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Right Wing X is currently filled with pro-Anakin posts, including
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one by Elon Musk featuring an AI fan image of
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Emperor Anakin with his wife Padme and two children in
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Imperial officer uniforms with the caption, This is what they
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took from us. Now, some of the Anakin posts are
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obviously just fun memes, and that is what it is.
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But something's obviously being revealed here with the energy behind
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these posts, and many people are outright stating what that is.
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You've got the boomer-coated Jedi who didn't prepare the way
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for the coming generation and actually stifled it by handing
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off the baggage of bloated liberalism in a society that
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is stacked against those who are starting fresh, and especially
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so for white males. Palpatine offered Anakin affirmation of his
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passions and recognition of how he had been slighted. The
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Empire more broadly also provides stability in order that modern, indulgent,
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diverse liberalism could never offer. Against this backdrop, it seems
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that it is not Palpatine who fundamentally failed Anakin, but
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rather the Jedi who disenfranchised him from his heritage and
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his potential, leaving him isolated and alone. Now, even with
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this reading, Palpatine is not usually seen as a hero,
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but he at least affirmed Anakin's potential, and he presented
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a pathway of success and belonging. Now, what do we
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do with this? There's obviously some truth here, and so
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who is actually to blame for the downfall of Anakin Skywalker?
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Is it the Jedi who raised and disenfranchised him? Is
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it Palpatine who empowered him? Or is it Anakin himself?
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This is what we're going to be discussing today on
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Mythic Mind Exploring the Psyche. I'm Dr. Andrew Snyder, and
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I am glad that you're here. I want to begin
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by saying that I really do get the Anakin allegiance,
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at least to an extent, and I think that his
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character is particularly situated for this kind of treatment right now.
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The prequels were really looked down on for much of
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their life until they came into their own much later,
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and really seemed to reassert themselves. Whether it's from the
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ubiquitous meme-age, or the stories they tell, or just pure nostalgia,
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it seems like most people who are into Star Wars
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have gained appreciation for these films over time. even if
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it is recognized that they still aren't fantastic on an
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objective level. Much of the dialogue is choppy and out
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of place, and many people have suggested worthwhile plot improvements.
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For my part, I think these could have been truly
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great films if there was more of a focus on
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the inner workings of Anakin's psychology. However, my point is
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not actually to critique the films right now. For now,
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we're just going to take them as they are. And
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even as they are, they have reasserted themselves in the
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public sphere. And many millennials, especially disaffected white males, feel
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like they have a similar story of being put down
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for their entire lives, only recently to start feeling some
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kind of affirmed identity. And again, for such millennials, and
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apparently many Zoomers, is a symbol of one who was
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denied an inheritance and denied the affirmation that he needed,
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yet learned to reject the system and do what was
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necessary to effect change and reach for the future that
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he envisioned. Now, I get that there's really something appealing
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about this kind of vision. I really do. I mean,
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there's something cool about Emperor Anakin. He seems like somebody
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with real autonomy, someone who makes real choices, someone who
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isn't defined by the system in which he finds himself,
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but he instead moves to define the system according to himself.
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He was brought into a corrupt and disordered republic with
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all the pitfalls that liberalism brings, such as libertinism, disharmonious pluralism,
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and an institutionalism with unclear rules that made it difficult
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for someone like Anakin to find a place. The closest
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thing that he had to a father was Qui-Gon, who
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died in his youth, leaving him with Obi-Wan, who was
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ill-equipped for that job. In fact, in one of the
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more profound demonstrations of this reality, when at one point
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Anakin tells Obi-Wan that he was like a father to him,
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and later Obi-Wan says that they were brothers, the person
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best situated to be Anakin's father figure misunderstood his role,
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and thereby did not properly invest in Anakin, who was
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his son in practical terms. This means that Anakin was
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fatherless and lost in a system that didn't seem to
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be working for him. And this describes so many people today,
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and it also describes even more people who mistakenly identify
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their lives in this way. And so, who did fail Anakin?
