What Sets You Free?

An essay on the Jedi & Sith, and their dueling philosophies on freedom

“The Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost every way, including their quest for greater power.”

This is one of Palpatine’s many observations shared with Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, offered for the purpose of tempting Anakin toward the Dark Side. While much of what Palpatine, a Sith Lord, says to Anakin in that film is true, this is one of the most straight-faced lies he delivers.

The Jedi Order and Sith both would prefer to have power in how the galaxy is managed. But they are not alike. To equate them simply because the Sith and Jedi both value political power is to ignore everything each side believes in.

For the purpose of This Is The Way, a newsletter dedicated to finding tools for self-improvement within Star Wars, we’ll focus on just one of their divergent beliefs.

What most separates the Jedi and Sith is how they define freedom.

First! Some housekeeping

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Back to Star Wars

As I was saying, what most separates the Jedi and Sith is how they define freedom. Rival schools of philosophy have debated for thousands of years what it means to be free, and if we are even free agents with the ability to chart our own futures. The ancient philosophers Plato and Aristotle once led a discourse on “free will” after Plato wrote that the human condition from birth is to be enslaved to passions.

That means our most basic desires: Food, drink, sex, and control.

Wisdom and liberation from these natural vices, Plato thought, came from mastery of those invisible forces within us. Subjugating them, instead of the other way around.

The Jedi Order embodies this kind of stoic, monkish tradition that Plato articulated. They viewed attachments, passions, and emotion as forces that make it harder for Jedi to think clearly and make “good choices”

So they would try to abstain from those things. So as to be free of their pull.

Free will, they might say, is enhanced by limiting your range of choices in life.

Refusing to ever touch a cigarette means that you’ll never have to feel that pain of nicotine addiction dragging you outside to smoke during your child’s championship basketball game. The same goes for alcohol or any other addictive behavior. You can’t feel the anxiety of addiction to social media if you’ve never had a Twitter or Instagram account.

The Sith believe that our lives come with the chains of oppression built in. That we’re stuck in a sort of spiritual slavery, born into the service of others.

Those others may be employers, parents, teachers, or in the case of Anakin Skywalker, an actual slaveowner. Their idea was to break the chains of life by indulging your every desire. No restraint. Only selfishness and consumption.

Here’s the Jedi Code:

There is no emotion, there is peace

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge

There is no passion, there is serenity

There is no chaos, there is harmony

There is no death, there is the Force

Now check out the Code of the Sith:

Peace is a lie. There is only Passion.

Through Passion I gain Strength.

Through Strength I gain Power.

Through Power I gain Victory.

Through Victory my chains are Broken

The Force shall free me.

You’ve got here two completely divergent schools of thought. The Sith view the Force as a tool you would use to pick the lock on your chains or to bash them open. The Force is a weapon to them, a means to an end.

The Jedi, of course, try to be servants of the Force. They aren’t perfect at this, but that’s their calling. They listen, abide, and surrender to the Force’s direction for their lives.

The Jedi and the Sith have nothing in common. There’s a saying I hear often in politics, which is that your opponents will try to trip you up by accusing you of what they are actively doing. It’s projection. The Sith view everything in terms of power dynamics. It’s no wonder that Palpatine said this to Anakin and Anakin gobbled it up, naively.

I believe what sets you free is freedom from want and self-mastery.

Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher and one-time slave, spoke much about this in his lectures. Epictetus taught his students:

Our master is anyone who has the power to implement or prevent the things that we want or don’t want. Whoever wants to be free, therefore, should wish for nothing that is up to other people. Failing that, one is bound to be a slave.

I’ll translate for simplicity…..

Our master is anyone who has the power to implement or prevent the things that we want or don’t want | We are not free if we actively seek out things that must be given to us by the grace of another person or fate

Whoever wants to be free, therefore, should wish for nothing that is up to other people. Failing that, one is bound to be a slave | Make your own way in life. If something requires permission by another person, a loan or a favor, you’re in that person’s debt.

Don’t crave for a large house if you can’t afford a large house out of pocket. To get that house, you’ll be owned the bank that finances it. Don’t pine for a beautiful car that you can’t buy on your own. A bank loan or family loan, means they own the car….and you.

The Jedi partake in less of the world’s pleasures because they don’t want to be compromised when the Force leads them toward a certain decision or calling. The fewer attachments they have, the fewer debts or needs they have developed — the more they can serve others.

The Sith don’t serve anyone but themselves. So they needn’t be concerned with such matters.

We live in the real world

You do, however, need to be concerned with such things.

You can’t lust after a product or vice you’ve never consumed.

You can’t be buried by interest on a loan you never felt you must have.

You can’t be controlled by anyone if you insist on making your own way in this world, free of the permission of others.

This is easier said than done. But it’s worth striving for.

After all, your freedom is at stake.