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Thoughts on The Light Side
Jan. 9th, 2019 06:21 pmI wanted to talk a bit about my perspective of the Light Side of the Force, and why I think it's as morally neutral as the Dark Side. Because my last discussion on the Dark Side focused on how it's not inherently evil, this discussion will also focus on how the Light Side is not inherently evil. Which might seem like it would just be echoing things that have already been said a million times, but I hope I might present a slightly different perspective, given that I don't think that the Dark Side is inherently evil, and I don't view the Light Side as inherently good either.
We are told in the Star Wars movies that peace, or calm, is an integral part of the Light Side. Calm is not, to me, a lack of emotion, but rather a lack of emotional volatility. It's not apathy, but lack of tension. That's something that can be very important for emotional health and for interacting with other people. Feeling something intensely is not equivalent to actually doing something about it, and sometimes we actually need to feel less intensely before we can properly act on our feelings. And sometimes we shouldn't act on them at all, and feeling less intensely about something can be helpful there as well.
In the OT, Yoda tells Luke that a component of the Light Side is passivity. Which is often seen as a negative trait in this society, but passivity is good if it prevents you from acting on an unwise impulse, or assists you in pausing in your actions for long enough to formulate a good response. In a society where we are asked to be in action when at all possible, where productivity is considered an unquestionable virtue, we lose this needed time for reflection.
Of course, there are times when feeling more intensely about something is better. But that's often not the case.
We are told in the Star Wars movies that peace, or calm, is an integral part of the Light Side. Calm is not, to me, a lack of emotion, but rather a lack of emotional volatility. It's not apathy, but lack of tension. That's something that can be very important for emotional health and for interacting with other people. Feeling something intensely is not equivalent to actually doing something about it, and sometimes we actually need to feel less intensely before we can properly act on our feelings. And sometimes we shouldn't act on them at all, and feeling less intensely about something can be helpful there as well.
In the OT, Yoda tells Luke that a component of the Light Side is passivity. Which is often seen as a negative trait in this society, but passivity is good if it prevents you from acting on an unwise impulse, or assists you in pausing in your actions for long enough to formulate a good response. In a society where we are asked to be in action when at all possible, where productivity is considered an unquestionable virtue, we lose this needed time for reflection.
Of course, there are times when feeling more intensely about something is better. But that's often not the case.
