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I was inspired to look at the prehistory, so to speak, of Star Wars, by this article by Ginger Stampley. I also took the very insightful comment by Rikibeth as to the origins of the Jedi as the basis for my own speculations. Neither of them, of course, is responsible for the mess I make of their ideas. (FTR: This is not going to become the unofficial Star Wars Expanded Universe blog. I’ve written some other material in the past few days; it’s of such limited general interest, however, that I don’t feel like posting it here and enduring the "Dude, what the hell are you talking about?" remarks that would inevitably follow.) The final consolidation of the Republic I’ve chosen to call the Formation Wars. I haven’t seen it used elsewhere, although it’s such an obvious name that someone must have chosen it. Possibly it’s so obvious that everyone has assumed the same, and not used it for that reason. Anyway, the Republican era must have been preceded by a multiplicity of republics, kingdoms, dictatorships, and what have you. We see in the Star Wars trilogies such a gaggle of obviously alien races, besides the humanoids of the Skywalker strain, that it passes belief that they could have evolved on a single world. If nothing else, each species must have had at least one independent polity before first contact. At some point, there must have been an impulse towards consolidation. That impulse may have essentially altruistic, to allow free intercourse of sophonts, goods, and ideas across political and species boundaries, or it may have been essentially exploitative, looking for new subjects to dominate. In all probability, both motives were there, and which one was dominant depended on which faction was in control of the nucleating Republic at any given time. One notion that must have grown, however, that was that there should be no center of influence that could compete with the Republic. In human history, this is the source of both classical liberalism, and ideological totalitarianism. The "two swords" theory of medieval Christianity, that there should be an effective external check on the power of the State, is anathema to both. (In effect, of course, the medieval Church, from Hildebrand (a/k/a Pope Gregory VII) to Boniface VIII’s Unum Sanctum, was to promote the notion that the spiritual power was to take precedence over the temporal power, trying to revive a universal monarchy with the Pope as Emperor.) Now, of course, the motivations of the classical liberals, and of the ideological totalitarians, aren’t the same in destroying competing centers of influence. The classic liberal (or "libertarian") sees individual freedom as the highest possible good; the State exists only insofar as it is necessary to protect that freedom from aggressors. No internal competition as allowed because that competition can only impose limits on the freedom of the individual, and can therefore only be an aggressor; the State must have a monopoly on coercive force to protect the individual. The ideological totalitarian, on the other hand, views the individual as totally at the disposal of the State (or the Party, or the Führer, identified with the State or vice versa), and internal competition can only shelter him, however partially and ineffectively, from the State’s demands. So, we can postulate a univeralist party or faction in the nucleating Republic, itself composed (although probably not openly) of two factions, one flying the banner of global…err. galactic free trade and universal freedom from war; the other seeing the Republic as the Temporal Paradise, where all shall work for the good of all (as defined by the Party’s theoreticians). Needless to say, the universalists of the Republic will be opposed by the particularists of the individual polities. To overcome them, to force them to allow the free flow of ideas from everywhere, or of diktats from Coruscant, only armed force can serve. The liberal wing of the universalist party appears to have ideas that smack of Legalism; the State must be imperialist and virtually totalitarian, using every resource available to it to conquer, until that day comes that the known world is united under a single sovereign, and the weapons of war can be sealed away. Episode -2 (we’re making another trilogy of this, of course) is the story of the dedicated partisans of the Republic striving to overcome the particularist states on its (political) fringe, to the end that no individual, even if he is green and slimy, should be prevented from traveling from one end of known space to the one, and that everyone should have the benefit of truth, justice, and the Galactic Way of life. (Do I sound a bit cynical about this? Probably; not only is the liberal univeralist faction getting ready to make a Republic that the totalitarian universalist faction can take over, but the centralization of sovereign political power on Coruscant will mean the centralization of all other things there. The other planets will become "the provinces", aping Coruscant or attempting to revive a distorted past). John "Akatsukami" Braue Tuesday, May 21, 2002 |
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