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Adam Schaeffer
Dr. Bailey
Eng.
4/8/07
The Dark Side of the Force: a Misunderstood Concept
Slowly the young Jedi knight feels outward with his force powers into the night. The city is teeming with exciting activity. Young people like him are out in the nexus enjoying themselves at night clubs, dances, parties, and social events of every kind. With his force enhanced empathy the young Jedi can feel the feelings of lust permeating the air, people everywhere striving to find a partner so they might have some fun for the night. He can smell the booze from a hundred different planets on the breath of the imbibers as they drink themselves into a relaxed state of euphoria. With a heavy sigh he sits back down onto his uncomfortable armchair and resumes his memorization of the one hundred laws of the Jedi Order. He is not allowed to go out and have a drink, a girl, a boy, a dance, or a good time in general. Perusing the activities of self indulgence is, according to his teachers, the path to the Dark Side of the force. His life will be spent in quiet contemplation, alone with his Force and his studies and his philosophy and endless Light Saber training. Not for him is the good time awaiting everyone else in the city. Not for him is the indulgence of almost every basic human emotion other than boredom. He will have a life spent in celibacy, never knowing what it is to be truly alive. This is what it means to follow the Light. To be in harmony with the doctrines and dogmas of the Light side of the Force, you must not do any of the intensely enjoyable things mentioned earlier. That is why it is imperative that Jedi everywhere are told about the myriad of advantageous effects that the Dark Side of the Force can have upon the soul of the weary Jedi Knight. This essay will be considered seditious and evil by the Jedi Masters. But the Dark Side of the force is a seriously misunderstood and often abused subject. Judge not on the example set forward by the extremisms of the Sith Warlords and their plans for empire and conquest, but on the everyday, life encompassing scope that will be addressed now.
A good time. This is something that few Jedi Knights can hope to achieve. They are told by their masters that enjoying oneself is just one of the billion steps down the path of the Dark Side of the force. But what really is going on here? Why are Jedi Masters so afraid of the Dark Side of the Force? Why do they quest to suppress all that makes people alive? The Dark Side of the Force is labeled maliciously as evil. But evil is a subjective concept. Without evil there would be no good, and without good there would be no evil. How can something as neutral as the Force be evil or good? The Dark Side of the Force is not evil. It is made to look evil by those that are evil, as the Light side of the Force is made to look good by those who are good. A good example of this is the gun. Some policy makers will try to convince that guns are evil. But the gun has no knowledge of evil or good. It cannot, in any way, understand these concepts. However, the life form using the gun can. If the being using the gun is evil, the probabilities of that person doing something evil with said gun are very high. The same can be said if that being is good. If an evil Jedi became known for using aspects of the force credited for good things, they would soon become known as evil things. This is the unfortunate and most difficult smear to wipe away from the Dark Side of the Force. The evil people who used aspects of the force that are considered Dark have been impressively twisted, and ruined any chances future generations had for having a good time.
By not engaging in activities such as sex, love, lust, aggression (hopefully healthy), heightened emotional states, and feelings of personal satisfaction the Jedi Order is slowly disconnecting itself from the life forms they have sworn to protect. How can they hope to understand and involve themselves with beings that they cannot live with? In order to survive, the Jedi Order has to separate itself from the rest of the world. The Dark Side of the force does not. The characteristics from this side of the Force are common to all living things, even down to base animals. They allow all to find something common to relate to, and work together to achieve greater harmony and heighten the chances of having a good time. Names are a semantic issue, but in the case of the Dark Side of the Force the name carries incredible connotations. The next time the Young Jedi reaches out with his (or her) force powers hopefully, after reading this, they will not think of the things they sense as dark, but as the burgeoning of something that almost everyone wants, a good time.
