Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb
Amidst all the debate-related hokum and flim-flammery, comes the most thought-provoking piece I've read all week. The Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last makes the case that the Empire really wasn't that bad after all. A federation of independent governments, he argues, revolts against a bloated, impotent, and corrupt alliance, and is (perhaps) unfairly labeled as "evil."
No, no, I'm not on about Oil-For-Food again...this is about....Star Wars!
Scores of thousands of planets are represented in the Galactic Senate, and as we first encounter it, it is sclerotic and ineffectual. The Republic has grown over many millennia to the point where there are so many factions and disparate interests, that it is simply too big to be governable. Even the Republic's staunchest supporters recognize this failing: In "The Phantom Menace," Queen Amidala admits, "It is clear to me now that the Republic no longer functions." In "Attack of the Clones," young Anakin Skywalker observes that it simply "doesn't work."
The Senate moves so slowly that it is powerless to stop aggression between member states. In "The Phantom Menace" a supra-planetary alliance, the Trade Federation (think of it as OPEC to the Galactic Republic's United Nations), invades a planet and all the Senate can agree to do is call for an investigation.
He goes on to argue that Dooku's faction is committed to smaller government, less taxes, and capitalism, and is it really such a big deal that they blow up the occasional planet? All the Trade Federation (later, and still somewhat mysteriously dubbed the "evil" "Empire"...hmmm... coincidence?) really wants is effective government, so maybe it's the Rebels who are the statist forces conspiring against freedom. Last continues:
In Episode IV, after Grand Moff Tarkin announces that the Imperial Senate has been abolished, he's asked how the Emperor can possibly hope to keep control of the galaxy. "The regional governors now have direct control over territories," he says. "Fear will keep the local systems in line."
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In all of the time we spend observing the Rebel Alliance, we never hear of their governing strategy or their plans for a post-Imperial universe. All we see are plots and fighting. Their victory over the Empire doesn't liberate the galaxy--it turns the galaxy into Somalia writ large: dominated by local warlords who are answerable to no one.
Very interesting. Does this mean that Luke and Han and Leia are really agents of the State, fighting against an unfairly maligned revolution who only wants to make life better for its citizens? When you think about it, we never hear of the Empire wanting to implement slavery, or colonize defenseless planets. Annakin and his mother are slaves, yes, but recall that they live on Tatooine, a planet so remote that the Empire has no reach there. Read the whole thing for equally interesting defenses of the blowing up of Alderaan, and the unceremonial cremation of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.
Also, another article reviewing the recent release of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD notes that not once in any of the films is the word "Ewok" mentioned, yet everybody in the world knows what it means.