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Friday, December 14, 2007

The Big Idea

posted by on December 14 at 10:49 AM

death-star-1.jpg

The point made in the conclusion of this short essay, which was posted two years ago by Andrey Summers (Dan Paulus sent me a link to it yesterday), can be applied to all of life, the entire universe, to everything there ever was and will be.

To be a Star Wars fan, one must possess the ability to see a million different failures and downfalls, and then somehow assemble them into a greater picture of perfection. Every true Star Wars fan is a Luke Skywalker, looking at his twisted, evil father, and somehow seeing good.

…We hate everything about Star Wars.

But the idea of Star Wars…the idea we love.

The idea of existence is great, but everything that makes existence possible is wrong. Without an idea, a counter thought, a concept of how things ought to be, you can not love this world we live and die in.

RSS icon Comments

1

Believing the idea of what ought to be in the face of reality is the cause of all suffering.

Posted by boxofbirds | December 14, 2007 10:58 AM
2

Cut the chatter Red 2.

Posted by PA Native | December 14, 2007 10:59 AM
3

Charles never progressed past "freshman in college" thoughts.

Posted by Bellevue Ave | December 14, 2007 11:18 AM
4

"Without an idea, a counter thought, a concept of how things ought to be, you can not love this world we live and die in."

This is absolutely, utterly, completely incorrect. The earliest primitive religions were universally affirming of existence, despite existence at that time being particularly nasty and unpleasant. What could early humans do, aside from accepting and embracing their short, bloody lives?

It was only with the emergence of Jainism and life-negating mythology, as well as the mutability of Zoroastrianism, that societies storytellers attempted to resist or repair the world around them.

Posted by mattymatt | December 14, 2007 11:26 AM
5

Star Wars sucks. It's not like it was as big as The Breakfast Club or anything.

Posted by Mr. Poe | December 14, 2007 11:28 AM
6

believing in "Star Wars", Dungeons and Dragons, Britney Spears, Christianity it is all fantasy and manipulating you in some demented way.

"free yourself and the rest will follow"

Posted by -B- | December 14, 2007 11:32 AM
7
"free yourself and the rest will follow"

Uh. No.

The kingdom of heaven is within, spud.

Posted by Judah | December 14, 2007 11:49 AM
8

Yeah! More Mudede, philosophy, and Star Wars. These are my favorite posts.

Posted by Slogur | December 14, 2007 11:50 AM
9

I agree. Just like the idea of the Death Star turned out to be far superior to the reality. Cool, you think to yourself, a massive space station that can destroy planets. But then you have to spend crazy money building it, you have to isolate the designers inside the Maw so they don't spill their secrets, you have to hire like a million guys to staff and run the thing, and of course every time you actually blow away a planet the debris dings the shit out of the hull. Oh, and then a bunch of fucking teenagers in these tiny-ass little fighters just slip by all the defenses and drop a proton torpedo down one of the exhaust ports, blowing up the whole station. Christ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJxh35aYqnc

Posted by Greg | December 14, 2007 12:07 PM
10

The proliferation of Star Wars in our culture is owed entirely the age of its demographic more that any other factor.

Posted by Dougsf | December 14, 2007 12:19 PM
11

#1, don't forget it's also the cause of inspiration.

Posted by Cale | December 14, 2007 12:24 PM
12

Love it.

I was just thinking it's been a while since we had a Mudede/Star Wars philosophy post.

Posted by SDA in SEA | December 14, 2007 1:00 PM
13

Stay on target!

Posted by StrangerDanger | December 14, 2007 1:21 PM
14

Luke, I am your foster brother's stepfather's roommate's best friend ...

I think it's time for a Wookie post.

Posted by Will in Seattle | December 14, 2007 1:23 PM
15

If

"Without an idea, a counter thought, a concept of how things ought to be, you cannot love this world we live and die in."

is childish, then I want to be a child.

Posted by EM | December 14, 2007 1:36 PM
16

StarWars did give us the Force, with which we can fight L. Ron Hubbardism. That's a good thing.

Posted by chas Redmond | December 14, 2007 8:58 PM
17

It's funny, I said almost the exact same thing about Highlander to a friend the other night. I absolutely love it as a whole series, a whole idea, but if you really look at anything in particular very closely, you're going to find something to complain about, something not to like. And I can see how that's like life somehow. Good job.

Posted by Lythea | December 15, 2007 2:10 AM

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