The Path to the Dark Side?

As I discussed earlier this week, authority is a peculiar thing.  Claiming authority in the postmodern context is an even more peculiar thing.  In the dominant mythology of my childhood: Star Wars, the peculiarity of power and the exercise thereof were at the center of the story of Anakin and Luke Skywalker, father and son, a man seduced by the Dark Side of the Force and his son who sought to avoid sharing his father's fate.  It's a simple story really, and George Lucas crafts the Force as a mysterious  power, which blends several of the world religions, into a quite attractive, if somewhat  vague, spiritual stew.  The Force is life, the Force binds us together, the Force can be an amazing source of power, but the force also has a Dark Side.

As I grew up with these stories, I sometimes felt a bit frustrated by the limitations of the Force, if you are going to stay on the "light" side of it.  The Dark Side always seemed more powerful and one step ahead of the light.  Even Yoda, the last true Jedi Master, is in exile on the distant swamp world of Dagobah when we meet him.  He can only stand by wringing his little green hands as Luke flies off into danger and almost certain failure.  Meanwhile Darth Vader is choking dudes out with the Force and blowing up planets without so much as a how do you do.  Oh yeah and there are lightsabers, which Vader also rocks with amazing effectiveness.

Throughout episodes IV and V all you ever hear about is how doing anything actually useful with the force is basically a path to the Dark Side, and you begin to wonder if maybe you've picked the wrong side to root for.  It's not actually until you see Anakin finally loose his mind and his soul in The Revenge of the Sith that you really see the power and the cost of the Dark Side.  I mean, sure you knew some bad juju had to take place to make a handsome young Jedi into an eggplant inside a robot, but until you sort of "live through it," I don't think the full insanity of the Dark Side sinks in.

Of course, one of my biggest critiques of the Star Wars narrative is how "quickly" Anakin goes from a guy who mostly tries to do good things to a guy who slaughters younglings.  Especially given the fact that the level of Jedi training he had achieved at that point (he was a Jedi Master trusted with his own Paduwan Learner if you follow the Clone Wars narrative) should have given him the insight to see that the Sith Lord was yanking his chain, again the "light" side of the Force seems pretty deficient and way too bound up in the rules.

But it is his railing against the rules and his impatience with doing things peacefully, as much as his fear of losing everything that ultimately blinds him to the subtle whispers of evil in his ear.  He justifies a lot of his rebellion against the "right" way of doing things with an exceedingly transparent utilitarianism.  Which brings me to the debate about what to do in this galaxy, in our time, on our lonely little planet, where there are no Jedi and no Galactic Empires and alas, no lightsabers.

We are faced with a moment where the use of power and violence present us with an existential crisis.  Do we lash out and destroy our enemy?  Do we take the slow and frustrating road, while so many are suffering and dying?  Can't we defeat evil with it's own weapon, if we just wield it with enough skill?  Aren't we the chosen ones after all?

It was not lost on cultural observers that "safety" and "security" through utter domination were the goals of the Sith.  They were, in fact, the ultimate utilitarians, defeat all the opposition and hold the power to keep the peace and the order of society, until someone was strong enough to take it away.  Eventually they managed to supplant a difficult and corrupt democracy with a crystalline and brutal tyranny.

As we step back, or at least tap the brakes on our latest adventure in the Middle East, I can't help but wonder if our intervention by violence is the best idea.  After all, hasn't ISIS duly demonstrated that when it comes to brutality, they brought their big boy pants?

Don't you think they're drawing a line in the sand and just daring us to step across?

Sure bombs seem like a good idea, even if they're not doing a whole lot of good, it still feels good to be doing something, and maybe make those savages go boom in the process.

But I can't help thinking that the whole thing is pushing us just a little closer to the Dark Side.