I have posted before about learning from fictional books and movies. For those who know me personally, this kind of post isn’t that surprising. I can hear all your mental voices now… “GEEK!”
So let’s get started.
Sometimes I see Star Wars (specifically episodes I, II, and III) as an allegory of history and a metaphor for the repeating of history. Some free people decided that they wanted to be more secure, so they gave up some of their freedoms for this “security.” They lost the freedoms, and began to lose more – willingly at that! Most felt like they were secure, but many knew that they were not. Eventually their liberty literally died with thunderous applause. Soon these people had neither freedom nor security, but a Nazi-like government instead.
The Jedi sometimes remind me of some churches. The Jedi were all secure in their religion, and became stuffy and arrogant while believing that they were just the humble keepers of the peace. They were so secure that they didn’t see the darkness that was slowly creeping in. While there were some who saw a problem, in general the Jedi were blinded and deceived by their own pride. Thinking they knew everything they needed, they missed the darkness until it was too late. This actually happened multiple times in Star Wars “history.”
Further back in Star Wars “history,” there was a war between religions. The Jedi and the Sith/Dark Jedi had a war. Each side had a different view and belief set about the Force, but they both used the Force to justify their actions. A lot of people got caught between the two factions. When you don’t know much about a thing, whoever uses it or knows it must belong to the same faction, so people called this war “the Jedi Civil War”. It wasn’t just the Jedi, but when both sides use the same weapons and powers, it’s hard to tell the difference in the crossfire.
While I don’t want you to forget about the existential lessons, I’m going to end on a lighter note. I’ve noticed that people in the Star Wars galaxy (and Middle Earth) don’t like railing. Except there was a small rail around the second Death Star’s exhaust port, but that didn’t even help. Lesson learned: railing is good, but sometimes you should build a wall instead. Unless (mild spoiler!) you have a bad guy to defeat by tossing him over your puny railing, then by all means please don’t build a wall.
While your life lessons may or may not be as geeky, I would still like to hear them. Have any that you’d like to share?