Posted on 05/20/2005 9:30:41 PM PDT by neverdem
Wherever you are, Adam Smith, call your agent. Darth Vader is stealing your best stuff.
The new installment of "Star Wars" has set off the usual dreary red-blue squabble, with liberals using the film to attack Republicans, and some conservatives calling for a boycott. But - and I know this is hard to believe for a movie with characters named General Grievous and Count Dooku - there's actually a serious bipartisan lesson about the dark side of politics.
If you can sit through the endless light-saber duels and robotic dialogue, you finally see what turned Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. He set out to become a Jedi knight who will use the Force for good, but he's traumatized, first by the murder of his mother, then by a vision that his wife will die in childbirth.
His fears are manipulated by Chancellor Palpatine, the leader of the Senate (who's being compared to Senator Bill Frist in Moveon.org commercials). When this oily politician extols the power of the dark side of the Force, Anakin at first protests that those who use it think "only of themselves," whereas the Jedi are "selfless" and "only care about others."
He says he could never betray the Jedi because they're his family, but then the chancellor puts the family question in perspective: "Learn to know the dark side of the Force, Anakin, and you will be able to save your wife from certain death." Anakin promptly recognizes the limits of altruism, just as Adam Smith did in the 18th century.
Smith knew that some people professed love for all humanity, but he realized that a man's love for "the members of his own family" is "more precise and determinate, than it can be with the greater part of other people."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“The People’s Romance: Why People Love Government (As Much As They Do)” by Daniel Klein, Santa Clara University (working paper).
The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation by Matt Ridley (Penguin Books, 295 pp., 1998).
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith.
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.
The reading list was provided by Mr. Tierney. It's a shame that he and the Times must now be excerpted.
Anakin promptly recognizes the limits of altruism, just as Adam Smith did in the 18th century.
And consequently causes the event he intended to prevent.
Disgust with the script?
ping for later. I saw it tonight. Both impressed and distressed. More to come.
You know, Stephen King wrote a story about an author who had one of his charactors come out and haunt him for what he did to him as a charactor. God help Lucas if Darth Vader ever gets out.
Vader: George, I find your lack of talent...disturbing. *forcechoke*
I just saw it. I loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Give me a break.
Some idiot or SOB didn't link the first three references.
"Anakin promptly recognizes the limits of altruism, just as Adam Smith did in the 18th century."
How can anyone take the NYT seriously anymore? That paper consistently employs the most childish analysis imaginable.
"Bill and Ted found the graduation ceremony to be bogus, just as Karl Marx did capitalism in the 19th century."
What passes for analysis in the paper of record these days (not to mention, supposed reporting of facts) is simply laughable.
"there's actually a serious bipartisan lesson about the dark side of politics."
"Give me a break."
Agreed. Is an effing Star Wars movie. People are reading whatever they want into it. Its plain daft to think that there are any parallels today with a fictional film about mystical Jedi, Sith, droids, clones and an inter-steller civil war.
Saw the movie last night. If it's supposed to be a commentary on modern politics, it fails miserably. If it's supposed to tie up loose ends in a 30 years-running space soap opera, it works just fine.
"If it's supposed to tie up loose ends in a 30 years-running space soap opera, it works just fine."
Well that's alright then i'n't it?
Best review yet of this flick, good job!
"Give me a break"
Budget deficits for years to come, marginal border security, unfunded mandates for social spending and lax immigration BS. That's the Republican's epitaph, unless they change their ways. Don't be surprised about what happens. I listen to WABC-AM radio in NYC. Rush, Sean, Mark Levin and Laura Ingraham are hammering this legacy. The pubbies risk another populist party at their peril.
LOL!
I'm into politics as much as anyone, but I don't go looking for political references under every rock. Even my brother (who is a DUmmy, unfortunately) didn't pull any talking points out of this flick. As a previous poster said, it's a Star Wars movie, and it should satisfy fans of the story.
What does that have to do with what I posted?
Then you can't tell much. The 'threat' is made up by the Emperor as justification for increasing his power. He used Count Dooku to foment a rebellion that would justify emergency powers for Palpatine. Lucas' story is an amalgamation of several democracies turned to empire. It's not by accident that Palpatine calls his forces The Grand Army of the Republic...
With crap like the drug give-away it's hard to even tell which party is supposed to be the hardcore socialists. I gave them my trust and votes for several election in a row. I feel betrayed. If the next GOP presidential candidate is a socialist I won't be wasting my vote on a Republican.
Historical political references are rife in Star Wars. Lucas even talks of it in interviews.
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