Luke Skywalker was a Socialist.

...or a Capitalist.

I have been reading up on Star Wars Political Ideology and its pretty interesting.I was wondering if anyone had ever tried to decide what Political Ideology the Jedi would subscribe to.I looked around and it seems most people consider the Jedi to be Socialist or Libertarian. Maybe they were 'Libertarian Socialists'?

This is what a 'Jedi' from 'Ask a Jedi' thinks-

Text The Jedi Order absolutely believes in the rights of the individual. They support freedom of choice in all things. They also however support what I call, “Fair Business Practices” in that if they see someone profiting off of the suffering of others the Jedi Order generally steps in to correct the issue. The Jedi Order is a non-profit organization and also is known for the Jedi Service Corps, which is a group of non-Jedi Knights, usually those without the skill to become Padawans, who perform services to the Galaxy such as exploration, providing food and medical care to people, supplying free education where it is needed, aiding in the growing and production of crops, and a number of other things. The existence of the Service Corps alone, which we know has been used in the past to simply stop people who are profiteering off of others. (Oh, you are charging these primitive people that much for basic medical care? Right… Well we are now providing what you were charging for, for free.) Such actions on behalf of the Jedi Order seem to indicate a Socialist belief structure. Though, the Jedi Order has also been shown to be extremely willing to allow people to operate as they wish and only rarely forcibly use their abilities to shut them down.

Text If I had to list them off as one or the other, based on their own communal nature, their non-profit activities, and their previous behaviors I would say that they are more Socialist than Libertarian,

So the 'Jedi' says Jedi are socialists.

The Galactic Rebublic seemed to be Free Market and Capitalist, and the Galactic Empire seemed to be Communist. I found a clip today of a Cut Scene from Star Wars where Luke is talking with a guy about how the Empire is going to "nationalize commerce" .I cant embed the clip but here is a link

www.swifteconomics.com...

So Darth Vader was a Commie. And Luke was for a free market.

We know his uncle owned a business.And he didnt want the government to control it so he's not a Communist. We know he joined the Rebel Alliance and risked his life to fight a tyrannical government so he had a social conscience and valued liberty.He seemed to have a bit of a thing for Royality even before he knew he was Royalty so he may have been a bit of a Monarchist. He didnt seem very patriotic,he couldnt wait to leave Tatooine so I dont think he was a Nationalist at all,maybe he was a Globalist.Depending on your views in relation to the rights of Droids,Luke may be accused of being a 'slave owner' of sorts so he may not be cosidered to be very progressive. Umm... He carries a weapon and would be against Anti-Gun laws so not too liberal.He was for vigilante style justice so he may have been a bit of an Anarchist...He seemed open and tolerant toward other cultures so he may have been a bit of a Multiculturalist.He used to bullseye 'womp rats' in his T-16 back home so he wouldnt have joined the Animal Rights movement....sure there are more clues.

Anyway,wether he was a Socialist or Capitalist,who do you think Luke Skywalker would vote for in the 2012 election?

Would Luke be a Republican or a Democrat?

they were rebels trying to take down a regime, i guess luke was kinda like fidel castro.
I think in a way it shows how people are never happy, if you live in a democracy with capitalism eventually corporations rule. If you live in a communism without capitalism people say they are poor and hungry etc.

It's like a perpetual system of change that never leads to happiness yet people foolishly demand change anyway

I think he would go Libertarian and vote for Ron Paul.

reply to post by wlord

Text i guess luke was kinda like fidel castro.

I love that conversation in Clerks where they are talking about the construction guys and plumbers that would have been on the incomplete Death Star in Return of the Jedi. The Rebel Alliance are terrorists really

reply to post by theovermensch

Die Republican scum! Your Sith overlord demands it...
(who says ive been playing swtor ?)

reply to post by Cygnus_Hunter


Ha!

reply to post by theovermensch
You've probably seen this already, but just in case...

