to save his father. Luke wants to bring Anakin back because he’s his father, whereas Yoda and Obi-Wan urge him to put aside any such personal feelings in service to the greater good.

We get a hint that Luke is right and Yoda and Obi-Wan wrong when later on the Death Star the Emperor taunts him about both his belief that he can rescue his father and his faith in his friends and comrades. After all, this is very similar to Yoda’s advice about giving up attachments to particular people. But, of course, Luke turns out to be right, both about his father and his friends (It’s telling, I think, that Luke echoes Padmé’s final words: “There is still good in him [Vader].”).

So, I suggest that Luke brings “balance” to the Force by (re?)incorporating a love for and attachment to particular people into the Jedi ethos. The exclusion of particularistic love from the Jedi order is what helped drive Anakin to the Dark Side in the first place, where it was twisted and ultimately nearly destroyed. After seeing the prequels we get a sense of how unlike the older generation of Jedi’s Luke is. They existed seperate from the people at large as a priestly class, whereas Luke is firmly rooted in family and friends (as we see him returning to their embrace in the final scenes of Jedi.). Balance, contra Yoda and Obi-Wan, didn’t mean the decisive triumph of the Jedi outlook, but a tempering of it with a more humanisitic impulse. Luke offers both a critique and a revivification of the Jedi tradition.