Star Wars moral relativism message?

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I was going to post this on the other Star Wars thread but it looked like it was a fun discussion so I didn’t want to bring it down. 😉

Did anyone else notice when Obi-Wan told Anakin that only the Sith dwell in absolutes while on that lava planet?

To me, that really made me mad because as a Christian, especially as a Catholic, of course there are absolutes and it’s good and righteous to believe in them. I just thought that it was another piece of Hollywood propaganda twisting young people’s minds into believing there is no black or white (Jesus IS good) just shades of grey (moral relativism) since the “hero” is essentially saying its evil to believe in absolute. It really kinda ruined the whole thing for me.

A few moments after telling Anakin that only “evil” believes in absolutes, Obi-Wan tells Anakin that he’s evil (or that Darth Sidious is evil I can’t remember). But how can he say that when there are no absolutes? How can one judge?

I dunno - maybe taking it too seriously but my gut tells me it’s not right… :confused:
 
From what I got out of the movie, I agree with the Jedi…they (jedi) were stating that when it comes to POLITICS the Sith dwell on absolutes. While religion has more absolutes than not, politics has more in betweens than absolutes… ie…the flawed Bush mentality…you are either with us or with the terrorists…its stupid, bogus and tries to paint the world in a us vs them situation…an absolute that simply cannot be when it comes to secular life as far as I am concerned.
 
great in depth review of Star Wars and the message (or lack of it) in George Lucas’ cosmology in this issue of Catholic World Report.
 
The originals seemed to have more of a line drawn between good and evil.

The last three the line seems a bit more blurred.
 
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Jennifer123:
I dunno - maybe taking it too seriously but my gut tells me it’s not right… :confused:
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Maybe so. Personally I think the entire absolute/relative argument is normally lame and inflammatory, because it tends to take sides like politicians and hold “anything absolute=good, anything relative=bad.”

Absolute and Relative are like politics; which one is apropos in any given situation varies because the boundary lines are cut wrong. We try to “cram” absoluteness into things that are arguably not absolutes at all except under a strained definition of the problem we’re describing. Relativists insist nothing is relative, proving themselves wrong at some point because they are absolutely wrong and therefore that view is not supportable. 😉

The best book I’ve ever seen on this, is the book by the 19-20th century theologian Paul Tillich, called “My Search for Absolutes.” Be aware he was not Catholic, but the man was obviously brilliant. One of the things he set out to do, and did so well, is the blow the whole concept of “no absolutes” clear out of the water.

Alan
 
Actually I thought it had a good message. Anakin said, “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil.” That illustrates how stupid moral relativism is. It shows that even with something clearly evil (the Sith) and something clearly good (the Jedi), with relativism your point of view gets screwed up.
 
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PhilNeri:
Actually I thought it had a good message. Anakin said, “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil.” That illustrates how stupid moral relativism is. It shows that even with something clearly evil (the Sith) and something clearly good (the Jedi), with relativism your point of view gets screwed up.
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Interesting point - I never thought of it that way. Thanks for correcting the quote.

There may have been threads on this before but it would be interesting to talk about the relativism angle.
 
I thought George (Lucas) missed a real opportunity to explore what really drives someone to choose evil over good. We all have to make such micro-decision each and every day. While one doesn’t tend to take giant leaps to evil in one day, people take a single tiny step in that direction each day of their life, with the cumulative effect of equaling that giant leap. Back in the 1950’s most people in our society would be horified to support fatal research on unborn humans, but such a position is commendable today after the tinnier steps of contraception, abortion, euthanasia. Although I enjoyed the prequeal movie(s), I couldn’t help but feel Mr. Lucas had a “I guess I better finish this series” attitiude.
 
Did anyone notice the opeing word scene (scrolling text), that states “There are heros on both sides”.

I was disturbed by the underlying moral relatism theme as well. From the talk about “perspectives” to the borderline corruption of the jedi.

In the noveltization, the author talks about young infants being taken from their families to be made into Jedi. Anakin was raised on an outer rim world, hence outside the Jedi’s domain. Here he was allowed to be corrupted. The books almost hint that he was created by Darth Plageuos (hence his emaculate conception through the mediclorians), for the specific purpose of extinguishing the jedi. When Mace Winu fights the emperor in the climatic battle, Mace relys on a form of fighting that taps into his passions, almost as if he’s tapping into the dark side of the force.

Suck incidents don’t jell well with the good vs evil themes of the original three movies.
 
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MaryB23:
The books almost hint that he was created by Darth Plageuos (hence his emaculate conception through the mediclorians)
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The immaculate conception refers to Mary being concieved without sin - not the virginal conception of Jesus.

Anakin had a virginal conception not an immaculate one.
 
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MaryB23:
I thought George (Lucas) missed a real opportunity to explore what really drives someone to choose evil over good. We all have to make such micro-decision each and every day. While one doesn’t tend to take giant leaps to evil in one day, people take a single tiny step in that direction each day of their life, with the cumulative effect of equaling that giant leap. Back in the 1950’s most people in our society would be horified to support fatal research on unborn humans, but such a position is commendable today after the tinnier steps of contraception, abortion, euthanasia. Although I enjoyed the prequeal movie(s), I couldn’t help but feel Mr. Lucas had a “I guess I better finish this series” attitiude.
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Anakin’s actions and attitudes slowly chipped away at him, plus the lies Palpatine was filling his head with. It was the idea of controlling life or death that tipped the scales.
 
i thought that the jedi’s were more about enforcing comprimise and tolerance then about some transcendent good. there is tons of evidence that the jedi were good and the empire evil but the part about no absolutes makes me wonder that lucas was critizing the absolutes found in christianity and other religions.

i know i would join the dark side -empire, rather then the federation which was a giant bueracracy. at least the empire wanted to bring justice and peace to the galaxy through force. and, the empire was totally made up of people and not aliens. darth vader has a sweet helmet and choke. what’s not to like except the emperors butt-head?
 
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