Star Wars and Philosophy (Popular Culture and Philosophy Series) - Kevin Decker [87]
Let’s assume that the Republic is a democratic republic in more than name only. How do we get from that to the tyranny of the Empire? Aristotle provides us with a suitable definition for tyranny: it’s the “arbitrary power of an individual which is responsible to no one, and governs all alike, whether equals or betters, with a view to its own advantage, not to that of its subjects, and therefore against their will.”133 So the idea of a ruler who acts in blatant defiance of the laws, or perhaps in the absence of laws, is central to the definition of tyranny. Ancient Greek tyrants and Roman dictators were often voted into power by means of the laws they later defied, in order to respond to an external challenge to their state, like imminent invasion, or in some cases because of internal threats, such as civil war.
In his own route to tyranny, Palpatine and his alter ego, Darth Sidious, have taken a path like the one expressed in the lyrics of an old German song: “against democrats, only soldiers help.” The Sith Lord’s alliance with the Trade Federation and his commissioning of the Kaminoan clone army through the Jedi Sifo-Dyas both paved the way for the Clone Wars ten years later. Lust for power, not high ideals, is Palpatine’s primary motivation. Palpatine wants to transform the Republic to obtain power, and he realizes that the only way to establish power over such a large, diverse group of peoples is through the use of military might. One snag: the mainly pacifist Senate won’t allow such an army to be mustered, even when they find out that they have the Kamino clones at their disposal. Palpatine can’t let this stand in his way, but fortunately his long-term scheming has paved the way for a solution. In Revenge of the Sith, we finally see his plan revealed in its awful magnitude, and its keystone is the power of the clone army to destroy most of the Jedi, allow Palpatine to dissolve the Senate, and suppress any opposition to his declaring himself Emperor. Why did the Senate vote in favor of giving Palpatine dictatorial authority, thus allowing him to harness the power he would eventually use to crush them? The answer is a familiar and simple one: fear.
Fear as an Ally
“Fear is my ally,” hisses Darth Maul in the exciting ad campaign that led up to the much-anticipated release of The Phantom Menace. Maul’s sentiment is echoed by Grand Moff Tarkin, who in A New Hope says that the finished Death Star will have a deterrent effect against rebellion, since “fear will keep the local systems in line.” Both agree about the political value of fear with Palpatine, who is positively Machiavellian in his scheming toward the Empire, in the way he later controls his domain, and even while he taunts Luke to use his fear and anger as a means to bring him over to the Dark Side. In this, he is the paradigm of “the Prince,” the unscrupulous ruler envisioned by Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), a Renaissance political thinker who advised Italy’s Borgia and Medici families. Machiavelli famously declared that if a prince has the choice between being loved and being feared by his subjects, he ought to choose fear. Ever the realist, Machiavelli held that this is because “love is held by a chain of obligation which, men being selfish, is broken whenever it serves their purpose; but fear is maintained by a dread of punishment which never fails.”134
Machiavelli amends this statement, though, by saying that a good ruler ought to avoid those things that inspire hatred rather than fear, such as taking