Star Wars and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy Series) - Kevin Decker [16]
Consequently, the Emperor is a propagator of terror, hatred, and cruelty. He gloats and takes pleasure in the distress of others. The ancient Stoics were quite familiar with tyrants like Cambyses of Persia, Hippias of Athens (both sixth century B.C.E.), and Gaius Caligula (first century C.E.). These tyrants, along with the evil Emperor Palpatine, can be usefully contrasted with the Stoic Marcus Aurelius (121-180 C.E.), who ruled the Roman empire from 161 to 180 C.E. The benevolence and rectitude of the Emperor Marcus is plain in his Meditations. The Stoic does not seek to exploit others. Rather, the Stoic aims at emotional self-sufficiency and cultivating his own mental discipline. This means that the Stoic sage has succeeded in mastering himself by having mastered his desires and having eliminated vice from his character.
Luke is therefore urging Stoic wisdom upon Vader when he tells him to let go of his hate. Unfortunately, hatred has had such a viselike hold on Vader for so long that he tells Luke: “It is too late for me, son.27 The Emperor will show you the true nature of the Force. He is your master now.” For servants of the Dark Side, the true nature of the Force is servitude to evil, enslavement to hate. Like virtues, vices tend to control one’s behavior. Vader has used fear and hatred to achieve his ends for so long that now the superior hatred and aggression of the Emperor use him. That is how Vader’s mastery of the Dark Side is at the same time servitude to it.
The reality behind the monkish appearance of the Emperor is the soul of a monster afflicted by vice. On the other hand, the Emperor’s hatred follows a cool logic of its own. His cruelty is calmly calculated, not haphazard. The Emperor shows an icy rationality and self-possession that is a shallow reflection of the Stoic’s passionlessness. His is an arrogant28 rationality which seeks to dominate, exploit, and enslave people through careful planning and use of the Dark Side of the Force. As Luke warns him, “Your overconfidence is your weakness.” According to Stoicism, however, the Emperor’s cleverness, devotion, and self-possession are not virtues. As a tyrant, the Emperor’s goal is to master things and people that are in fact beyond his control rather than to master himself by becoming virtuous. Since the Emperor fails to understand what is really good, namely virtue, and what is really bad, namely vice, he lacks Stoic wisdom. Since he lacks wisdom, he lacks all the virtues, and so he is full of vice. Since he has no desire to gain wisdom, his mind is fundamentally flawed and his vice is incurable. As a consequence, when Vader throws him into the reactor shaft, he appears to die suffering.29
“Control, Control, You Must Learn Control”
Yoda and the other Jedi use discipline, commitment, and training to control themselves, thereby harnessing the power of the Force. Vader and the Emperor, on the other hand, stoke their anger and hatred to empower themselves with the Dark Side of the Force. They feed, rather than overcome, the negative emotions within themselves. They seek to control not themselves, but others, in an ultimately doomed attempt to fill the cold, black void behind the mask or the hood with the false satisfaction that arises from domination and oppression of others. A Stoic could never be seduced by the Dark Side, but might well feel at home among the calm, self-disciplined, virtuous Jedi. But a Stoic indulges in none of the supernaturalism or mysticism expressed in some aspects of the Force in Star Wars. The wisdom of Yoda and the vices of the Emperor are illuminated nicely by the plain light of natural reason provided by the Stoic philosophy. 30
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The Far East of Star Wars
WALTER [RITOKU] ROBINSON
The “Force” is central to the Star Wars mythology. In A New Hope Obi-Wan Kenobi describes it as “an energy field