As we all know, the Star Wars epic is a story of a battle of good against evil, where the evil empire uses fatal force to ensure it’s dominance against the good rebel alliance who also use fatal force against the enemy to ensure their dominance.
Unfortunately for us, we are taken in by this idea that good can defeat evil using hate – the tool of evil – but we find it hard to accept that the tool of good is love, and that the only hope of defeating evil is with love. Jesus set an example of love and perhaps the hardest commandment was to ‘love your enemy’, which seems to entailing doing the same stuff to your enemies as you do to your friends!
For some reason we find it easier to accept the violence fallacy as being the ultimate power rather than the supremacy of the truth of love! Let’s not be fooled by the myths and legends of our culture, which present the idea that violence is the ultimate arbiter. Let’s accept Christ’s example on the cross and incorporate his message fully into our lives as we are changed by his love for us.
It is a strange contradiciotn within the Star Wars story that often the Jedi (espcially Yoda) speak against HATE (as leading to the dark side) and yet perpertrate the violence they do. I think in the original films the defensive violence of the “good guys” was clearer but the new films have demonstrated a much more blurred line between the two sides with even Yoda inflicting violence on people rather than merely defending himself. However the story remains a good starting point for discussing such issues.
Nice post but will I see millions of people shouting at their screens “Luke and jedis were the goodies”
Good point echoing CS Lewis’s discussion about the nature of good and evil. I give a hat tip at
http://nouslife.blogspot.com/2005/09/ultimate-power.html