Are the Rebels terrorists, or is the Empire the NWO?

reply to post by magicrat


I actually hadnt seen that

Originally posted by theovermensch

We know his uncle owned a business.And he didnt want the government to control it so he's not a Communist. We know he joined the Rebel Alliance and risked his life to fight a tyrannical government so he had a social conscience and valued liberty.He seemed to have a bit of a thing for Royality even before he knew he was Royalty so he may have been a bit of a Monarchist. He didnt seem very patriotic,he couldnt wait to leave Tatooine so I dont think he was a Nationalist at all,maybe he was a Globalist.Depending on your views in relation to the rights of Droids,Luke may be accused of being a 'slave owner' of sorts so he may not be a liberal.Umm... He was for vigilante style justice so he may have been a bit of an Anarchist...He seemed open and tolerant toward other cultures so he may have been a bit of a Multiculturalist.He used to bullseye 'womp rats' in his T-16 back home so he wouldnt have joined the Animal Rights movement....sure there are more clues.

Brilliant analysis. My mind is a little bit blown by this. As with most people, it's probably hard to pin a definite label on Luke.

I wanted to add the new trilogy to the mix (Episode 1-3), where the introduction of Midi-Chlorians makes me wonder if there's a little bit of Scientology in the Jedi faith... but I guess that doesn't help sort out the socialism question.

reply to post by magicrat


I didnt think of scientology. The Jedi Council seem like secretive bureaucratic jerks at times. And Han Solo's opinion of Jedi at the start of Star Wars may be reflective of society in general at the time.Those wacky Jedi. Sounding more and more like scientology. I wonder if the Jedi Council had lawyers?

He was definitely a libertarian, I would imagine him to be a someone who fights for the state rather than the federal government. I would say the Jedi would be anarcho-communists with a bit of intense spirituality thrown in the mix. The empire would be fascist I imagine, a totalitarian government which controls all planets or all states. I imagine the worlds as democratic states (like in Naboo) until the empire take over and impose a Hitler like system with the clones being the Gestapo, which helps monitor everything in the Galaxies.

reply to post by Tea4One


I agree. Clear Libertarian leanings.

He was against big government for sure.



And the Empire seemed alot like a facists
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by theovermensch


All you have to do is look at the creator of the Jedi... George Lucas. In reference to Obama he said the following... "for all of us that have dreams and hope, he is a hero". You could also look at some of his political contributions.

George Lucas Campaign Contributions

To get to the point, he is just another progressive liberal billionaire like his friends Spielberg, Oprah, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, The Google guys, and pretty much every other filthy rich celebrity. Remember, socialism is never for the socialist... it is for the rest of us.

reply to post by theovermensch


Nah.....

Jedi was a freeman of the land

Darth Vader was communist

Luke Skywalker was a Republican

Hans Solo was a Nationist-Liberal

reply to post by OptimusSubprime

Text To get to the point, he is just another progressive liberal billionaire like his friends Spielberg, Oprah, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, The Google guys, and pretty much every other filthy rich celebrity. Remember, socialism is never for the socialist... it is for the rest of us.

Mark Cuban was on The Colbert Report a while ago and it was a blatant plug for billionaire's. Trying to say to the cool leftist hipsters "gross displays of wealth are great,dont protest". Blatant. The 'left' are genius at framing opinion. Colbert is funny but he is a puppet.So is Stewart.

reply to post by bluemirage5


Chewbacca was a tree hugger

And 'Droid Rights Activist'.


"I started to work on Star Wars rather than continue on Apocalypse Now. I had worked on Apocalypse Now for about four years and I had very strong feelings about it. I wanted to do it, but could not get it off the ground... A lot of my interest in Apocalypse Now was carried over into Star Wars. I figured I couldn't make that film because it was about the Vietnam War, so I would essentially deal with some of the same interesting concepts that I was going to use and convert them into space fantasy, so you'd have essentially a large technological empire going after a small group of freedom fighters or human beings... a small independent country like North Vietnam threatened by a neighbor or provincial rebellion, instigated by gangsters aided by empire... The empire is like America ten years from now, after Nixonian gangsters assassinated the Emperor and were elevated to power in a rigged election; created civil disorder by instigating race riots aiding rebel groups and allowing the crime rate to rise to the point where a 'total control' police state was welcomed by the people. Then the people were exploited with high taxes, utility and transport costs" - George Lucas, from "The Making of Star Wars: 7-8,17.
"

Originally posted by theovermensch
So the 'Jedi' says Jedi are socialists.


