Star Wars

>If you have loved Star Wars since its inception and haven't seen the Last Jedi don't go. Don't watch any more Star Wars sequels. Stop buying Star Wars merchandise. Disney has inverted everything Star Wars once was in order to subject a captivated audience to their politically correct, post-modernist, cultural-Marxist agenda. It has converted a story about brave Truth seekers relentlessly fighting evil into one of confused weaklings who preach "everything's relative dude." Star Wars has become the biggest bait and switch scam in history. You've been punked.

>Although the original Stars Wars was rich in political intrigue, great epic battles, wonderful human interest, colorful new species and amazing cultures, the heart and soul of Star Wars, the one thing that gave it lasting meaning, was Jedi mysticism. "Luminescent you are, not this crude matter" said Master Yoda to the young disciple Luke Skywalker. At the core of Star Wars was a sacred and pure search for Truth, a rigorous discipline requiring total, lifelong, absolute faith and commitment, even celibacy. At the core was a relentless, single-minded dedication to overcoming the delusion of matter and ego-consciousness, to unifying one's soul to the omnipresent, invisible Light, to the omnipotent Energy, and to the omniscient, eternal Consciousness that envelopes and binds the universe: the Force. Such knowledge is rare, and those capable of the receptivity and discipline to attain it very few indeed. Therefore, a small priesthood, the Jedi, kept the knowledge alive and pure. For the freedom fighters of the Republic it was enough to keep the faith. "May the Force be with you" was their battle slogan.

>Opposed to the Jedi were the Sith. The Sith practiced classic Luciferian doctrine as explained by Darth Sidius in episode III, Revenge of the Sith. The Jedi, according to Sidius, were limited in their powers and were preventing mankind from achieving its full potential by denying it access to the powers of the Dark Side. To access those powers, one must take the exact opposite path of the Jedi. Whereas the Jedi dissolved ego, the Sith immersed themselves in it. Whereas the Jedi operated within a moral framework and were motivated by love for all that is, the Sith found their powers by escaping moral boundaries and tapping into pure hate.

>In the first Star Wars trilogy we found the young adept, Luke Skywalker, and his young band of merry freedom fighters, battling the diabolical tyranny of Sith Lord Darth Vader and the Evil Empire, controlled by the enslaving power of the Dark Side. Throughout the trilogy we saw young Luke grow from a brave and talented, yet impetuous, egotistical, overconfident novice into a full Jedi under the strict training of Master Yoda.

>Before his maturation as a Jedi, Luke studied for years and suffered many setbacks. In his first confrontation with Darth Vader, despite his undaunted courage, he was overpowered by Vader both physically and psychologically, losing his hand in battle, and reduced to trembling in fear in the face of the dark, frightening and much more powerful figure. And yet when the triumphant Vader mercifully offered the helplessly defeated Luke joint rulership of the galaxy in the name of peace, Luke's Jedi heart and soul screamed out with no hesitation, "I will never join you." Good and evil cannot mix.

>Three main points here. First, Luke Skywalker was absolutely committed, totally loyal and faithful, body, mind and soul. He did not compromise. That is why his character was so beloved, despite his flaws. Second, his path to Jedihood was very arduous, truly a pearl of great price; earned, not bestowed by some cosmic accident. And third, Jedi were crusaders for Truth and would die to protect the galaxy from the tyranny of the Dark Side.
At the end of the last episode of the first trilogy Luke confronted Darth Vader yet again, this time knowing that this embodiment of evil was his real father. In this battle Luke fought not only Darth Vader, but his Master, the Evil Emperor. In the three way battle that ensued Luke bested his father, but refused to succumb to the dark side of hate and finish him off. Instead he appealed to the love that he knew must still hide somewhere in the shell called Darth Vader. Just as the Emperor was about to kill Luke, Vader turned on his master to save his son and in the ensuing battle both died, ending the Evil Empire and freeing the galaxy of its dark despotism.

