Star Wars is not a Movie

Star Wars is not a Movie



Star Wars is not a movie. Star Wars, and metaphors derived from the movie are ruining our lives. Everything from America’s favorite evil corporation, Enron, to “Missile Defense” Systems, and spaceage weapons, now invoke the terminology and anesthetics of George Lucas’ films.

Originally, Lucas conceived of the films as a mythology for the modern era. A hero whose psychological, and physical war ultimately crescendos in the triumph of good over evil. Those who are now using Lucas’ films, and their symbolism are far from the forces of good. Welcome to Episode 7, reality, in which all willing characters are Darth Vaders; Corrupt evildoers bent on domination of the universe at any costs. In his book, Star Wars and the Mythic Quest, Joseph Campbell, when discussing mythical characters, aptly describes the nation’s current political leadership, exemplified but not limited to the Presidency: “Corrupt characters seem to imagine there is more power in the way they are using it. Pure selfishness, without any struggle with conscience, gives the illusion of greater power. Just because someone avoids struggling with conscience, or the concern for other people, or fairness, or ethics, does not mean these issues go away. The denied elements always return to present their demands.” In many ways the description applies to American society as a whole. The denied elements are peace, and justice, which we have as a people been neglecting by the corruption of power; power of all types, but most disturbingly the sublime yet explicit power to destroy the earth and ourselves. We have led ourselves astray, we have become evil by demanding and choosing power above all, and this power is best illustrated by our military dominance of the earth. This year we will spend nearly $400 billion for the purposes of making war. Including nuclear weapons and other spending directly related to war, the budget increase another $100 billion.

If we could manage to set aside the military industrial complex’s “Star Wars,” momentarily, we would still be presented by the theme’s appearance in another contemporary crime. “Star Wars” characters, and terms have appeared recently since the fall of Energy giant Enron as part of a secret code language used by company executives. Enron, once again an entity led by corrupt individuals bent on power over ethics, tempted to the dark side, ripped off the state of California to the sum of billions of dollars in the 2001 energy crisis. How did they do this? With the help of Chewy Chewbacca, and the Jedi knights, all of whom were sheltered within the deathstar. A friend of mine in high school built a shed in his backyard with stolen lumber, and nails. He called it the DeathStar, and used it to hold stolen goods and grow pot plants. It was padlocked and hidden behind a wall of trees, allowing him secure privacy for his criminal activites. Enron did nearly the same thing, but the the scale of $ billions! The plan by which they organized their manipulation of the California energy market was called “Deathstar.” A subsidiary which they used to offload debt was called Chewco after Chewbacca, Hans Solo’s furry sidekick. Their dealings with CALPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System) was called JEDI (Joint Energy Development System). Star Wars is not a movie, its very real, and it preying on us all.

Star Wars, a popular "mythology," as Joseph Campbell described it, is becoming a reality, finding representation in our society as Militaristic imperialism, Economic predation, and perhaps even maliciously as the latest distraction of the culture industry. Lucas' movies will undoubtably attract large audiences to theaters in the years to come, as an escape from the real "Star Wars," being initiated and fought within our society, pillaging our natural resources, and economies, battled in our very skies, between our worlds nuclear powers, and most dangerously as a preparation for the apocalypse, (the planning and attempt to win a nuclear war). While audiences watch imaginary and meaningless wars fought between nonexistent forces on the silver screen, a very real war is being conducted in multiple “theaters,” to borrow the pentagon’s euphemism. Retired Admiral Eugene J Carrol has announced the opening of Star Wars 7, coming to theaters of space soon!, "We are going into space with lasers. Space is seen as a new place to wage war. Already, we are underwater, over-water, on-the-land, in-the-air, and now we want to go to another dimension: space."

US forces are active in conflicts from Afghanistan, the Philippines, to Colombia, and soon Iraq. All these forces are supported by hi-tech communications sattelites, and perhaps soon more feindish space weapons. Under the guise of Missile Defense, already a foolish pursuit, Space aged technologies are being developed for the purposes of weaponizing the heavens. Bruce Gagnon, director of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the missile defense program as a process by which the US military and its defense contractors are seeking to get a foot in the door. “September 11 ultimately is irrelevant because missile defense is a Trojan horse for the ‘real objective.’ It's never been about defense. It's always been about controlling space, dominating space, denying other countries access to space and the U.S. being the master of space.” Once advanced technologies are developed, and experience is gained through “missile defense,” the US military will likely ignore the UN declarations on space which reserve it as a frontier of peace, and pursue a program of arming space to the teeth. Future generations will look upward into night skies which look back down upon them with ultrasensative spy satellites, high powered lasers capable of hitting ground targets, perhaps missile silos orbiting the earth, warrior satellites capable of destroying targets in the atmosphere. What less can be expected of the US Space Command wing of the Military, whose motto is “Master of Space.”

Star Wars does not only exist in the minds of greedy corporate executives, or military “theaters” of stratospheric space, and Hollywood megaplexes. Star Wars exist as a potentiality every second of every day. We need not fear “Star Wars” as a futuristic development, it is already a present threat to the existence of the human species. Helen Caldicott, anti-nuclear activist, and founder of Physicians of Social Responsibility, describes any use of a nuclear device as a Star War. For the process of fission, the physics by which a nuclear weapon works, is much the same as a star’s. When an atomic device is detonated, it creates a small star upon the face of the earth, thus a star war. A star war, not star wars, because there is no plural, there is no future possibility of war after a scenario of a nuclear war. Humans will cease to exists, nearly half vaporized by the atomic blast, the remaining quarter engulfed in massive firestorms fueled by the heat and wind of the fallen stars, and any survivors left to decay and die from massive radiation, nuclear winter, and the collapse of all civilization.

Star Wars is not a movie, it’s a very real pursuit of the US military and its powerful industrial clientele, as well as a secret language of America’s corporate criminals. This summer while Lucas’ latest film is making obscene profits across the nation, we would do well to recognize the perversion his mythology has undergone at the hands of our elite, the rulers of our “Empire.” Perhaps a more fitting plot to the next episode of Lucas’ film would the be the entire holocaust of all his fictional characters in an orgy of greed, concluded with a star war proper. If our corporations and government continue their current path, and we do little to stop them it just might be so.

An audience sits, in rapture at the images on the screen. Light projected through celluloid, animation of still images accompanied by the very sound system the film’s creator helped develop. A sound system so powerful perhaps it could replicate the sound of a nuclear detonation? no; the warhead travels at 20 times the speed of sound, and its accompanying shockwave racing ahead of sound itself ruptures the ears tympanic membranes. We cannot watch Star Wars on the big screen. We cannot hear it, in no way can it be portrayed other than the confusing and ultimately meaningless narrative of the Lucas films. So as they watch the fetish, the distraction before them, they become immune to reality. Indifference sets in, immobility, carelessness, consumption. But Star Wars is not a movie.