Doing Their Jobs
In Plato’s Republic, Socrates and his friends conclude that justice in the city and justice in the soul both require that each part of the city or soul does its own job and does not interfere with the other parts doing their jobs. This principle is illustrated twice in the opening space battle of Revenge of the Sith, with ironic results.
First, when Anakin Skywalker is distracted from his own mission by a desire to help the Clone pilots overwhelmed in a dogfight, fellow Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi reminds him that "They are doing their job so that we can do ours." The Jedi have one duty in this battle (rescuing Chancellor Palpatine) and the Clones have another (buying the Jedi time to do so by preventing the Separatists’ retreat). For Anakin to neglect his own duty to help the Clones fulfill theirs would, from Obi-Wan’s perspective, do an injustice to the Republic: if the Clones were to be rescued but the Chancellor was not, the war would be lost. Ironically, however, what Obi-Wan doesn’t know is that Palpatine is counting on the just-minded Jedi to do their duty to save him so he can perpetuate injustice in the Republic.
Second, on the Separatist flagship the Invisible Hand, the Trade Federation droids programmed to navigate the ship are painted blue while their counterparts programmed to defend the ship are painted red. Across Star Wars, blue is typically associated with the rational part of the soul or galaxy and red is typically associated with the passionate part. According to Republic, reason governs the passions in the just soul, just as philosophers outrank warriors in the just city. So it is appropriate that the blue, rational navigator droids have control of the ship, and the red, aggressive battle droids do not. This is also ironic, because the Republic and the Jedi perceive the Separatists to be the unjust ones, the wanton aggressors in this war. Yet even the evil Separatist General Grievous has enough of a sense of justice to know who should be on the bridge and who should have the guns on his ship.
As Socrates notes early on in Republic, even the unjust need to have some respect for justice if they are to accomplish anything. (There must be honor among thieves, or else how will they manage to steal anything?) This is something that the unjust Palpatine understands and exploits to his own ends. He pits the dutiful Jedi and Clones against the equally dutiful Separatist droids, each combatant doing his job as he perceives (rightly or wrongly) that justice requires it, so that in the aftermath of the war Palpatine can establish an Empire where the passions rule under the guise of reason, and injustice is cloaked in the appearance of justice.
EXPLORE FURTHER…
Characters: Anakin Skywalker / General Grievous / Obi-Wan Kenobi / Palpatine
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES…
Concepts: aggression / brains / duty / government / justice / orders / passion / reason / tripartite soul
Influences: Plato
Interpretive Frameworks: Tripartite Soul Theory
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