>At the conclusion of this movie, the spirits of Obi wan Kenobe, Yoda, and Anniken Skywalker, appeared. Skywalker was the redeemed soul of Darth Vader, now basking in the Light and Love of the Force. Goodness triumphed over evil without compromising itself.

>This was Star Wars. A morality play, a rather simple story of cosmic good versus cosmic evil. The differences were clearly recognizable, we cheered for the good and, on a galactic stage of vast proportions, the Truth ultimately triumphed against great odds. I don't know of any epic fiction in human History that has told a grander story. That is why the atrocity that Disney has committed against this epic myth arouses such passion and anger.

>The Last Jedi looks and sounds great, but the story is a mess, with so many plot holes, dead ends, contradictions, inconsistencies, impossibilities, players out of character, deus ex machinas etc. that you can't count them all. Critics in mainstream media have overwhelmingly adored this movie and overlooked its obvious flaws, no doubt because they share the movie's underlying ideology. Fans of Star Wars have been much more critical, and numerous YOUTUBE critics have enumerated the movie's many flaws. As one critic said, "This is Star Wars in the world of Idiocracy." I will mention only a few of those flaws here.

>What I want to focus on is the Last Jedi's betrayal and repudiation of the Star Wars' core myth. This betrayal is put into the words and actions of the greatest Jedi of all time, the man who saved the Galaxy and seemingly vanquished the Dark Side forever. Luke Skywalker, who would have been remembered for ages as one of the greatest heroes in the history of mythology, will now go down as the greatest apostate. Its like, after hundreds of millions of people have invested their time, energy, billions of dollars, hope and love into seven Star Wars movies, Disney then pulls a Gilda Radner and just says, "never mind."

>When the latest great hope of the Force, Rey, came to Luke for training and introduced herself by handing Luke his old light saber, Luke, by now cynical, disconsolate, demoralized, depressed and dirty, responded without hesitation by throwing the light saber away. Thus, Luke symbolically expressed his rejection of everything he once stood for. He then went on to say just that in ensuing dialog with Rey, basically refusing to train her and telling her what a mistake and a failure the Jedi movement was. "All I know is that the Jedi must end," he said, accusing the Jedi of inadvertently "allowing" the Sith to subvert the Republic. Somehow, his father's turn to the Dark Side was the Jedi's fault. Luke explained that he went to the sacred Jedi planet, not to train, but just to die.

>At some point the apparition of Yoda appeared, and they discussed the anachronistic nature of Jediism, and the worthlessness of the old sacred texts. Yoda then seemingly set them on fire, along with the sacred tree which protected them through the ages. Symbolically, a very long and eventful life of reverence went up in smoke. As did the concept of reverence itself.

>Later we discovered why Luke gave up on Jediism and seemingly life itself. Years earlier, his nephew, Ben, the son of Princess Leia and Han Solo, during Jedi training, turned to the Dark Side. This happened because Luke, sensing dark proclivities in the youngster, tried to kill him in his sleep, kind of, but in self defense young Ben, (later Kilo Ren) destroyed the Jedi school and almost killed Luke himself. Thus, Luke caused the very outcome he most feared and himself helped create a Sith Lord.

>When Rey found out about this, because she was in psychic communion with Kilo, she confronted Luke, and after a brief stick fight, the untrained little neophyte defeated the Great Skywalker, and he ran away in fear. Eventually Luke gave Rey about three minutes of Jedi training, during which she explored both the light and the DARK SIDE, and she became seemingly the most powerful Jedi of all time, even though we are told she had no pedigree or prior training.

>At the end of the movie Luke finally showed some spirit, appearing dramatically to save the remaining handful of Resistance fighters from the new evil emperor, the last Sith, his nephew Kilo Ren. But instead of an epic fight to again vanquish evil and/or redeem it (the origins of the resurrected Sith we are never told, but we did see Kilo, improbably, kill his Master and take control), Luke wussed out and just projected a hologram of himself, tricking Kilo into a fake sword fight that took just long enough to allow the Resistance to escape. And then, inexplicably, with the entire Galaxy under the control of Dark forces, the real Luke just vanished, presumably into the Force, from which, we were told earlier, he had disconnected himself. Was this transcendence, like the ascension of Christ, or even Obi Wan in Empire Strikes Back, or just a cop out? This Luke, this wastrel, who had rejected his precious, sacred Jedi inheritance, committed suicide to avoid his Jedi duty. What an ignominious end to one of the greatest epic heroes ever.

