I’m telling you, that title device is irresistible.

David Brin complained about Star Wars some time ago. Brin is a better-researched, more articulate, better-paid, and more experienced writer than I am. But I won’t let that stop me. Here’s my full, belated response (quite different from my hasty, original response):

Well, I boycotted “Episode I: The Phantom Menace” — for an entire week.

After seeing that dreck, I happily boycotted the second one until it came out on DVD. More dreck. I still have my fingers crossed that the third one will be tolerable. Anyway, intertwined with his moral indignation are Brin’s cheap shots at Lucas. Among them:

[Morally superior to Star Wars heroes, Star Trek heroes prevail] through cooperation and wit, rather than because of some inherited godlike transcendent greatness. Characters who do achieve godlike powers are subjected to ruthless scrutiny. [snip]

Lucas defends his elitist view, telling the New York Times, “That’s sort of why I say a benevolent despot is the ideal ruler. He can actually get things done.” [snip]

In other words a royal figure or demigod, anointed by fate. (Like a billionaire moviemaker?)

But Lucas wasn’t anointed by fate - he didn’t inherit his billions. He grew up on a walnut ranch and his father sold stationary. In fact, Lucas was a ‘little guy’ who succeeded because of cooperation with others (’guest’ directors for ESB and ROTJ, ILM special effects pioneers, etc.) and wit (revolutionary merchandising agreements), and upon receiving ‘godlike powers,’ he was subjected to ruthless scrutiny (Brin himself being an example).

But that’s not what this is about. Brin has problems with moral lessons he claims Lucas is selling through Star Wars. Among them:

Elites have an inherent right to arbitrary rule; common citizens needn’t be consulted. They may only choose which elite to follow.

“Good” elites should act on their subjective whims, without evidence, argument or accountability.

Any amount of sin can be forgiven if you are important enough.

True leaders are born. It’s genetic. The right to rule is inherited.

Justified human emotions can turn a good person evil.

Yes, these are bad doctrines. Yes, Star Wars represents these doctrines in its stories. No, it does not preach these doctrines as gospel for our modern culture.

Star Wars is a fairytale rooted in the story traditions of the most ancient of stories (”from Gilgamesh all the way to comic book super heroes”). Brin agrees:

“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.”

Right on. “Star Wars” belongs to our dark past. A long, tyrannical epoch of fear, illogic, despotism and demagoguery…

Indeed it does. As evidenced by that famous opening text, Lucas always intended Star Wars to belong to that class of ancient legends wherein a Herculean hero triumphs in the face of an overwhelming evil that tries to corrupt and destroy him. Monty Python and the Holy Grail provides an insightful and hilarious commentary on the contrast between modern ideals and the values of ancient legends:

ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN: Order, eh — who does he think he is?
ARTHUR: I am your king!
WOMAN: Well, I didn’t vote for you.
ARTHUR: You don’t vote for kings.
WOMAN: Well, ‘ow did you become king then?
ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen — strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Arthur, too, is a mythical hero elite who inherited his ‘godlike powers’ and embarked on his quest without consulting the masses. Brin seems to claim that all new mythical stories must be politically correct and conscious of modern morality - but Lucas loved the ‘old’ mythology documented by Joseph Campbell and wanted to create a new story based on the same mythology. Is that so wrong?

But Lucas is preaching, just not the values Brin points out. Those values are not Lucas’ - they belong to the ancient mythological tradition Lucas emulated with Star Wars. Lucas did, however, have a few (more basic) doctrines to preach. He wanted Star Wars to be a “moral study, to have some sort of palpable precepts in it that children could understand.”

Here are some lessons that Star Wars does preach:

1. Good is more powerful than evil.
2. Power lies within yourself.
3. Control your emotions.

In the end, Brin is splitting hairs to find a few politically incorrect doctrines that might be inferred from Lucas’ epic morality play, while ignoring the major morals of the movie that ‘children could understand.’