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The Republic certainly wasn't ideal. The Jedi didn't do right
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by him. Qui-Gon can't really factor in here, but Obi-Wan
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certainly didn't fulfill his duty. Now, of course, in Obi-Wan's defense,
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it might be said that he wasn't really ready for
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that role. He didn't ask for that role. But the
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reality is, that role was given to him, and he
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could have done better with it. Now, what about Palpatine?
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I think it's pretty obvious that he failed Anakin as well.
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He offered him a path to success and fulfillment, first
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through the promise of saving Padme, but, of course, Palpatine
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never really intended to actually help him save Padme. And
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one of the Anakin posts that I recently saw tried
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to argue that Palpatine loved Anakin more than many grandparents
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love their grandchildren, which is just absurd. Palpatine only loved
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Anakin in the same way that the witch loved Hansel.
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Even if you convince yourselves to be pro-Empire somehow, there's
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no coherent argument that Palpatine himself is a good guy,
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or that he is ultimately good for Anakin. Palpatine only
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hopes to stoke Anakin's disordered desires, and that's where I
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think we really need to focus. So yes, there are
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many people who we might say failed Anakin Skywalker, but
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of course, so did Anakin Skywalker, however much sympathy we
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might have for him in his positions. The reality is
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that we are all given so many things that we
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didn't choose. Now, I'm no Martin Heidegger fan, but he
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was onto something in referring to human existence as Dasein
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or being there, emphasizing that we are thrown into this life,
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not choosing to be born at all, much less when, where,
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or to whom. Some people start off with better or
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worse allotments of fortune, but we aren't responsible for the
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facts of existence that we inherited. We can't control that.
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We are responsible for what we can control. which is, namely,
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how we relate to ourselves, the world, as it's given
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to us, and to God. We can decide what it
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is that we want. And better yet, we have a
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responsibility to figure out what it is that we should
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want and to cultivate the right affections accordingly. Now, that
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sounds hard, right? Cultivating the right affections. Finding out not
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just what we want, but what we should want. That
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sounds hard. It would obviously be so much easier if
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we could just stand on our passions and get our
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passions affirmed. and then grab the levers of power, maybe
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even blow up a planet or two that stands in
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our way, and reshape the galaxy. But even if you
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succeed at that, and it's not likely that you will,
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you will fail the task of becoming an authentic human self.
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You'll be purely externalized, like an image that forgot what
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it images. And that's exactly what happened to Anakin, who
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pursued his alleged birthright at the expense of his true nature,
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and so betrayed himself for nothing. However, he didn't seem
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to do this for nothing. In a certain sense, he didn't.
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He had real desires, but they were disordered. He lost
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the good for the sake of goods, and thereby he
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lost the goods that he sought.
I want to emphasize
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four particularly disordered desires in Anakin. And each of these
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desires begins with something genuine, something that's genuinely desirable. And
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each ends by looking outside of himself for what finally
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has to be appropriated inwardly as one who is in
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the truth. The first that I want to look at,
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and obviously a major driving one, is his relation to Padme.
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And Anakin does love Padme, at least from a certain
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point of view. And anyone who denies that hasn't watched
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the films. However, in time it becomes evident that what
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Anakin loves most is not actually Padme as a person
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to be received and to be honored. What he loves
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far more is the prospect of being the one who
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can save her. He loves the power of rescue more
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than he does the actual woman. He loves the role
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of savior, more than the costly work of husbandry. And
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that distinction actually matters because those two loves will finally
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be put in opposite direction. The power to save, the
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power to provide, is not the same thing as actually
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providing for the certain person that you were actually with.
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And notice how Palpatine recruits Anakin. He pulls on this
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disordered desire. He says that he will help Anakin discover
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the secret of cheating death. Not of loving Padme well,
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but of cheating death. And Anakin answers, Just help me
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save Padme's life. I can't live without her. And that
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sentence sounds like devotion, but underneath it's actually panic in
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its possession. Padme has become the condition of Anakin's being.
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If she dies, he believes he cannot live. And that's
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not the speech of a man who has learned to
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love her within the truth. That's the speech of a
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man who has made her his ground of being, and
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that's not healthy for anybody involved. Kierkegaard discusses something like
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this in The Sickness Unto Death, regarding the man who
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says he must be Caesar or he is nothing. There's
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nothing wrong with setting goals, and of course, Anakin's goal
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of saving Padme is a good one. He should want
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to save her and do what he can to save her. However,
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his desperation is actually more about himself than it is
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about her, and that demonstrates the demonic kind of love
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that can appear to be devout but is in truth consuming.
