Jedi Ethics and the Force

[Bren]

I found this article by Thomas Kolar: Trust Your Feelings, Anakin. But Not Anger. very interesting.

I think the Mr. Kolar does a very nice job of laying out some of the ethical conflicts and possible inconsistencies of the Jedi and Sith philosophies that we see in the films and his proposed solution for Jedi ethics / moral philosophy is interesting.

What do other's think?

Also, anybody know this guy? He should be posting here.

[southpaw]

Hey thanks for that Bren, great article. I think I'll be using his definitions in my campaign. Cheers!

[Esoomian]

Great article, for me at least it raises more questions than it answers. Even the issue of selfishness and rejecting the oneness of the Force isn't as black and white as it seems.

At some point selflessness has to have limits. One cannot give of themselves indefinately and so in order to continue to be a force for good in the universe you have to know how much is too much and when to lose a battle in order to win a war.

I'm reminded of the Cosmic Balance philosphy discussed in the Truce at Bakura novel.
_________________
Don't waste money on expensive binoculars.

Simply stand closer to the object you wish to view.

[Fallon Kell]

I'm always glad to see more evidence that I'm not alone in noticing these problems!

The only way I can see to rectify The Force as a whole is to assume that the people of the Star Wars Galaxy have deified an impersonal force of nature or energy field, that they don't understand. Then they attribute to it many things it doesn't have, including a will, light and dark sides, and morality.

This is like if a large branch of humanity began to worship electromagnetism, and decided to start carrying out the Will of Electricity...
_________________
Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[CRMcNeill]

I like what he wrote. It reminds me of some of the argument that Vergere made to both Jacen and Luke in the NJO series with regards to the Force, in that non-sentient beings living in harmony with the Force still engage in what would technically be considered "Dark Side" emotions: anger, fear and aggression. After all, anger is what motivates an animal to defend its mate or its offspring, fear is what motivates prey animals to run if they sense a threat, aggression is what motivates a predator to seek out and kill other living beings for nourishment. So where is the line drawn? At what point do these natural (and in many cases healthy) emotions become Dark?
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Whill]

[Fallon Kell]

[Whill]

[Urban Spaceman]

I found the article interesting, and it raises some good points of debate, which may find their way in to my game.
Ultimately though, I fall in to the camp of prefering to have some of the concepts undefined, as it gives me room to explore things with my players, rather than have it be set in stone.
_________________
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

[Mikael Hasselstein]

[Bren]

[JT Swift]

I liked this article. Though I tend to define things in terms of what the Force's overall goal is rather then just saying the lightside of the Force is that which works to eliminate the Dark.

If life creates the Force and makes it grow, then an obvious potential goal of the Force would be to make itself bigger. Some of WEG stuff spoke of the Force achieving complexity and possibly even conciousness though the lives of sapient beings. So I see the Force as wanting to become bigger and more aware.

To that end, anything that promotes sapient life in the galaxy is part of the Will of the Force - Whether that's a ruthless Sith who's willing to make all the hard violence choices to maximize the good of the many or the Jedi who makes himself the servant of all and works to make things better from the bottom up.

The Jedi tap into the Force through quiet concious contemplation. A deep and mindful peering into the subtle eminations of their own Midiclur - into there own spiritual connection with the Force.

The Sith submit thenselves totally to their instinctive and emotionally driven desires. They ride the hate, fear, paranoia, and desperate need for validation from others.

Both are influanced by the Force that unconciously motivates them. But while the Jedi strive to filter out their own primel urges to hear the pure voice of the Force, the Sith see no difference between their own primal instincts and the instincts that the Force gives them. It shapes and even warps the Force's message. And it is a message they are possessed by.

According to "Dark Empire" Palpatine sought to attain eternal life, denying his soul to ever becoming one with the Force. Worse he had the population of whole planets where he could drain the Force of others into himself. The Force saw this as being beyond light and dark. That Palpatine had distorted the Force's Will to the point where the Force was feeding him. And so it created Anakin, who was destined to destroy Palpatine and bring about balance.
_________________
- J.T. Swift

For Everything about the TARDIS check out
http://www.whoniverse.net/tardis/

For all things Gallifreyan check out
http://meshyfish.com/~roo/index.html

[Azai]

I liked the article too. I have always been frustrated by Obi-won saying "Only Sith deals in absolutes" Therefore declaring himself at the moment a Sith, and then making Yoda one later in Empire when he says. "Do or Do not. There is no try."

I have long done away with the star wars concept of light side and dark side in my games. I play it that the force isn't good nor evil. It isn't anything, it is a neutral power that automatically seems to give life to the galaxy. It does care on way or the other. The sentient life is what projects their own ideas of morals, on what affects them in the galaxy. Kinda like the force doesn't weep when a child goes hunger, nor when a star goes supernova devouring planets.

Then it just comes down to how people use it in my games. As in my personal believe I think nothing is ever just black or white.

At the same time for people that do a lot of "evil" things, I do assign DSPs(Just the sake of a gameplay mechanic I came up with). Any player the gets more then Five DSPs has to start roll on the "Corruption" tables, whenever they get a now one. Corruption of mind or Corruption of body. Just to have some fun.

[Naaman]

I tend to think that the newer movies were tainted by political propaganda disguised as "drama."

A lot of the dialog in the movies is very poorly thought-out.

The idea of a "darkside" is just fine with me, so long as all players agree that the darkside is not effectively half of the Force (which even some "canonical" sources seem to portray), rather, it is just the corruption that lives in the heart of a person (usually a Force user).

Therefore, a line like "the darkside clouds everything" means only that the Force is out of balance or harmony. Not that a mystic shadow is lingering over the energy field. Basically, if the Force wants to be a still pond, smooth as glass, the darkside is anything that causes ripples in the pond, making it difficult to "see" into the water or what the water reflects.

As it pertains to the Sith in particular, the old saying "power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely," seems to be aligned with the philosophy behind the Sith being evil (which they clearly are). Using the Force for evil doesn't make a person anymore evil than he already is, rather, his amazing power over the universe drives him to corruption faster than if he could not use the Force.

[garhkal]

Agreed. To me the force should be more defined as dark/light, but there should also be more to the 'in between grey area.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!