Memoirs of a fallen Sith.

in #deepthink6 years ago

(Rather than the typical essay of the "Let them eat cake" series, I thought a fictional dialogue in the vein of Plato would be more interesting. And the Sith refers to myself, speaking through the scholar, who in this story has to be an old man for historical accuracy.)

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Image Credit: http://j.mp/15vL0kZ
(At least Lynch's Dune had atmosphere and that old, decaying feel of reality.)

Han, Reign of Gaozu year 1, Luoyang, Imperial Palace


“You wish to hear my reply?! Here, drink/hear this!”*
Gaozu loosened his trousers and began spraying his urine onto the panicked and fleeing Confucian scholars. His drunken rage and disorientation abated after his exertion, Gaozu noticed a lone scholar still sitting in his urine-soaked cloths.

“Uh . . . Hmf. Let us provide a new set of clothing for you. It was unbecoming of me to have acted thus.” Embarrassed, the emperor decided to offer a gesture of generosity.

“Thank you, your Majesty. Perhaps, you can also be properly dressed.”

Realizing that his trousers are still near his ankles, Gaozu quickly dressed himself and ordered his guards, ministers, and honored guests out of the feast hall.

***

“I remain unconvinced regarding the value of your philosophy,” Gaozu declared.

“It matters not your opinion, your Majesty. We will seek audience with the next Son of Heaven,” the scholar calmly replied.

“I don’t think my sons will be anymore inclined than I am.”

“Your sons? What gives you such certainty regarding the longevity of the Han kingdom? Qin Shi Huang’s kingdom effectively ended with his death, will yours last your lifetime?”

“The Qin fell because of the incompetence of Er Shi Huang.”

“Was it Qin inefficiency that caused you to free the convicts and rebel against Er Shi Huang?”

“. . . how do you know that?”

“Have you such faith in Han ascendancy that you are certain of escaping a similar fate as that of Xiang Yu”

“Xiang Yu was indecisive and fickle.”

“Unlike your Majesty, who would sacrifice his own sons for the survival of Han?”

“Enough barbed insults, old man. Do you think your age or knowledge of my embarrassing past will save you from me?”

“My intention is not to insult you, your Majesty. I merely offer a means to avoid the fates of your predecessors.”

“What can you possibly offer me? Your philosophy has little, if any, practical use in the affairs of the state.”

“What, do you think, caused Qin to collapse in such a spectacular and rapid fashion?”

“It certainly was not due to the absence of Confucian philosophy.”

“You have hit the mark, your Majesty, to borrow from Qin fa jia. Absence.”

“Of Confucianism?”

“Absence of the human element. Han Feizi and his technocrats imagined the world in black and white, with absolutes reigning supreme. Little did they realize that man experiences the world purely in relative terms. Furthermore, it is not to standards and principles that men are bound, but to comprehensible examples in behaviors of other humans. Virtue and vice do not exist in vacuum, but within the context of human interaction.”

“How did absolutes rob Qin of humanity?”

Fa jia denied man his imperfection, robbing him of humanity itself. While fa jia recognizes human failures, it willfully refuses to accept them. The absolute standards, upon which millions of Qin subjects were sacrificed, did not result in the production of perfect men; only shadows of men, bound by their fear and resentment of every syllable in the oppressive Qin law. Those state apparatchiks, governing in the name of mechanical law so removed from reality and humanity, themselves become inhuman machines. Even the Qin Shi Huang, whether he knew it, was but a cog in the mechanical operation of the Qin state. Rather than using fa jia as a guideline, the Qin existed to serve fa jia.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you imagine, your Majesty, that Qin was merely the unimaginative imperial bureaucracy, the numberless armies, or the crude machines of war? Qin was a belief system, and that system was fa jia. It is a religion for those who hold faith in technical and mechanical baubles to solve human problems. Having erected a mechanical overlord, in form of Qin, they themselves became machines and lost contact with their human subjects. Man may countenance may offenses, but not that of being enslaved by non-human machines.”

“Does not your philosophy prescribe rules and laws as well?”

“No your Majesty. We merely have sayings of a wise man.”