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He did not want her good as much as he
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wanted to be her good, and that is a very
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different thing. On Mustafar, the disorder becomes very obvious. Padme
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comes to him saying that she was worried, that Obi-Wan
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has told her terrible things, that all she wants is
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his love. And Anakin says, love won't save you, Padme.
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Only my new powers can do that. That is his confession.
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Love will not do. Power alone will do. He continues
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that he will not lose her the way that he
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lost his mother, that he has become more powerful than
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any Jedi dreamed, and that he is doing it for
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her to protect her. And then we get this wrapped
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up in the Imperial fantasy. They don't have to run
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away anymore. He can overthrow the Chancellor. Together, they can
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rule the galaxy and make things as they want them
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to be. Padme hears the villainy dressed up as justice
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and says, Anakin, you're breaking my heart. You're going down
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a path that I can't follow. The woman that he
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claimed to be saving cannot follow the path of her
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salvation as he defines it. Because, of course, it's not genuine.
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It's wrapped up in him rather than in her good. So,
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of course, she can't go down that path. He's no
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longer relating to Padme as a person. He is instead
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relating to his fear of loss and to the glory
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of being the one who conquers death. When Obi-Wan appears,
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Anakin chokes the very person that he swore to preserve,
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showing that it was never truly her that he was
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devoted to. Her would-be savior becomes her greatest threat, and
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grasping always does this. Anakin grasps after power, And he,
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in turn, is grasped by power. And if you love
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being needed more than you love the person who needs you,
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then you'll eventually end up harming that person for the
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sake of your need. Anakin's first failure is not that
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he loves Padme. His first failure is that he will
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not receive her as a gift. He must secure her
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as his project, as his possession. And that's already the
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Imperial will taken form in his relationships. Now, the second
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disorder desire that I want to talk about concerns justice.
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Anakin has some genuine and justifiable grievances against the Jedi,
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and I'm not going to soften that. The Order fears
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attachment more than it forms passion, more than it rightly
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orders desire. It treats love as a liability to manage,
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rather than a fire to be ordered toward the good.
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And he was put on the Council, but not given
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the rank of Master, because the Council wants his power,
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but distrusts him as a person. And that combination breeds
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bitterness in almost anyone. to be used, but not to
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be valued, not to be respected, not to be esteemed.
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When Anakin comes to Yoda, terrified of his vision to
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Padme's death, Yoda responds by saying, Train yourself to let
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go of everything you fear to lose. That is not
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a solution. That is stoic detachment. And as much as
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I find value in stoic wisdom, there's something very inauthentic
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and dehumanizing about this. Losses matter because love matters, life matters,
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people matter. Significant things are truly significant even if they
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shouldn't be the entire basis of our identity Jedi wisdom
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in this regard is a betrayal of real human love
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and I think that that's true also as I've already
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mentioned I mean there's there's a clear failure of apprenticeship
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between Obi-Wan and Anakin Anakin needs a father and Obi-Wan
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clearly loves Anakin like that. That's pretty obvious And when
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--> 00:12:41.049
he says, you know, I failed you Anakin. I failed
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you he obviously is means that. And so he was
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failed by the Jedi code itself, he was failed by
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the Jedi council more broadly, and he was failed by
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his Jedi master Obi-Wan. So clearly the Jedi order failed Anakin. However,
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Anakin doesn't answer that failure with justice and wisdom and prudence.
