“In the end, cowards are those who follow the dark side.”
– Yoda
I hope everyone had an opportunity to re-watch (or watch) Revenge of the Sith for its twentieth anniversary.
Originally, watching it at seventeen, the political gravity of the film was significantly less heavy . . . likely because I was seventeen, had a sophomoric perception of geo-political socio-economics, and ignorantly presumed the plausibility of twentieth-century authoritarianism engulfing the United States was slim at best. Now, as the prequels have grown with us and we appreciate them more with time, I was excited to revisit the film in theatres as an adult with a denser grasp of George Lucas’ warning. Nevertheless, I was not prepared for the precise parallels of the film to break my heart.
Eventually, Yoda, most Jedi presumably dead, solitarily confronts Palpatine in his senatorial fortress with an army of Clones nearby—a confrontation of hateful cowardice by fearless wisdom—but there’s a moment on Kashyyyk where he senses the dying Jedi around the galaxy after Order 66 and collapses with the grief of ultimate realized failure, knowing well that fearless wisdom is likely too late to prevail.
Of course, the duel is significant and I, as the proper stoner-nerd Yoda fanboy I am, must communicate that Palpatine could, and did, not defeat Yoda—Yoda needed to kill Palpatine quickly before whatever Clones around could descend upon them . . . but he did not and continuing his bout whilst fending off an army would certainly prove disastrous (confronting the hydra then was an exercise in futility of which I presume Yoda was aware). Even so, the strength and resolve to compartmentalize rageful retaliation, fear, and probable failure to confront pure evil in a desperate gasp to salvage the fleeting whisper of democratic republicanism should not be lost. But this was not the plaguing failure ever heavy on Yoda’s soul.
His failure to prevent imminent authoritarianism by killing Palpatine was a defeat, but more so was that realization on Kashyyyk, overcome with collapsing heartache, that he and the Jedi, pacified and blind, had allowed the hostility they’d ever sensed to fester under their noses for so long that it amassed into an overwhelming body of hateful destruction dedicated to one end . . . power.
If, dear reader, you’ve trudged through the Star Wars fanaticism this far, thank you. There’s an analogy here as you’ve likely well-presumed. We here in the United States have historically long pacified, accommodated, and allowed to fester a hateful animosity ourselves, turning a blind eye to the ever growing threat—the ever emboldened hydra—resulting in the insurmountable body of destruction upon us now.
Our founding fathers failed to end slavery, we ceaselessly murdered and displaced the indigenous of these lands, allowed the Confederacy to persist minimally chastised, culturally and economically excluded the very immigrants required to grow and prosper, and have perpetually ignored the socio-economic and ethnic division deeply rooted among these failures—division in the name of power. Having so failed to cut the hydra at the neck, we now find ourselves tackling sprouting heads of hatefully inclined authoritarianism possibly unconquerable . . . and it is our fault. We are in a waiting game now, desperately clinging to a new hope that our rapidly crumbling political infrastructure will, if not directly thwart, cling to its strings long enough for an America better prepared to squash ignorance, hate, and a lust for power to arise.
The Star Wars parallels are heavy no doubt, with warnings only obvious to the once blind when confronted with the enemy’s realized goal, and the horror Yoda felt on Kashyyyk, realizing just how profound a failure their ignorant pacifism really was, is one we all know now . . . but do not be afraid.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
“Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you, it will.”
“Patience you must have . . . “
“The greatest teacher, failure is.”
“Always in motion is the future.”
“To be a Jedi is to face the truth and choose—give off light or darkness . . . be a candle or be the night.”
– Yoda
May the 4th be with you all amid these dark times.
