Only the Sith deal in Absolutes
I wish people would stop proof texting this line as evidence that the whole Star Wars movie's moral philosophy is relativistic. That's just plainly false from any sensible reading of the film, taking into account the hundreds of absolutist lines.
Notice that, for Luke and Phil, I did not ruin any plot points. This is actually a complaint about Biola students. Many, many Biola students have complained about this line, and they are obviously not using their hermeneutical skills (such as Walt Russell has given them).
Bah!
I'm sick of school.
I like beer.
Katie's short.
Anything else?
posted by Possum @ 20.5.05
7 comments
7 Comments:
It's not just Biola students.
My take is that this line was the half-hearted attempt to sound post-modern and cool, even though it falls flat later when Anakin and Obi-Wan reverse their positions. ("Only the Sith deal in absolutes." [five minutes pass] "Palpatine is EVIL.") Clearly you can't have a good movie that is morally relativistic, but you can try.
I don't know. It's the only way I can interpret that line. It's clearly not relativistic, but it thinks it can be.
School sucks.
Beer rules. I went to Cost Plus today, and they had Lindeman's Lambic for $5. Also they had a big bottle of Stone "India Pale Ale" for about $2, and a really good price on Duvel's. Might be worth checking out.
Yes, she is. So very short.
That about wraps it up, I think.
Holy crap, Cost Plus, where is it?
Tenapel has fallen into the same hermeneutical error. I'm sorry, Phil, but either Lucas put that in to take a shot at Jesus, he's terribly self-contradictory, or it means something else.
I just can't help but think that the proponderance of moral absolutes in the movie guide me into thinking the line is a poorly expressed sentiment about defining opposition based on ourselves, rather than based on the morals of the universe (the Force).
To cash it out:
The force is gradated, somehow. It's got degrees.
Anakin has no degrees.
This might help to guide interpretting the pragmatism of the episode. Which might save my contentious interpretation that the Jedi's pragmatic arguments were actually valid.
What do you think about that, Eric?
I'm tired and frustrated. When does life get back into whack?
hmm.. having misgivings about Prairie and the wisdom of it. maybe another year at comm. college and a UC with Int. Business is the answer. it's all vague and up weird like. maybe maybe maybe.
Work tomorrow, and that's a blessing.
i know this doesn't really relate to the sith and absolutes, but I didn't feel like making a whole new post for these words.
-i should clean my room and workspace, that'd make me feel loads better.
Uh oh, Luke.
What's going on? You should send us a mass e-mail or something. And come to our meeting this Thursday.
Feeling better. I'll come Thursday if I can. Explain it all then.
hey hey hey! There are some pretty spectacular positive sides about doubting the whole prairie thing.. like staying around you all!!!!
you guys holding up alright so far this week?
On the whole 'taking a shot at Jesus' thing, if you read Lem's blog one of his readers made a great point. Basically, Anakin is saying the opposite of what Jesus says. Jesus in contrast says "[He who is *not* against us is for us]". You can think of there being 3 intentional states that a person can be in in relation to Jesus. 1. Intentionally against, 2. unintentional, 3. intentionally for. With Anakin's formulation, only 3 counts as being on his side. With Jesus' formulation, both 2 and 3 count as being on His side.
Yeah, I agree with your general take Jon, even with the difficulty of clearly supporting that interpretation semantically. I think that the Force is a kind of Zen thing. You have to allow it to flow through you naturally. If you try to restrict it towards your own purposes it becomes the Dark Side. It's basically the same as CS Lewis' Tao. So, I think that by 'absolutes' Obi Wan is referring to this intentionally subjection of the Force to your own purposes.
Also, you guys forgot one of the list items.
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