“How does it differ from Qin law?”

“What is your assessment regarding the limitation of Qin law, your Majesty?”

“I would say the cost of enforcement.”

“Precisely, your Majesty. The further removed a law is from human empathetic comprehension, the more trivial the law appears, and the more the cost for enforcement. In your revolt against the Qin, your Majesty, what do you attribute the convicts’ reasons for joining you in certain death, rather than life under Qin law?”

“The triviality of Qin laws and their uncompromising enforcement.”

“A man living under the rule of machines is dead already; and dead men have nothing left to lose and much to gain.”

“What then, was Xiang Yu’s failure?”

“Perhaps, Xiang Yu’s failure is best reserved for another night, your Majesty; if you would permit me to continue our conversation at another time . . .”

*NB: To “hear” in Chinese, can also be interpreted as to “drink sound.”

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Heh- only the Sith deal in absolutes!

I'm a real sucker for Chinese history- John Keay's China: A History is by far my favorite book on the topic. (He's my favorite historian period, so that shouldn't be surprising.)

I've actually been talking with my buddy the past couple of days about Heidegger and Tolkien's surprisingly similar views on industrialization and the culture around it- "the machine", as it were. I attribute that in large part to their very in-depth understanding of medieval history and thought. Reverence might be an even better term than understanding. So I'm interested in what they might have had to say about the Qin dynasty in this context- at least if Tolkien had had any particular interests outside medieval Europe, and if Heidegger had spent more time than just the half-assed glance he gave the East.

Edit: Or, I should say, half-assed for Heidegger- that's still kinda a high standard there.

Heh- only the Sith deal in absolutes!

Pure Jedi propaganda. It is the so-called purveyors of light who peddle in absolute condemnation of anything they consider "dark" or "dark-side." Jedi and their stagnant philosophy has condemned their so-called "republic" to a millennial long death by inflexible obsolescence. The height of Jedi backwardness can be observed in their carrying swords into combat in an age of blasters, starships, personal shields, and turbo lasers! We, Sith, are not so limited in our thoughts or limited to using relics of the past. Any competent Force adept would be able to erect Force-barrier against such toys as Jedi "light sabers."

I would have posted my musings while sitting on the ruins of Korriban, but even a Sith Lord would not be able to withstand the terrible assaults by the soulless minions of Disney, backed by their devil-gotten limitless gold. So, I shall recollect my travels into ancient China, instead.

***

In humanity's transition into the machine age, man seems to have lost some vital connection to his environment, as well as connections with each other. When men are as replaceable as cogs in dead machines, do men not betray their sacred history? Their vital origins?

Hrmph, yellow lightsabers are still the best.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about what we've lost in the industrial age- I know I've chatted with you before about my (almost blinding) obsession with man's relationship with nature. I can't help but think that the relationship between man & nature is, however, hopelessly intertwined with that of man and man- and as we devalue one, the other goes with it. Or, perhaps, as we view man as less connected with nature, we value nature less. I think the flip side of that, however, is that while many ancient peoples certainly had a much deeper connection with nature than we do, they still often ended up inflicting environmental disaster upon themselves. The Babylonians over-irrigated, leading to salinization- they salted their own fields. The Romans stripped the topsoil of Italy, leaving much of it barren and arid to this day. The Anasazi grew beyond the bounds of their water supply, leaving them catastrophically vulnerable to drought. I'd like to blame their environmental failures on basic problems with the way economies are structured, but it seems too easy.

It may be that the Jedi dependence on their "light saber" has echoes to the loss in man's connection and relationship to his environment and each other. Jedi over-reliance on their toys resulted in their being distant/aloof from all of humanity around them, as well as their environment. A man has a better chance encountering an eloquent Wookie than obtaining a direct answer from these detached shell of humans. It may be that more man becomes dependent upon his tools and systems, he becomes less reliant upon his fellow man. It may be that more a man uses his ability to force the environment to change to his preferences, he becomes less willing to cooperate with the planet, upon which he is but a mote.

Though our tools offer us the delusion of being "more" than we are, in reality we become much less than we were.

That's gotta be the funniest Star Wars comment I ever read!

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