Monday, September 29, 2014

Only a Sith speaks in Absolutes

Thing about this quote that Obi-Won says to Anakin in Revenge of The Sith after he says "You're either with me, or you're my enemy".  What people miss is that it's Ironic.

I don't know if it was intentional on Lucas' part or not (Update: I do now think it was intentional), but the fact is it's inconsistent with the entire rest of the movie in terms of how the Sith and Jedi are portrayed philosophically.

Palpatine wasn't speaking in Absolutes when he said "Evil is a point of view Anakin" or "to understand the great mystery one must study all it's aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow minded view of The Jedi".

But later into their fight scene, Obi-Won and Anakin have another exchange.

Obi-Won: The Chancellor is Evil
Anakin: Form my point of view The Jedi are evil
Obi-Won: Then you are truly lost

Who's speaking in Absolutes there?

The truth is, it's Palpatine who comes off like a Moral Relativist.  And The Jedi like narrow minded absolutists.

The main reason so many mis this is that so many people were working at the time under the assumption that Palpatine=Republican=Conservative.  Truth is however in Episode II he was faining reluctance at going to War, which is much more like Obama's current strategy, then Bush and the Neo-Cons in 2002.

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