Star Wars Conspiracy – Is Star Wars About The Holocaust?
Is there a resemblance between the Darth Sidious Dictatorship and Adolf Hitler’s? Take a look at how the past can quickly repeat itself if we don’t stand up to the Dark Side.
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Star Wars raised many questions. Some it never answered. Like, what the hell’s a sleigh boy doing building a protocol droid or why do they keep adding blades to light sabers?
>> Hm. Could be.
>> Well one question that it did answer is how does a democracy become a dictatorship?
Star Wars tells the story of how a peaceful and prosperous republic becomes an evil empire. A political transformation with a well known example here in our galaxy. No R2, Germany and a selection of the Nazi party. As we’ll see, both transformations were primarily driven by fear. Let’s take a look.
Germany was mired in depression in the 1920’s and 30’s. Deflation and monetary failure became so severe many Germans couldn’t help but feel upset and disappointed. Star Wars Episode 1 also begins with a crisis, an invasion of the peaceful planet of Naboo. Both Hitler in Germany and Palpatine in Star Wars exploited the partisan and bureaucratic divisions handcuffing their respective legislatures to become chancellors.
Shockingly, these moves were supported by popular will. Once in office, both Hitler and Palpatine used fear to acquire dictatorial powers. Hitler used the fear generated by the Reichstag fire to obtain emergency powers suspending democratic rights. Palpatine capitalized on the fear generated by the separatist movement to convince the senate to grant him dictatorial powers on an emergency basis.
Which he promptly used to build a grand army. Neither Germans nor members of the Star Wars republic wanted to live under a dictatorship but fear was leading them to this inevitable fate. Both Hitler and Palpatine would then use fear to consolidate their power. Hitler used the threat of force and his willingness to punish his opponents to convince the German Senate to pass an enabling act granting him dictatorial powers on a permanent basis, while Palpatine used the menace of ongoing security threats, like the purported plot by Jedi to overthrow government, to declare himself Emperor of the first Galactic Empire.
He even used the disfigurement of his face to achieve his goals.
>> It’s exactly like that. Senator Amudala said it best.
>> So this is how liberty dies? With thunderous applause.
>> Finally, each use fear to maintain their power. Palpatine used his grand army to exterminate his most concrete threat, the Jedi.
>> Execute all the 66.
>> Hitler used his military apparatus like the Dreaded SS to persecute anyone who challenged him politically and to enact the genocide of Jewish citizens and other minorities who threatened his vision of a pure Germany. That doesn’t sound like the kind of place you’d want to live right R2?
>> Germany isn’t the only example of this pattern. Rome followed the same path from republic to empire, as did Napoleonic France. Being mindful of this pattern is especially important today as nations often consider suspending and even outright revoking constitutional threats in response to security threats. Yoda wasn’t just right when he prophesized that fear was the path to the dark side.
>> Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
>> Fear is also the path from democracy to dictatorship. For Learn Liberty, I’m REMY. C’mon R2.
>> I promise R2 will make you look better in editing. Yes, yes, just like they did with Hahn and Gritto.
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