Why the politics of Star Wars still matters (part 7): “There are alternatives to fighting”

This is a series of posts drawing on my forthcoming book Welcome to the Rebellion: A New Hope in Radical Politics (published in June 2020 by Zero Books).

I’ve argued in previous posts in this series that, as illustrated through the Star Wars saga, rebel stories are crucial in today’s politics, authoritarian populists have been better at telling these stories than the left, the Death Star is a pretty good metaphor for a destructive globalized industrial capitalism, this requires us to step up to challenge Empire-like extraction and exploitation, the saga reflects a generational conflict of values that’s still relevant today, and that we need to provide a compelling alternative to the lure of the dark side of authoritarian populism.

In Star Wars, the rebels blow up the Death Star (more than once). Of course, it’s just a metaphor. But taking the question seriously, is violent resistance against empire ever justified?

Part of the argument in my book is that Star Wars reflects the politics of the 1960s new left. Perhaps the most famous declaration of new left views was the Port Huron Statement, also known as the Agenda for a Generation, a 25,700-word manifesto drafted by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) members in June 1962. This articulated the fundamental problems of American society. It was a non-ideological call for participatory democracy (it brought the term into common parlance), as a means and an end, to be achieved through nonviolent civil disobedience.

Relatedly, John Powers interprets Star Wars as a counter to the Cold War anti-communism of politicians like Richard Nixon, who used the phantom menace of ‘leftist infiltration’ to justify the domestic control of radical political groups. George Lucas imagined a battle against a total control police state that had turned inward against its own citizens. In part because of this backlash, the new left faltered and fractured. Some splinters became violent, perhaps the inspiration of Star Wars’ warnings about being led by anger and hatred.

To Powers, the hope in Star Wars calls out to the (temporarily) lost dreams of the new left:

“With Star Wars, Lucas gave the rebels he associated himself with a single concrete victory over an easily identifiable villain (Space Nazis). These concrete villains and victories echoed the far-less concrete constellation of victories that had left youthful liberals discouraged. Perhaps Lucas’s genius was delivering a triumphant reward [that] no real-world victory had actually delivered, at a time when alienation and cynicism passed for common sense.”

Powers doesn’t say it, but Star Wars, released in the same year that punk exploded, shared some of the same militant rage against the machine. But the saga also warns against this rage.

To the famous scene in Kevin Smith’s Clerks, in which a character questions the Rebel Alliance’s attack on the second Death Star:

“A construction job of that magnitude would require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer. I’ll bet there were independent contractors working on that thing: plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers... All of a sudden these left-wing militants blast you with lasers and wipe out everyone within a three-mile radius. You didn’t ask for that. You have no personal politics. You’re just trying to scrape out a living.”

Fair point. Some of today’s revolutionaries’ apparent longing for a violent transformation of society recalls the Emperor’s attempt at manipulating Luke at the end of Return of the Jedi: “Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me.” More often, the opposite is true.

Many campaigners and activists have long argued that nonviolence is more effective than violence. Others suggest there are no easy maxims and that in some situations a mixed approach may cause less suffering than a strict adherence to nonviolence.

Even if the latter is true, fascists love violence, and authorities will seek (and often invent) any justification to quash resistance. Instead, Mahatma Gandhi spoke of satyagraha as the basis for his strategic campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance – the truth force, or the power of holding on to truth. Nonviolence, or ahimsa, is less an idea than a physical reality, a force at once physical and moral, pervading the universe. It’s not really about peaceful protest, it’s about mastering your will, individually and collectively, and transforming the terms of the debate. It’s about making the situation as uncomfortable for oppressors.

If this sounds rather Jedi-like, that’s no coincidence. George Lucas was clearly influenced by Eastern philosophies in developing the idea of the Force (called the ‘Force of Others’ in early drafts of A New Hope): the dualities of light and dark, love and fear, and avoiding extremes and urging moderation in all things. And as dramatized in the films, while the energy of anger can drive us to act, it is hope and humanity that sustains rebellion and leads to victory.

While Star Wars is sometimes accused of glorifying violence as a means of political action, key moments in the films revolve around the wisdom of avoiding it. In Return of the Jedi’s final confrontation, Luke discards his weapon rather than strike down Darth Vader and succumb to the dark side. This is echoed in the climax to The Last Jedi, when Luke “confronts” Kylo Ren in order to save his friends. Risking death, Luke rejects the lure of violence and domination, and so his father’s generational values – a truly revolutionary act.

As Mark Eldridge surmises:

“Fighting when you have no other choice, to stand in defense of others, is Good; fighting from a place of anger or hatred is Bad. The ethics of Star Wars are not consequentialist – it has a strong value system and motivations are as important as results. Fighting with anger – tapping into the dark side – may yield quick, positive results, but it will come at a great cost, which will ultimately be your soul.”

In the next post, I’ll discuss what Star Wars illustrates about who leads the revolution.

Welcome to the Rebellion: A New Hope in Radical Politics, will be published in June 2020 by Zero Books. You can pre-order your copy now at:

US: Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Indiebound

UK: Amazon.co.uk, Zero Books, Waterstones, Foyles, Blackwells

Rest of the world: Chapters/Indigo, Booktopia, Book Depository, Goodreads

A FREE preview of the introduction to the book is available on Amazon.