You’d be hard pressed to find another emotion more responsible than fear for the sour tone of politics and culture today.
So wrote David Brooks in a recent column for the New York Times, saying: “I wonder if we’ve fully grasped how fear pervades our society and sets the emotional tone for our politics. When historians define this era they may well see it above all else as a time defined by fear.” Brooks is right. For many, this started with Sept. 11, before waves of paranoia about shootings, war, crime, cultural change, immigration, climate change, automation, and job displacement. For every fear, there is a politician, media personality, or website there to assure you that your fear is warranted and even righteous. “All we have to fear is fear itself” — aspirational words from President Franklin D. Roosevelt and ones we need to rediscover, lest we let our fear lead us to an even darker place than we currently stand.
Don’t care for FDR? Perhaps Master Yoda is more your speed.
On Sunday, “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” turns 20 years old. It’s as good a time as any to reflect on the central warning of the “Star Wars” saga, which technically begins with this 1999 film.
The story of “Star Wars” is set into motion by a young Anakin Skywalker being rescued from slavery to study to become a Jedi. From the beginning, it was doomed to failure. Standing before Mace Windu, Yoda, and the Jedi Council, this young boy was not fit to be a Jedi. They sensed “great fear in him,” and they were right. From Anakin to Luke, and arguably Ben Solo, fear pervades the saga as the single greatest threat to personal and societal peace.
The boy we all knew would become Darth Vader was incapable of controlling his fear and the nagging sense that certain things were out of his control. Relationships, family, work, and status in his life as a Jedi were not things Anakin ever felt comfortable leaving to chance. Yoda knew the risk when he said to Anakin in their first meeting, “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” Brooks points out this very same idea in his column, citing Martha Nussbaum, writing that anger is the child of fear. It breeds antisocial attitudes and a capacity for cruelty when it comes to solving social problems.
In a moment of panic about his own growing weakness, Anakin spoke to Yoda about his struggle with dreams of his loved ones dying. Yoda’s response is one of the most important lessons of “Star Wars”: “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” Obviously, this was not acceptable to Anakin Skywalker. Yoda’s wisdom would also fall on deaf ears with Anakin’s son, Luke, when he too faced visions of those he loved being in peril. Luke only lost a hand when he tried to impose order on the chaos that tormented him; his father lost everything and subsequently projected his pain back onto the galaxy. Fear, unchecked and unchallenged, can indeed lead to great suffering.
In case you haven’t noticed, the rhetoric in politics today is tinged with apocalyptic urgency. If you’re not afraid, you’re accused of indifference or being slow. Even the supposed champions of social harmony who wave signs saying “love trumps hate” subscribe to their own culture of fear, anger, and hatred.
It’s tough to identify at times. Fearmongers can be insidious, and their greatest tool is feigning compassion and validation for a certain audience. You might recall how Palpatine lured Anakin into his grip, by telling him all his suspicions, resentments, and fears were justified and true. It’s why teenagers so often try out risky behavior and new friends. In the height of that angst-ridden period they seek peers telling them they are right and everyone else (parents) just don’t understand.
How many 2020 candidates do you see running for office by telling folks how good they have it in the grand scheme of things? Who could ever win an election by preaching the true story of human progress, wealth, and reminding people that they lived in the physically safest time in known history? No one.
Such a candidate could not win office. This is really just human nature. No one likes to be reminded to be more grateful and calm, even if it’s what they need. That’s not what politics is really for, anyways. Church, faith, community, and family are more able to appeal to that higher self, and sadly, all those arenas have weakened and allowed politics to fill the void.
Now fear is the mood of the day and has been for just shy of 20 years, just as the second “Star Wars” trilogy, with the clearest warnings about fear, is concluding. In the sequence of Yoda’s warning to Anakin, we may well be in the days of hate, corrupted by nonstop waves of fear and appeals to our anger.
“Star Wars” couldn’t be more clear about the path we’re on, and it will end in great suffering, for some, for many, or for us all.
Stephen Kent (@Stephen_Kent89) is the spokesman for Young Voices and host of “Beltway Banthas,” a “Star Wars” & politics podcast in D.C.