>So, let's compare the Luke Skywalker that was developed in the first three movies to the Luke Skywalker of the Last Jedi.

>The Luke Skywalker of Legend had absolute, child-like faithfulness and loyalty to his teachers and their teaching. Though for one second, like Christ on the cross, in his moment of greatest defeat, Luke experienced doubt, he resumed his quest steadfastly and attained his goal. He never wavered in the Truth again. He was always brave, always strong, always faithful to the principles he knew were right, and willing always to sacrifice his life for the right and to fight for that right and the rights of others.

>The Luke Skywalker in Last Jedi became agnostic, cynical, weak, indecisive, selfish, lazy and a bit cowardly, because he no longer believed in anything. The Luke Skywalker who would not kill evil Darth Vader in self-defense, Luke Skywalker the Great Redeemer, raised his weapon against a sleeping teenager, his sister's son. And because of this failure he just quit. This is not Luke Skywalker.

>No, the trashing of Luke Skywalker is not a literary accident. Trashing Luke Skywalker is trashing everything Star Wars ever represented, and Star Wars, despite borrowing so heavily from Eastern mysticism, represents something deep and abiding in the civilization we inherited. And what does the new Star Wars offer? Nothingness.

>The newest Jedi, the Last Jedi, Rey, had extraordinary powers but no Jedi training. Jedi mysticism, again the foundation of the whole series, is therefore worthless. One no longer needs to study the Force, or practice the disciplines, or grow in understanding through ascetical practice or life's hard experiences. Enlightenment and realization come cheap, and just happen, like reaching puberty. In the Last Jedi the sacred is removed from the universe. Because, we now know, it was never really there. And without that element of the sacred Star Wars no longer means anything.

>By claiming that the Jedi were responsible for the crimes of the Sith, Luke denied the metaphysical realities upon which Stars Wars was built. He was implying that without the Jedi, there would be no Sith, that these were man-made constructs. But in the original Star Wars mythology the powers manifested by each side were real. The abdication of one side in this battle would not disable the other, because each side was merely manifesting metaphysical powers that exist, and each one was motivated by moral laws that exist. If there were no Jedi, the Dark Side of the Force, through its lust and greed for power, would dominate the universe anyway unopposed. The Jedi were not responsible for the evil in the universe. However imperfectly, they were protecting the universe from it. That is why their path was so noble. When Luke disparaged the Jedi, the old Yoda would have told him, " to assure the triumph of evil, do nothing the Jedi must."

>And so, the Last Jedi is a post-modernist deconstruction of Star Wars. And as such it is post-modernist propaganda. Both the new Luke and the new Yoda expressed disdain for the wisdom both of them had received, practiced and taught. Remarkably their comments were very similar to those of the new Dark Lord, who said to Rey, "the past is dead, if you must, kill it." That is the theme of this movie, spoken by both "sides", but most clearly by Kilo Ren. He is the last Sith. But he killed his Master and is clearly conflicted. Rey is the last Jedi, but she was never trained and the only one left to train her just split. So really in the new Star Wars both the real Sith and the real Jedi are gone forever. The whole galaxy has lost its religion. As we must. The new generation will define new religions as they see fit. They will define their own truths from scratch as we must as well. There are no eternal verities. So instead of the vision of a moral universe based on spiritual realities assumed in the old Star Wars, the new Star Wars has replaced it with an existentialist and post-modernist one. That is, there are no fixed truths, we make our own reality, all that's real is the way I feel. Honor, goodness, nobility...illusions.

