SIDEBAR ~ The Empire Strikes Back pattern — 04
At the Mythological level, an over-arching metaphor exists right in front of us — which Progressives have seemingly yet to accept.
In the original 1978 Star Wars, the Rebellion was a good metaphor for Team Human, for more humanistic values and interpersonal fun, bonding, honesty and integrity.
Raise your hand if after your first time seeing the first Star Wars, you said, “Boy, I hope the Empire wins!” I think if you wished the Rebellion to win, you are probably a Team Human person if not also a Cultural Creative.
If you ask Mr. Google, “What does the Empire represent in the Star Wars myth?” Google points superficially to the totalitarian society envisioned by WW II Nazis.
If your values were aligned with the counter-culture in 1978 — or aligned with humanistic values in 2018 — the Empire in Star Wars has much greater and immediate resonance standing in for the congressional, corporate, industrial, intelligence, military state, connected with international banking — in a word — the Oligarchs of 2018, the top 10%, 1% or 0.1% of elites, whichever number you prefer.
Anyone working for a future which is NOT a dystopia, works under a handicap: a well-organized Empire can and does Strike Back.
The original 1978 Star Wars was a metaphor for the culture war between younger (Boomer) Progressives and Regressives (Oligarchy, corporate elites). The Rebellion was young, well-educated, often idealistic-humanists
After the “beginners luck” of the Rebellion blowing up the first Death Star, the Empire struck back.
In real life, after The Rebellion of the 1960s-1970s and the “beginner’s luck” of Civil Rights, Women’s Rights and end to teh Vietnam War, by the 1980s-1990s a formidable response was mounted from the Established corporate-consumer Oligarchy. Like many, I dae this with the Powell Memo of 1977. The Empire continued Striking Back all thru the Reagan era.
Underlining the lack of attention nd understanding of myth as it relates to real life, Mr. Google tells me the unhappy Second Act in the Star Wars myth is hardly acknowledged at all as pertaining to the real world.
The 2008 bailout of the banks instead of bailing out the economy is simply one more blow of the Empire (Oligarchs) Striking Back.
The Empire believes time is always on its side. It lives by the mythology its access to natural resources is infinite, unlimited. It’s only a matter of time before they build the next new Death Star, the next economic bank collapse which the taxppayers will again be charged to pay for. That’s how economic Oligarchs think.
Two cultures, Rebellion and Empire
Consider: we mostly perceive the contrast between the Rebellion’s culture and the Empire’s culture, in how people within each group treats each other.
In the Rebellion, interpersonal connection is valued, Emotional Intelligence is valued. In the Empire competition and Selfishness is valued, everyone is motivated by selfish dreams of power-wealth.
The above suggests how an uplifting third act to Star Wars myth could be written — perhaps the only way it can be written satisfactorily, from a narrative point of view.
The Rebellion would have to expand its Restoration story and describe what Emotional Intelligence, empathy and tolerance for diversity would look like. The Rebellion could empower more and more races to get along together and institute democratic voting. Doing so strengthens local groups on every planet looking for this. Gradually a coherent interplanetary bulwark forms against the spread of selfish culture.
You know where this is going. Such a third act makes more narrative sense but not much commercial sense.
Mythicly, most people, even most fans, are simply re-living only acts one and two of the Star Wars myth: Rebels rebel, Empire crushes Rebels. If conflict-drama is your be-all, the Empire’s Dystopia will always threaten. A new story of Restoration for the Rebellion is what things look like and how people live once conflict is over. Drama and peace can’t co-exist.
What’s your healthy response to dystopia?
What it would take for the Rebellion to win against the Empire
If you’ve noticed, in the Disney Star Wars movies, the Rebellion is being ground down to literally a handful of people. Why is the Rebellion losing utterly to the Empire?
If we put the players on a mythological tabletop, we quickly see the Rebellion stands for very little or perhaps nothing. The official (cannon) Rebellion Manifesto is called the Declaration of Rebellion. You can see it here http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Declaration_of_Rebellion
If you read it, it can be summed up as, “We don’t like how you want to run things. We’re also upset with this list of your actions. Therefore, we rebel.”
It’s nothing more than a statement of againstness, WHAT WE DO NOT WANT.
There is no statement of what they DO WANT, nor do the movies, neither old nor new, make clear what lifestyle, freedoms, obligations and responsibilities are envision other than some vague “freedom.”
Compare the Star Wars doc with Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, and you see how thin and juvenile the Rebellion’s current official position is — mythologically speaking. For the well-funded Empire, the Rebellion is a nuisance, a pushover.
If Disney wanted to re-energize Star Wars mythology, they would build out the positive goals of the Rebellion, then create some characters who embody these visions and values. Then you have a more 3-D conflict with the old-fashioned Fascism of the Empire.
In our most-modern rhetoric, we can say the Rebellion remains juvenile and ineffective as a mythology because it has yet to formulate and articulate any inspiring Story of Restoration. How will things be better once the Empire — and presumably half the physical universe — is destroyed?
-=+ -=+ -=+
