Good morning and happy Friday, Geeky Stoics! This week, I put together a video essay I’ve been dying to make for well over a year. This is about Star Wars: Andor and whether or not the show supports a Marxist lens on freedom in a galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars fans online had a field day with the words and deeds of one character, Nemik, who not only writes a “manifesto” for the Rebellion but also wears in Ushanka-style hat. Naturally, this got the Tankies (online communists) a little excited.
In this video essay, being previewed FIRST for email subscribers to Geeky Stoics, I lay out why Nemik isn’t very Marxist. I begin with an assessment of his views on Self-Reliance, then turn to Andor’s nod to Natural Rights doctrine. And I conclude with my view on why Stoicism fills in the gaps left by political ideologies that claim to free mankind.
I would like your feedback in the comments section before launching this on YouTube. Any fat that could be trimmed or argument that can tightened up, I’d like to hear about it!
A beautiful excerpt from Nemik’s Manifesto
There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.
Remember this, Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.
Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empires’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.
Remember this: Try.
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