>Of course, post-modernism and existentialism are the dominant philosophical movements of our times. Thus, the great bait and switch. The popularity of Star Wars has always been because it, almost alone in popular culture, offered a very clear vision of a moral universe underpinned by spiritual reality, a philosophical retreat for the average American movie-goer. Although our popular culture and public sphere in general seldom speaks of or allows us to speak of God, we all know that that's what the "Force" really is. We all got hooked watching the only movies that seemed to have meaning, a grand vision, heroism, freedom fighters, right versus wrong, pure good versus despicable evil that must be vanquished, knowing that ultimately, absolute Truth was real and would triumph. This resonated so deeply in our hearts, it represented principles that so many still believe to be true but are so seldom seen or heard in popular culture. Now the Last Jedi comes along and tells its fans: "Punked. You fools. Believing there's a God and absolute truths. Grow up."

>No doubt future Star Wars will still reference the Force, but since the Jedi are gone it will be without meaning or reverence, a habit. And now it's hard to understand what it is that the Resistance is fighting for, or why. Maybe they are just the new Communist vanguard, fighting against economic inequality and social injustice. I think that was the real point of the Casino scene, to prepare us for the transformation of Star Wars from a fable about spiritual warriors to a story about social justice warriors.

>I suppose Star Wars will keep generating "Jedi," like Rey, who just pop up out of nowhere. At the end of the Last Jedi a little slave kid moves a broom with his Force power. But without Jedi training, ethics, mysticism the Force will just be arbitrary magic, and Star Wars will just become Harry Potter. Of course, we'll still have space dogfights, and the ever-evolving gorgeous special effects, but the myth is dead. The truth behind it is dead. The real Star Wars is dead, replaced by politically correct, nihilistic propaganda. I admit that the old Star Wars was its own kind of propaganda. Rather counter-propaganda, itself a kind of rebel insurgency against the overwhelming materialism and emptiness that inundates our culture. Its innocence and goodness were once a rare spiritual oasis on the big screen.
At the outset I also claimed that the Last Jedi was influenced by Cultural Marxism. This is a movement started in the 1920's whose goal was to bring down bourgeois capitalism not by a worker's revolution, but by destroying the cultural underpinnings of bourgeois society i.e. traditional religion, traditional family structures, traditional morality, especially sexual morality, any art, or music that seems to uphold traditional bourgeois values.

>Some have said that Stars Wars was always that, since the spiritual principles it was based on deviate from Christianity. Still, it posited a Higher Power and a Higher Law, and that is not what Marxists want you to believe. So, the Force must be de-sacralized, like religion in the Soviet Union.

>But the clearest example of the Cultural Marxism in this film is in its treatment of men. Whether one is a feminist or not, all are agreed that Western Civilization as it evolved is a patriarchy. Men commanded the heights of power, and men were attached through marriage to their wives and children as leaders of the family. Not all who wish to change the patriarchy wish to destroy Western Civilization, but those who wish to destroy Western Civilization wish to destroy the patriarchy; to pit women against men and vice versa and to disrupt all traditional definitions of gender, family, and power relationships.

>Of course, we all know the word for woman-hater: misogynist. I had to look up the word for man-hater. It is misandrist. Both the Force Awakens, and much more so the Last Jedi, are subtly, and not so subtly misandrist, especially towards white males.

>In the Force Awakens we discovered that our old heroes, Princess Leia and Han Solo were married and had a son. (Ben Solo/Kilo Ren). With their stormy romance in the First Trilogy we could see them together, deeply in love still, but prone to some bickering. But no, Han Solo left his family, his royal wife, his gifted son because...you can't trust men, they're all just deadbeats.

>Of course, when we first met Han he was a rogue, a smuggler, a selfish mountebank. But by the end of the trilogy he had grown up into a committed, selfless and totally loyal freedom fighter, besides being helplessly in love with the greatest woman in the galaxy. Having him abandon his family is another deconstruction of a Star Wars icon. And it added nothing to the plot. How much more fulfilling would it have been to see the interrupted love story of Han and Leia have a happy ending. But in the new Star Wars even heroic men abandon their families. Men are toxic. And dispensable. He is killed by his son. Kilo spares his mother.

