Cass Sunstein: belief

Transcript context

…On the surface it seems like Star Wars is a highly militaristic story where you have fighting resolving every important situation. But if you really think about the arc of the six stories, it seems like the war was totally futile. If the Jedi had simply surrendered in Episode I, things would have actually turned out to be better. At least a whole lot of bodies would have been spared. And it’s striking — if you take a look at the end of Episode VI in the digitally altered version, Coruscant still looks awesome. When they had the fireworks going over Coruscant, it does not seem like the emperor’s rule actually did any harm, except insofar as resisting it caused problems. So, what do you think? Is Star Wars as actually militaristic as it is on the surface, or is it a Straussian tale of pacifism as it should be? OK. I think that’s part of what makes the Star Wars saga work, that these are legitimate questions. My own view is that the best analogy to Star Wars is the American Revolution or the fall of communism, meaning there’s an authoritarian regime whose horribleness you don’t see constantly on screen, but you get glimpses of it. And the idea of restoring peace and justice to the galaxy — that’s completely sincere. And while it wouldn’t be that dramatically pleasing to see, you know, horror from the authoritarian regime thrown in your face all the time, nor would it be that dramatically pleasing to see a completely easy victory by the forces of peace and justice. The rebel heart of Star Wars is republican. But Yoda was wrong about everything else, as Tyler showed, so could it not — . [laughter]…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.