The Galactic Rebublic seemed to be Free Market and Capitalist,

The Jedi would be more relatable to something like a charitable organisation in terms of the services they provided, but with the religious aspect and the warriors, I would say they are probable mostly like the Templars from the Crusades. But, if we're looking for a modern analog and taking into account their role within the wider Republic, I would say the whole set up is very much a free market Social Democracy, kind of what you see in places like the UK or Sweden.

Originally posted by theovermensch
and the Galactic Empire seemed to be Communist. I found a clip today of a Cut Scene from Star Wars where Luke is talking with a guy about how the Empire is going to "nationalize commerce" .I cant embed the clip but here is a link

Not in the slightest. The Empire (and the Sith Empire before it) was facist. They promoted Humans above all other Alien life, only allowed Humans to serve in the Military and thought nothing of exterminating those they saw as undesirable. Also, look at their symbology.. It is clearly a Nazi analog.

Originally posted by theovermensch
So Darth Vader was a Commie.

And Luke was for a free market.

Vader (and all Sith) were Fascists. Big difference. Luke was just a bit of tit and spent most of his time not really aware of much going on. After the fall of the Empire, however, he seems to try and blend aspects of both the Republic and Empire...

Originally posted by theovermensch
We know his uncle owned a business.And he didnt want the government to control it so he's not a Communist. We know he joined the Rebel Alliance and risked his life to fight a tyrannical government so he had a social conscience and valued liberty.

Luke only joined the Rebellion after being sucked into it's affairs by the arrival of the droids. Prior to that, he was an Empire supporter and was going to study at the Imperial Naval Academy to become a fighter pilot. He had no problem with the Empire prior to this involvement with the Rebels.

Originally posted by theovermensch
He seemed to have a bit of a thing for Royality even before he knew he was Royalty so he may have been a bit of a Monarchist.

He wasn't Royalty. The Monarchy of Naboo is elective, not hereditary.

Originally posted by theovermensch
He didnt seem very patriotic,he couldnt wait to leave Tatooine so I dont think he was a Nationalist at all,maybe he was a Globalist.

As said, he was, up until the Empire killed his Uncle and Aunt, a supporter of theirs. Irnically, had Vader not had them killed but instead sought to bring him over to the Dark Side from this point, he would most likely have succeeded.

Originally posted by theovermensch
Depending on your views in relation to the rights of Droids,Luke may be accused of being a 'slave owner' of sorts so he may not be cosidered to be very progressive.

Like you said, depends on whether you think a toaster should have rights. But then, he did treat his droids well.

Originally posted by theovermensch
Umm... He carries a weapon and would be against Anti-Gun laws so not too liberal.He was for vigilante style justice so he may have been a bit of an Anarchist...He seemed open and tolerant toward other cultures so he may have been a bit of a Multiculturalist.He used to bullseye 'womp rats' in his T-16 back home so he wouldnt have joined the Animal Rights movement....sure there are more clues.

I'm not sure if you could describe him as massively tolerant. When he first meets Yoda, he assumes he can't possibly be him because he's a small green goblin. He was expecting soemone like Obi Wan, hitning he had preconceived prejudices. Also, considering the frontier lifestyle he lived, weapons were a must, rather than a right so it would difficult to tell what his actual views are on that.

Originally posted by theovermensch
Anyway,wether he was a Socialist or Capitalist,who do you think Luke Skywalker would vote for in the 2012 election?

Would Luke be a Republican or a Democrat?

Depends on when in his life you want us to reference from. Are we asking who he'd vote for prior to meeting Obi Wan, or after he defeated Palpatine/Vader? I think that before he got involved in the Rebellion, he'd support a more right wing candidate. Afterwards, his views would have no doubt changed and would probably vote in someone who would repair the damage done, so likely swing left as they would be big on social projects.

reply to post by magicrat


I'm not sure if this has been mentioned as I just watched this you-tube, and wanted to comment on this.... but the empire did blow up Alderain first. There were innocent people down there. I would compare that to the WTC than the deathstar. I'm sorry if this is redundant.

reply to post by stumason


I concur with what you have said. Luke was loyal to the empire and wanted to attend college. He wanted primarily to get off the rock in which he hated and only became involved after a crazy turn of events. Some retired terrorist cave dweller named Obi Wan caught him at a time when he was most vulnerable and essentially started training him as the most dangerous terrorist in existence.

The Empire in Star Wars is very similar to the US (At least what it's leadership aspires it to be seemingly).