Thursday, August 2, 2007

Return of the Jedi

Nietzsche would not have liked Star Wars. Unless maybe the Sith were portrayed as the good guys. Why though? Nietzsche wanted us to all be "Ubermensch" or Supermen and warned us against the coming of the "last man" who was "an apathetic creature, who has no great passion or commitment, who is unable to dream, who merely earns his living and keeps warm."
But how does one think of the last man and superman? Are they comparable to the Jedi and the Sith?
For the Jedi, as Yoda tells Anakin Skywalker,

There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no death; there is the Force.

Anakin though, as Padme makes sure, does not remain Jedi very long. He becomes Sith, expecting to draw from the dark side of the force to save Padme. The Sith preach that

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free.

Nietzsche wanted us to dance. He wanted us to have passions. He wanted us to be supermen. Did he want us to be Sith? Are the Jedi really "last men" in some respects? What is the right way? There are a million different ways to live, but most philosophies preach one of two. You either be Jedi, or you be Supermen. You are either passionate or you have no passions. Emotional or detached, sensitive or stoic, serene or driven, austere or vital, simple or vibrant? You cannot be both can you?
You have the Ramayana contradicting Wagner, Gandhiji to oppose Byron and Blake, Buddhism to take on the Sith and of course Nietzsche to rival the Jedi. And who wins?
Oh how I wish Nietzsche could have met George Lucas. It might have solved half our problems. You want to dance or save the world? Love or know peace? Open yourself to being hurt and miserable or build an impregnable defence mechanism that no human can breach?

The throes of this struggle are disconcerting, to say the least. You are at your wits end in no time at all! Are the Sith the true "Supermen" and the Jedi in reality just "last men"?How does one reconcile the Ubermensch with the Jedi?How can Jedi become a pejorative? You would like to be Jedi, but if the Jedi returns, all your hopes of being Ubermensch are dashed. Last Man status is something we really can do without and you certainly don't want to be a Sith. You don't want people calling you "Darth"!
I am in the midst of this, I do not know if I should put on my Jedi cloak or reach for the stars and strive to be a "superman". I was striving for the Ubermensch for a while; I was passionate, I was emotional, it made me happy, but then it hurt. Now I am Jedi. I am a rock, and a rock feels no pain. An island never cries. But tell me, tis it not better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all? Won't you please tell me?
In the end though, I don't think it matters. Hell is other people, Sartre said. And I don't think it is anymore apt than in this case. The Jedi returns if you want people to see it has returned. If you want people to believe you're not one of the "Last Men", you resemble the Ubermensch.
Everyone is chameleonic that way I guess. I especially so. The Jedi has returned temporarily, we're waiting for the Empire to Strike Back!

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