In Prison Wherever You Go
In Prison Wherever You Go
Plus a video recap of our trip to NC Comicon
I’ve never met a person who wanted to not live free. The trick with human beings is that we’re all seeking freedom from different things, people, places, and ideas. One man’s prison is another’s retreat. In last week’s edition, What Sets You Free (paywall is now down) I outlined how the Jedi and Sith differ on what defines freedom, and how it relates to our own struggles with living the kind of lives we’d like to live.
Today I have something else for you to consider, a controversial point — no doubt. Which is that freedom and subjugation may depend only on your perspective. After all, when we’re talking about Star Wars’ philosophy, even a blind man can see more clearly than those with functioning eyes.
But first!
and took How The Force Can Fix The World and the message of This Is The Way on the road to North Carolina Comicon in Durham. Many of you reading this today are folks we met on the convention floor, again — welcome! Stephen gave a talk to a live audience about Star Wars’ & Empathy titled “The Call of Heroes". That call is to look beyond the masks and illusions of people who frighten and confuse us. That talk will be posted on YouTube soon. In the meantime, this 4-minute video is a sneak peek into our journey and what it was like preparing for for NC Comicon and spreading our message about how Star Wars makes us better.In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, we meet Chirrut Îmwe, a Force-wielding mystic and adherent to the Jedi way. He is no Jedi, but this blind monk of the planet Jedha would have made a great one, if not for the Empire’s rise.
Chirrut finds himself captured by anti-Imperial militants along with Cassian Andor and Baze Malbus. They sit together in a shoddy prison cell.
Cassian Andor is nervously trying to find a way out.
Chirrut says, “Relax, Captain. We've been in worse cages than this one.”
Andor snips back, “This is the first for me.”
Chirrut Îmwe, the blind monk sitting relaxed behind prison bars and undisturbed by their situation, says….
“There is more than one sort of prison, Captain.
I sense that you carry yours wherever you go.”
Chirrut senses a dark shadow around Cassian. One of guilt, worry, shame, doubt, and anger. All of these things shape Cassian’s actions and bear down on him like a wet blanket. Cassian could escape this prison cell and still be a prisoner, of sorts. Chirrut on the other hand, is free as a bird in any situation.
Just as Chirrut can see clearly through the Force, even without his eyes, Chirrut is not held hostage by his past mistakes or worries. All is, from his perspective, as the Force wills it.
It’s a perfect encapsulation of the philosophy of Epictetus (meaning: the acquired one), one of the Stoic greats of 55–135 AD. Whereas many Stoics of the age were wealthy and well-connected, Epictetus was a fellow traveler who was enslaved. He had no freedom in the literal or legal sense, but in his teachings throughout life, he would speak of how he was more free than any man who had ever owned him.
A lofty ideal, but worthy of consideration. Chirrut Îmwe, without a doubt, would have identified with this lens on life.
Epictetus, whose lectures are captured in the Enchiridion, remarked on how the rich and powerful of Rome would weep over money, status, and possessions. Epictetus had none. His perspective was to guard the freedom he had in his mind. To be uninfluenced by status, uncompromised by concerns over money or belongings — this was liberty.
I wanted to keep this message today short, so if you want to go deeper, check out last week’s post on defining freedom. In the modern age, we’re fortunate to now be raised with an understanding of how unjust (and evil) systems like slavery are. But we should be wary of thinking of chains only in the literal sense.
After all, some of us carry our prison with us wherever we go. Make choices this week that lead you toward more freedom to choose.
This is the way.