>In the Last Jedi we have already examined the sad demise of Luke, although his twin sister remained strong, centered, wise, and maintained her hygiene. The demise of Luke is not just symbolic of the demise of his religion, it is also symbolic of the demise of white males as well. Men are weak. Even Jedi.

>Men are also evil. All the space Nazis who worked for the Alt Right First Order except one were white men. All Sith were men, mostly white. When Finn and Rose were in jail on the casino planet, they were betrayed by their shady collaborator, another white guy.

>Men are dumb. All the men did something stupid. Luke tried to kill his nephew. Finn tried to escape the Resistance but was luckily prevented by the Asian girl, Rose. The First Order commander, Hux, was not only a space Nazi, but an idiot. The Supreme bad guy, Snoke, who could twirl Rey around like a rag doll, who could create a mind meld between Kilo and Rey even though they were half a galaxy apart, got killed because he wasn't paying attention to the light saber right next to him, which Kilo activated and used to cut him in half.

>Then there is Poe. He was the closest thing to a male hero but was a special kind of dumb; all hormones, no brains. He was a daredevil pilot but his insubordination cost lives. At the beginning of the film his heroics were largely responsible for the destruction of the dreadnought, but also half the Resistance fleet, so he was demoted by General Leia. Later, while Leia was apparently dead, he was bypassed for command by Admiral Holdo, a friend (possibly lover) of Leia. Poe, when introduced to her, (how could he have not already known her) made a rude, sexist comment, because that's how men are, even long ago, in a galaxy far away. She then proceeded to upbraid him up and down, calling him a "flyboy," a speech so emasculating that I think even most feminists cringed. She then showed herself to be weak and indecisive, and in the face of massive casualties and no apparent plan for escape, Poe led a mutiny. The audience are all pleased, because clearly this purpled-haired space-witch didn't have a clue, and its time for some good, old fashioned testosterone to get a hold of this situation. But Leia was miraculously revived, (ridiculously) saw the situation, stunned Poe, and reinstated Holdo. It turned out Holdo did have a plan, she just didn't condescend to tell anybody, and after the plan to evacuate the main ship was executed, she ensured everyone's safety by using her doomed ship to ram the First Order vessel at light speed in a kamikaze attack. She died a martyr and a matron of cool wisdom. So, for a while we were made to think that male leadership somewhere on the side of the good guys might help. But in the end, we were proven wrong. Punked again.

>Resistance leadership in the Last Jedi looks like an almost total matriarchy; all leaders are women, all women are smart, all women are good. Cue Helen Reddy. Men are all bad and/or incompetent/insubordinate. This matriarchy is far more thoroughgoing than the supposed patriarchy seen in the previous Star Wars films. Oh well, payback time. But besides being misandrist, it's also unrealistic and unbelievable.

The silliness reached its apogee when Finn, despite violating the orders of the now tamed Poe, proceeded on a suicide mission to fly his space jalopy into the giant energy weapon battering ram that would destroy the last Resistance fort and completely wipe out all the Resistance. Just as he was about to finish his kamikaze mission he is bumped off course by his new love, Rose, who later explains, "we will win this war not by destroying what we hate, but by saving what we love." How sweet. PRIMAL SCREEEEEAM. Seven Star Wars movies have featured space cowboys, and a few cowgirls, who did nothing but blow up things they hate, like battle cruisers, dreadnoughts, DEATH STARS etc. against great odds IN ORDER TO SAVE THE ONES THEY LOVE. If not for the unexpected intervention of Luke right after that, Rose saving Finn would have ended the Resistance FOR ALL TIME.

