About to commit the one heresy that should united all Star Wars fans. I’m talking the original, prequel, and those deluded souls who find something redeemable about Disney’s sequel trilogy. To crudely sum it all up, Star Wars is crap when it comes to representing science fiction.
While the stage for George’s saga takes place in a galaxy, I’ve always believed his creation had more in common with Lord of The Rings. Star Wars has wizards roaming space and battling evil but Gandalf and his kin were doing the same thing in Middle Earth trying to blunt Sauron and his minions. To me, Star Wars had no overarching philosophy beyond the bad guys being bad and that the good guys were too arrogant to see the Sith Lord in front of them.
The one philosophical nugget I found in George’s shaky story was something Master Yoda said in one of the prequels. Going something like, “Fears leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering...” then it drivels off taking a headfirst dive into the Dark Side.
Speaking just about the character, I’ve never liked the erratic and possibly senile non-Kermit green Muppet but his words do ring true. You would have to be an idiot not to see how our world is dominated by fear.
Prime example, the Israelis and Palestinians even now gleefully kill the others kids because they both live in fear. Now that doesn’t stop them from screaming up at the sky at god, or nearby Western journalist, asking why anyone would commit such horrible crimes against innocent children. Never once thinking about the kids of their enemies which laugh and play and have hopes and dreams of their own.
Not to leave the good old United States out of the equation our country is rife with fear. A lot of otherwise normal acting white folks live in abject fear of black men. Whether that fears manifests itself as the black boogeyman lurking in the shadows waiting to steal their precious possessions, “hard earned tax dollars”, or the virtue of their daughters to make a mixed-race baby, or all three it makes no difference. This fear rules their lives and destroys rational thought and simple compassion.
One sidebar, if someone should actually read this don’t get your panties in an uproar. I’m a white guy who lives in the southern United States and have firsthand experience living and working around such people.
Of course, living in fear crosses all the lines and classifications we humans had drawn for ourselves. Throw any three random people together, no matter what part of the planet they come from, and one of them is going to be treated like shit by the other two. It’s our nature as animals and any attempt for equality is a very recent idea we’re still not fully onboard with.
Where is all my verbal offal headed?
Recent events all around the world suggests to me we’re well on our way to nasty reckoning. This will sound weird but the optimistic side of me would like to think the lessons that were supposedly learned in the twentieth century have been forgotten. The realist side of me however knows that the dark side of centuries of fear and hate have only been hiding. That less than ideal economic factors along with apathy, and a number of societal fear-mongers have allowed our darker natures to crawl out from under their rocks.
Our species stupid divisions, general desire for power, and unthinking blood lust have us walking to the edge of an abyss our “leaders” either ignore or even promote. Personally I’m talking about the religious types that want the world to end because that means Jesus-man will take them up to Heaven where the streets leading to all the heavenly McMansions are paved with gold. Being fair and balanced, I don’t have any respect for those of the Islamic faith who revel in the same level of fundamentalist extremism. Needless to say, the same goes for anyone of the Jewish faith.
In my opinion, if your religious worldview holds the belief that killing other human beings is justified because they have violated your pious sensibilities, whether it involve what they believe about the nature of god or moral living, your faith is flawed beyond all hope.
Yes, I have less than a respectful view of the general mass of those professing a belief in the god of Abraham. There are numerous exceptions of people from the Christian, Islamic, or Jewish faith trying to live by some version of the Golden Rule. But far too much blood has been spilled over the centuries, and still being spilled, to overlook just because we are told to have faith.
I'm sick of religious leaders that speak of faith, love, and charity but only promote fear and hate. If that's what god is I'm out. I'll take my chance on the universe and existence being some cosmic joke with no punchline.
No, I'm not officially back. Just discouraged and disgusted.
2 comments:
As a religious person, I'm both glad to see that you are posting (I wondered what happened to you) and also agree with you that much wrong has been done under the name of religious. I like a good rant. https://fromarockyhillside.com
Jeff:
I've been rereading my rant and feel I concentrated too much on the religious aspect. I also feel that I should have included the general secular apathy of society.
Post a Comment