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He trades the hard work of reform, he trades the
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hard work of reform for the nihilistic power of an
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impatient revolutionary. He becomes the reformer who cannot wait for
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the good to be done well, and so he does
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evil in the name of urgency. Palpatine teaches him the
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philosophical solution first. At the opera, he says, Good is
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a point of view, Anakin. Once good is only a
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point of view, the only remaining question is who has
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the strength to impose a point of view. And that
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is not justice, that is pure will. And as Kierkegaard says,
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As soon as it comes to the point that the
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crowd is to judge what is truth, It will not
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be long before decisions are made with fists, or we
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might say a lightsaber. Anakin then accepts technique in place
253
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of virtue. Palpatine offers the legend of Darth Plagueis, who
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could keep the ones he cared about from dying. When
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Anakin asks if it's possible to learn this power, Palpatine responds,
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not from a Jedi. The Jedi ask him to become
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a certain kind of person. Palpatine offers him a power play.
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And modern people know that temptation. We often want the
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image of character, of justice, of virtue, without the suffering
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and sacrifice required to become the kind of person that
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we want to be and to make the meaningful changes
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that we want to make. And so Anakin joins the
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cause that promises to cleanse the corruption at once. Once more,
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the Sith shall rule the galaxy and we shall have peace.
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And peace in that utterance means the silence that comes
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after conquest. Anakin then marches on
the Jedi Temple, he
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slaughters the younglings, and then he goes off to kill
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the Separatist leaders. And he tells Obi-Wan, I have brought peace, freedom, justice,
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and security to my new empire. And every one of
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those words, peace, freedom, justice, and security, they name a
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real good. The impatient revolutionary is almost always seeking after
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real goods, but what he will not accept is the
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slow fidelity by which goods are actually kept without being
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seized and turned into evils. Anakin's grievance was partly just,
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but his answer was not justice. It was grasping, dressed
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up as reform. Now, I am not suggesting that we
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forego the real fight against corruption and genuine weakness. The
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point is not passivity. The point is that a fight
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for justice, which abandons wisdom, simply becomes another tyranny, and
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usually a faster one. Now, the third disorder desire is
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Anakin's longing for paternal affirmation. And this longing is genuine.
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He was a slave boy taken from his mother. He
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was called the Chosen One, but then he was held
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at a distance. He wanted a father, and Palpatine seemed
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to fulfill that role for a time. And think about
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how Palpatine speaks to him across the prequels. He notices
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Anakin from the first movie. He praises him. He confides
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in him. He frames the Jedi as a people who
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don't trust him and will never understand him. He sounds
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like a lot of modern influencers trying to reach the
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Zoomer audience. And when the final choice arrives, Palpatine cries
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that he has the power to save the one Anakin loves.
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And Anakin answers by pledging himself to Palpatine in his teachings.
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Palpatine embraces him and gives him a new name. The
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orphan receives a name from a false father. And that's
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not nothing. It's something. Names matter. Affirmation matters. The tragedy
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is that the affirmation is purchased by the obedience to
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a lie. rather than out of genuine love. Imprudence and
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indulgence lead Anakin into the witch's candy house. And you
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00:16:36.250 --> 00:16:39.570
know the story. Hansel and Gretel are hungry, lost, and
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ready to trust the house that feeds them. The candy
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is real sugar, but the house is still a trap.
303
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Palpatine's affirmation is real attention, but it's still a trap.
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Anakin eats because he is hungry, and because he will
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not endure the hunger long enough to find the true bread.
306
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He indulges the part of himself that wants to be
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told that he was right all along, that his passions
308
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need no ordering, that his sliding justifies any means of response.
309
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Imprudence is not stupidity. There's something real going on here.
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But imprudence is the refusal to see past the sweetness
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to the oven. By the end, the false father almost
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entirely has consumed him. He becomes more machine than man.
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The candy house always ends with consumption. The one who
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promised to save Anakin from powerlessness makes him dependent on
315
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a respirator and a master. Anakin looked outside for a father,
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and he found a devourer who knew how to sound
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like one. And these three desires that I've been talking
318
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about share a deeper pattern, and this is the unifying diagnosis.
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From just about every angle, Anakin is looking externally for
320
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something that needs to be internally appropriated as one who
321
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is in the truth. He reacts to fortunes. instead of
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determining who he is in relation to fortune. And Kierkegaard
323
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helps here. To be in the truth is not merely
324
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to have correct opinions about the Jedi Council or the Republic.