>The matriarchal leadership in this movie was hands down the most cautious and passive we've ever seen in a Star Wars movie. You'd think they would have avoided that stereotype. Demoting Poe after he single-handedly took out the Dreadnought defenses for example, or Admiral Holdo sitting around watching most of the Resistance get killed as the escape craft got destroyed one by one. The last attack getting called off even though, unlikely as its success might have been (aren't all rebel attacks almost impossible) it was the only chance for the Resistance to survive. Never before in a Star Wars film had the good guys taken such a terrible beating. They are down to a dozen or so fighters, no vessels. What? Bring back General Akbar. Oh yeah, they killed him off.

>The President of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, goes around in T shirts saying, "The Force is Female." No, it is not. It has no gender. It never did.

>There are other Cultural Marxist elements in this movie. In a pointless foray onto a casino planet we see the filthy rich (white people) exploiting child slave labor and animals. All they do to get so rich is sell weapons and all they do with the money is waste it. Moral: rich people are disgusting, capitalism is pure exploitation.

>So where does Star Wars go?

>I believe that eventually Kilo and Rey follow the path that Kilo is on and that Luke and Yoda have suggested; to forgo the past and blaze a new path. They will bring peace to the galaxy by merging the dark and light side of the force, creating a gray Force, if you will. The redemption of Kilo will come, not from the love and forgiveness of the Force directly, as in the case of Anniken Skywalker, but the redeeming love of a woman, Rey. Of course, this reconciliation of good and evil is a Nietzschean doctrine, which, as much as Luciferianism, denies the existence of absolute morality. Assuming this scenario is right, this love will be so beautiful, and so powerful, that anyone who suggests that sexualizing the Force cheapens it will be considered a fanatic. And after all, sex IS God in our society today. Sex is the real Force, not that metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. How can Star Wars continue with celibate heroes in this day and age?

>But then what? When Superman made love to Lois Lane he lost his powers. But that won't happen in Star Wars. Young Anniken and Padme already proved that. Of course, in the original Star Wars, Anniken's broken Jedi vows were part of his downfall.

>What will the politics of the Star Wars galaxy look like after Rey joins with the Dark Side? A compromise, of course. Not quite a free republic, not quite an evil empire, but a benevolent dictatorship run by a wise and loving, bi-partisan Sith-Jedi co-"Presidency." It will be a new Galactic Order, a New World Order if you will. If we just have a properly engineered, kinder, gentler dictatorship run by the right people, and if everyone obeys, then we can usher in a millennium of peace and prosperity, just as Darth Vader promised. But unlike Darth's this empire will be run by the gray Force. it will combine the best of both Sith and Jedi, good and evil; beyond good and evil. But ultimately when good allies itself with evil, or tries to transcend good and evil, there is no moral principle binding or limiting a government formed on that basis except the prerogatives of power. In the end, the Sith, Jedi coalition would not be much different than rule by the Sith. There would be nothing to stop the gray Force from becoming ever and ever darker over time. I think the Jedi knew that. "I will never Join you" young Skywalker said, in a more innocent time.
So, if this is the direction of the new Star Wars, in a subtle way, the Last Jedi is slowly shifting our allegiance from the Jedi way to that of the Sith we had been led to despise.

>There still remains one possible way to salvage the traditional myth. Although Yoda tried to burn the ancient texts, it turns out that Rey actually purloined them, although you only see this in about ten frames of film. Furthermore, Luke told Kilo at the end that the Resistance and the Jedi would continue. Perhaps Rey will maintain the purity of Jedi mysticism by intense study, and maybe, possibly, the Luke who dematerialized into the Force can, reinspired by his ethereal sojourn, rematerialize to guide young Rey. Or perhaps he and Yoda can give her mental guidance as she rediscovers the ancient truths. She can then, Joan of Arc-like, pick up her saber and lead a revitalized, spiritually awakened Resistance, start a new Jedi order, and restore Truth and Force-realization to the whole Galaxy. Perhaps she can convert Kilo, the way Luke converted his grandfather. Or perhaps, as Luke foresaw, he must die. Either way truth will again triumph over evil and the true balance in the force will be restored. Then, that desecration of Star Wars known as the Last Jedi will have been a mere detour, and it will have been the critics like myself who got punked.

>Not likely.