Peace Between Reason and the Passions
In the Pensées, the French mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and physicist Blaise Pascal writes about how human beings continually experience an "interior war" between two parts of themselves: reason and the passions. According to Pascal,
This interior war between reason and the passions meant that those who wanted peace divided into two sects. Some wanted to renounce the passions and become gods, the others wanted to renounce reason and become brute beasts... But neither group succeeded, and reason is still there accusing the baseness and injustice of the passions and disturbing the peace of those who give way to them, and the passions are still alive in those who want to reject them.
Much of Star Wars can be understood as an expression of this "interior war." The Jedi represent reason and attempt to deny the passions, while the Sith represent the passions and attempt to deny reason – and just as Pascal describes, each side thinks it can attain peace by eradicating the other.
In The Acolyte, the Sith Master Qimir tells his pupil Mae, "The Jedi justify their galactic dominance in the name of peace, but that peace [is a lie]." The Jedi of The Acolyte try to remove every trace of the Sith from the galaxy, but they cannot succeed in doing so any more than they can remove their own interior emotions. Their attempts to deny the passions only undermine the "peace" they are trying to maintain; as Pascal says, "The passions are still alive in those who want to reject them."
In Revenge of the Sith, when the Sith have their turn to attain "galactic dominance," the Sith Master Palpatine tells his pupil Anakin, "Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy, and we shall have peace." But Palpatine's "peace" is also a lie: it requires crushing dissent at every turn, and finds itself undermined not just by exiled Jedi like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda but also by cool-headed, reasonable senators like Mon Mothma and Bail Organa. As Pascal says, "reason is still there accusing the baseness and injustice of the passions and disturbing the peace of those who give way to them."
Neither the Jedi nor the Sith present a viable vision of peace because neither reason nor the passions can ever truly be eliminated from the human soul. Both extremes fall short of true balance, which can only be attained through the harmonious integration of both reason and passion.
EXPLORE FURTHER…
Shows: The Acolyte
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES…
Concepts: passion / reason / war and peace
Interpretive Tools: Tripartite Soul Theory
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