325
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It's to become the kind of self who relates rightly
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to God, and therefore rightly to fear, to love, to grievance,
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and to affirmation. The part of you that's engaged with
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temporal moving fortune is also grounded in the eternal realities
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00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:19.819
of the way that things ought to be, the way
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that you ought to be. And so appropriation is inward,
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and nobody can do that for you. Mentors might fail you.
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Institutions might slight you. A chancellor can flatter you. But
333
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none of that decides the final question, which is who
334
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you will be in the face of what happens to you.
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And Boethius saw the same thing from a prison cell.
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while the Wheel of Fortune turned against him. In the
337
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Consolation of Philosophy, Lady Philosophy speaks to him about fortune
338
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with a severity that Anakin never accepts. She says, So
339
00:18:50.779 --> 00:18:53.279
now you have committed yourself to the Rule of Fortune.
340
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You must acquiesce in her ways. If you are trying
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to stop her wheel from turning, you are of all
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men most obtuse. For once it begins to stop, it
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will no longer be the Wheel of Chance. Anakin tries
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to stop the wheel. He has nightmares of Padme dying,
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He has memories of his mother dying. He has a
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counsel that will not make him master. Fortune, as he
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experiences it, it's a slight, it's dread. Rather than determining
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who he is in relation to that mutability, he tries
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to seize a power that would make Fortune herself obey him.
350
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And that is why Palpatine's offer is so perfectly aimed.
351
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He says to cheat death, secure the beloved, reorder the galaxy,
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make the wheel stand still under your hand. And Boethius
353
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already told us what that desire is. It's stupidity about
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the nature of fortune, and it is bondage to the
355
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very mistress that you hope to master. On Mustafar, Anakin says,
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from my point of view, the Jedi are evil. And again,
357
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he's appealing to this relativism that was given to him
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by Palpatine. Relativism is the philosophy of a man who
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00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.579
has handed his center over to circumstance and then calls
360
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the result insight. Later, when he's burning in the volcanic fires,
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he screams, I hate you, And Obi-Wan answers, you were
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my brother, Anakin. I loved you. Hatred is what remains
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when a self that was organized around controlling fortune finally
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loses control. Love, even wounded love, however, still knows what
365
00:20:23.329
--> 00:20:26.589
it is. Because real love is a decision that's based
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on something other than circumstance. Now let's jump ahead a
367
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bit to Return of the Jedi. Luke feels the same
368
00:20:32.750 --> 00:20:36.089
darkness that Anakin felt. He's tempted to strike the Emperor
369
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in hatred. And for a moment, he almost becomes his
370
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father in the worst sense. But then he refuses the
371
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emperor's bargain. He says that I'll never turn to the
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dark side. You failed, your highness. I am a Jedi
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like my father before me. Luke does not try to
374
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stop the Wheel of Fortune by becoming its emperor. He
375
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determines who he is in relation to the wheel. And
376
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the father who could not be saved by power is
377
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saved when he finally does the same thing. Dying, Anakin
378
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tells Luke, you were right. You are right about me.
379
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Tell your sister you were right. The man who spent
380
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years reacting to fortune dies as one who has, at
381
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the very last, appropriated a truth that he could have
382
00:21:18.569 --> 00:21:22.170
lived out earlier, that he was still Anakin, that he
383
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was capable of making a decision, that he was capable
384
00:21:25.750 --> 00:21:28.569
of love, and that he was still responsible for making
385
00:21:28.609 --> 00:21:32.970
that decision. And so who actually failed Anakin Skywalker? The
386
00:21:33.019 --> 00:21:36.410
Jedi failed him as mentors, that's true. Palpatine preyed on him,
387
00:21:36.450 --> 00:21:40.890
that's obviously true. The Republic's corruption set a stage. However,
388
00:21:41.109 --> 00:21:46.599
most fundamentally, Anakin also failed Anakin by refusing the inward
389
00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:49.819
work that no mentor can actually complete for you, that
390
00:21:49.880 --> 00:21:54.019
no society can complete for you. External failure becomes damnation
391
00:21:54.500 --> 00:21:58.140
only when it is answered by grasping rather than by appropriation.
