• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 488 0

and his subsequent Jedi training symbolizes his own struggle with, and overcoming of, fear. His fear at first enslaves him and prevents him from acting as a Jedi Knight. Although Luke claims that he is not afraid, Yoda knows better and warns, “You will be . . . you will be.” His overcoming of that fear in turn constitutes an important part of his maturation and in their duel on Cloud City, Vader praises Luke for overcoming his fear. Consequently, it is the master who represents an historical dead end. He can never go beyond what he is and realize himself as a free self-conscious subject. The slave, on the other hand, has nothing to lose but his fear; he can and will go beyond what he is because his desire is not to be master, but to be free. Hegel says that he finds this freedom in his work, a space in which he controls his small, limited world and recognizes the freedom of having a “mind of one’s own.”127

An Empire of Fear and Trembling

The management of fear is the business of the Empire, and fear is the coinage of power that must make itself visibly terrible in order to rule.128 The Emperor, precisely because he is unequal in relation to his subjects, cannot exert his power at all times. Within such a system it’s the exceptional, the example or spectacle, which must circulate and demonstrate power. The decision to destroy the planet Alderaan, for instance, was made not because it constituted a threat, but because its visibility made it a useful show of force. “Dantooine,” Grand Moff Tarkin announces, “is too remote to make an effective demonstration.” True, the exercise of power is excessive, but it isn’t indiscriminate—its use is calculated to maximize fear and render unnecessary the actual deployment of force elsewhere: “Fear will keep the local systems in line, fear of this battle station.”

Like all weapons of mass destruction, the Death Star’s military function cannot be easily separated from its political and policing functions—its purpose as a method of domestic control. Its objective power lies not in its actual use, but in the threat of its use, and herein lays the secret of its political function of justifying the exercise of power. “This station,” says one overly zealous commander, “is now the ultimate power in the universe, I suggest we use it.” The suggestion can be ignored, but not the implication. By its very existence, the Death Star invites use and seemingly justifies the extension of Imperial power to every corner of the galaxy. The power to destroy a planet is the power to render obedient entire populations. When wielded by the master, it shows who his enemies are, and in doing so it explains and justifies the master’s power by revealing its strength.

The Death Star is the most spectacular display of a power that is not afraid of being seen as terrible; but it isn’t the only display of that power, nor the only way by which that power makes itself felt. The Emperor’s control over individuals, unlike that exercised over entire populations, must be managed with a degree of flexibility that corresponds with the interest he has in extracting ever more useful labor from them. In order to make those individuals useful and cooperative, the Emperor may replace the specific dread of a well-defined threat like the Death Star with the more constant terror of the unknown. “The Emperor is coming here?” a surprised commander asks at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. “Yes,” Vader replies, “and he is most displeased with your apparent lack of progress.” The threat is undefined and left to play upon the commander’s imagination. Almost without hesitation he responds: “We shall double our efforts!” And then a second ill-defined threat is voiced and left to hang in the air: “I hope so, commander, for your sake. The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am.” Vader’s “forgiveness” is legendary, after all.

In still other cases, the threat is defined but its meaning left unclear. In his confrontation with the Emperor, Luke’s fear of seeing the Rebellion fail, of becoming like his father, and of seeing his sister turned