May 5, 2009 02:00 PM
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Conservative website American Daily Review has a new article by Dr. Tony Mangana with the provocative title, "What Star Wars Teaches Conservatives." But does Mangana really understand Star Wars?
Mangana lays out his case from the opening paragraph:
The 1977 classic movie, Star Wars, portrayed an epic struggle between a righteous outnumbered few (Rebel alliance) against a much stronger dominant government (Empire). The now well known story tells how a small group of activists can effect change by adhering to their principals as a source of power and focusing their efforts on the identifiable vulnerability of their adversary. A useful analogy may be drawn to the current situation of contemporary conservative activism.
We were waiting for Mangana to explain how the President's proposed civilian service corps is just like the clone army grown on Kamino, or how his planned reorganization of defense spending mirrors the Empire's disastrous centralization of its military power in a still incomplete Death Star, or how Joe Biden is totally the Bib Fortuna to Barack Obama's Jabba the Hutt (think about it!).
Instead, Mangana talks about how conservatives can use technology the way the Rebels did: to organize the uprising against the evil Empire. In particular, he says Twitter is the conservative path out of the wilderness. He points to the popularity of the TCOT (short for "Top Conservatives on Twitter") hashtag, a "call sign" used by conservative Twitterers.
Perhaps the clearest lesson Mangana draws from George Lucas's saga is the importance of positive thinking:
In Star Wars the Jedi were warned against using hate as a destructive force but instead to trust their principals. Similarly, Conservatives must avoid spending too much time being reactive (the antagonist) or negative and instead spend more time being protagonist for Conservative principals. This way they can begin to control the message.
He then moves on to make some of the more explicit connections between Star Wars and modern conservatism. Specifically, the Force is not so much an energy field as it is adherence to their guiding principles:
The recent departure of Arlene (sic) Specter can be likened to the lancing of an abscess to remove the nidus of infection which is necessary for a body to be healed. Similarly, the Republican party must purge out the Republicans In Name Only (RINO) if they do not immediately repent. The "force" of the Republican party is their conservative principals (sic), just like the Jedi Luke Skywalker, they must resist temptations away from this force.
So far so good - a Luke Skywalker reference is always a good idea. But Mangana's next Star Wars allusion? Not so much:
I am reminded of the classic battle in the movie "Star Wars" where the small force of the Rebel Alliance is attacking the much larger and stronger fleet of the Empire. They know that to win there is only one strategy, they must focus their attack on a specific area of vulnerability on the otherwise impenetrable Death Star. In the end, victory was achieved by "staying on target."
"Staying on target"? I'm not sure Mangana remembers the full context of the phrase "stay on target," since the only use of that phrase in the movie is right before an entire Y-wing squadron gets wiped out:
Send an email to Alasdair Wilkins, the author of this post, at alasdair@io9.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
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