392
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In truth, imperial will to power and liberal licentiousness are
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not actual alternatives, They are both different forms of the
394
00:22:06.529 --> 00:22:10.059
same dehumanization. The will to power says that life is
395
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the discharge of strength. Nietzsche wrote that life itself is
396
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the will to power. His claim is that living things
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seek to expend and expand force, and that moral talk
398
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often masks that drive. Anakin's fall tracks that philosophy in
399
00:22:24.660 --> 00:22:28.390
narrative form. He has strength without a trained heart. He
400
00:22:28.410 --> 00:22:32.470
has passion without ordered love. The self is treated as
401
00:22:32.529 --> 00:22:35.970
a measure of reality. make things the way we want
402
00:22:36.009 --> 00:22:38.329
them to be. But of course, in so doing, you
403
00:22:38.349 --> 00:22:41.349
don't actually have a reality to ascend to. There's no
404
00:22:41.369 --> 00:22:45.460
real ideal to move up toward because you are simply
405
00:22:45.500 --> 00:22:48.420
defining the good. You're defining the ideal in accordance with
406
00:22:48.460 --> 00:22:50.839
whatever it is that you happen to like. That's not
407
00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:54.420
the same thing as actually pursuing real justice. It's actually
408
00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:58.559
a form of great weakness. And soft licentiousness says nearly
409
00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:00.339
the opposite thing on the surface, but it's really the
410
00:23:00.359 --> 00:23:04.150
same thing underneath. Every form that is presented becomes an oppression.
411
00:23:04.769 --> 00:23:10.589
Appetite becomes a right. Inheritance becomes guilt. Formation looks like control.
412
00:23:10.990 --> 00:23:13.890
And then the culture wonders why the young feel unmoored
413
00:23:13.930 --> 00:23:17.180
and unfathered. C.S. Lewis saw the same thing in The
414
00:23:17.259 --> 00:23:20.000
Abolition of Man, looking at education in particular. He says
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that when you lose objective value, true form of the
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00:23:23.740 --> 00:23:26.890
way that people and even societies ought to be, then
417
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you are refusing to train just sentiments and you end
418
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up with men without chests. He says that we make
419
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men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.
420
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We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors
421
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in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
422
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The head is supposed to rule the belly or the
423
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appetites through the chest. Strip the chest and you are
424
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left with cleverness and with craving. Soft culture gives appetite
425
00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:58.150
without form. Hard empire gives form without heart. Anakin posting
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00:23:58.170 --> 00:24:02.230
that Flea's soft disorder into imperial fantasy has not actually
427
00:24:02.269 --> 00:24:05.710
escaped the root disease, it's merely changed the manifestation of
428
00:24:05.750 --> 00:24:10.690
its symptoms. And so what is the authentically human way? First,
429
00:24:10.750 --> 00:24:13.809
we recognize our thrownness. You find yourself in a world
430
00:24:13.849 --> 00:24:16.650
of facts, of
parents, of place, and limits that you
431
00:24:16.690 --> 00:24:21.859
didn't choose. Existence arrives without your consent. The fantasy of
432
00:24:21.980 --> 00:24:25.180
absolute self-creation is one of the most exhausting and dangerous
433
00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:27.700
lies that a young person can believe. because it makes
434
00:24:27.819 --> 00:24:30.339
every limit feel like some kind of failure that was
435
00:24:30.420 --> 00:24:33.859
made against you, some kind of crime committed against you,
436
00:24:34.220 --> 00:24:37.000
and every inheritance feels like some kind of trap. But
437
00:24:37.039 --> 00:24:39.680
to switch stories for a moment, as Gandalf told Frodo,
438
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our task is not to decide the times in which
439
00:24:42.339 --> 00:24:45.200
we live, but what we will do with the time
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that is given to us. That is our task. And
441
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so we need to have gratitude for our inheritance, recognizing
442
00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:55.359
that every burden is an opportunity. Edmund Burke, writing against
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a revolution that wanted to begin the world again from
444
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pure will, said that society is a partnership in all science,
445
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all art, every virtue, in all perfection. He wrote that
446
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as the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained
447
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in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between
448
00:25:12.059 --> 00:25:13.940
those who are living, but between those who are living,
449
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those who are dead, and those who are to be born.
