Jedi Knights of the realm

Post 4 of 4 in the superhuman augmentation and political philosophy sequence

Technology and biomodification are the two human ability-enhancing methods with which we are familiar. Now it's time to talk about magic.

I suppose I'll get email for calling the Force "magic," but so it is. Throughout Star Wars, the main intrigue concerns the Jedi--the users of the aforementioned magic. I claim that they form what they might consider an aristocracy, even though the galactic government is ostensibly a republic. In practice, it appears that the Jedi (and their "dark" versions, the Sith) can do more or less as they please and can collectively have a major impact on galactic politics, even up to the point of a Sith becoming Emperor and dissolving the Republic.

The distinguishing feature of Aristotle's account of aristocracy, as opposed to oligopoly, is virtue (related to the discussion in the last post). The Jedi come about as close as anybody in literature to a legitimate aristocracy: few possessions, disdaining material pursuits, seemingly acting only in what they perceive to be the best interests of the society. They are able to overcome substantial numbers of ordinary people by themselves, and can subtly insinuate themselves into the minds of even those who would controvert their orders. In short, they are about as effective an aristocracy as one might imagine.

The Star Wars saga (yes, including the increasingly horrific Episodes 1-3) thus serves as an important warning for those who would believe that a sufficiently virtuous aristocracy can stably guide a civilization. After all, as mentioned earlier, if even one goes rogue and is able to rally enough of the public to their cause--however virtuous that cause may seem to the public--the whole society can degenerate into one of Aristotle's corrupt government forms: a tyranny perhaps, as in Star Wars, or a democratic populist government.

Is there any hope for an aristocracy, then? Perhaps. The key flaw of the Jedi was their inability to enforce their separation from the people they governed. By maintaining a double identity as both Senator Palpatine and Darth Sidious, the main antagonist of the movies was able to use his Jedi abilities and position to his advantage while building the ties that would be necessary in a revolution. A stricter separation--particularly a physical and communications separation--may alleviate that problem.

The other issue is that the legitimacy of the Jedi Council was not explicitly recognized, and indeed the existence of a Galactic Senate may have compromised the Jedi's authority. Had the Jedi been in control de jure as well as de facto, it would have been harder to convince the people of the Republic that the separatist leaders had their interests at heart.

After all, it's a tough trick to get a society to accept that about 2 people per million can capably govern, but the US Congress has managed to keep going for a while now.

And that's even without mind control.


Next: New beginnings in Deus Ex