450
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And that rebukes the generation that shrugs and hands off rubble,
451
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but it also rebukes the fantasy that history began with
452
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your wound. Receive the good that you have genuinely been given.
453
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And then, of course, repair what needs to be repaired.
454
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Gratitude does not mean passivity, but it is a precondition
455
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for responsible repair. Thirdly, we need the responsibility to put
456
00:25:38.109 --> 00:25:41.230
disordered things into order according to what is true, what
457
00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:44.680
is good, and what is beautiful. Virtue is ordered love.
458
00:25:45.220 --> 00:25:48.559
Anakin's passions were not the whole problem. The problem was
459
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passion curved in on itself, love that would rather burn
460
00:25:52.279 --> 00:25:56.029
the world than lose its object. Ordered love receives the
461
00:25:56.069 --> 00:25:59.670
beloved as a gift and serves what is already worthy.
462
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It does not invent worth by decree or by fiat.
463
00:26:03.809 --> 00:26:05.579
And so
none of this means that we forego the
464
00:26:05.619 --> 00:26:07.819
good fight. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying
465
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that our young men should become passive while disordered institutions
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go unreformed. but what I'm saying is that the fight
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has to be waged by people who know to whom
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their allegiance is chiefly owed and who refuse to trade
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wisdom for the impatient revolutionary shortcut. Do not be conformed
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to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of
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your mind, that by testing you may discern what is
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the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
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We must be transformed into the right kind of people
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who have the right discernment And then we will know
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where it is that we need to serve. And of course,
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sometimes we gain discernment through actions. You don't need to
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go off to the monastery for years on end before
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you decide to make an action. My point is that
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we need to be continually pursuing wisdom and setting our eyes,
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setting our vision properly instead of externalizing wisdom by will
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to power fiat. Palpatine would have us grab power. and
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then choose how we are to define peace. What I'm
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suggesting is we figure out what peace actually is, and
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then live as those who are facilitating peace. And so
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if you see yourself in Anakin, then here are some suggestions. First,
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name a real failure of the generation above you, without
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turning it into a mythology of pure villainy. Then name
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one good thing that you inherited. Write both down. Meditate
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on both of them. Because honesty without gratitude becomes resentment.
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Gratitude without honesty becomes nostalgia. And you need both. You
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need gratitude and honesty if you're going to live as
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a responsible heir rather than as an eternal victim. Next,
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find a living mentor and or become one. The sin
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of the Jedi was not in having standards, but it
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was in refusing to adequately father. Do not repeat that problem.
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Maybe your dad actually wasn't as bad as you've been
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trained to frame him. Or maybe he was. Maybe you
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00:27:56.210 --> 00:27:57.630
didn't have a father figure at all, or maybe you
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had one that was far less than ideal. If nobody
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apprenticed you, then break the pattern for someone else, and
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especially so if you have kids. Keep them company in
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a hard season. Tell the truth when flattery would be easier,
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but do so with genuine love for their well-being, not
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to make them jaded victims. The candy house recruits the unfathered.
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Be the person who interrupts that supply. Be a good
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father in whatever context that means for you. Finally, and again,
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I appreciate a good meme as much as anyone else,
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but when a meme offers you empire as therapy, remember
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where that leads. When a culture offers you liberation as
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endless appetite, remember men without chests. Choose the harder freedom.
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Responsibility under the true, the good, and the beautiful. Determine
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who you are in relation to fortune rather than spending
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your life trying to hold the wheel. Recognize your limited
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perspective and take responsibility for your relationship to yourself, to
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the world, and to God. Luke does not save his
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father by matching power with power. He lays down his saber.
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That looks weak to the emperor, but it's the beginning
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of a man who is in the truth. Don't turn
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on your father. Maybe the previous generations have failed you,
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but you wouldn't be yourself without them. And so, with gratitude,
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go into the underworld and rescue your father. And maybe
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in the process, you'll rescue yourself as well. If you
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appreciate what we do over here at Mythic Mind, then
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I welcome you to support and to join the fellowship
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00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:30.950
at mythicmindfellowship.com. I hope to see you there. Thank you
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for watching. Thank you.