Star Wars is a conservative fantasy fable, much like all classic fantasy (LotR).
It's a world where progress is bad, the past is a source of wisdom and purity, the future is darkness and oppression. The heroes are heroic because of their special blood and divine gifts, not because of their beliefs. They win by trying to restore the world to its past state, violence is not only okay but morally necessary. The villains are evil because of supernatural forces; there is no compromise, no way to solve all the problems of the world. The heroes have to remain vigilant and keep using righteous violence to thrash evil every generation or so. The heroes rule through divine right and their inherent superior gifts, the only people who are upset by this are wicked and evil.
Compare it to Star Trek, the progressive fantasy. In Star Trek the heroes aren't special, they're the most educated. Violence is seen as an inherent failure state, something that should be avoided at all costs. The past is a source of barbarism and ignorance, the future is abundance, enlightenment, and utopia. The heroes win by educating everyone and freeing them from the oppression of the past. Religious beliefs are seen as defacto bad. All problems are solvable, all conflicts are the result of resource shortfall or prejudice. The heroes rule through consensus and democracy, never by fiat.
People like classic Fantasy because it's conservative, and that's why hollywood keeps trying to destroy it. Consider Dune vs. Foundation; similar issue. Dune is the anti-Foundation, and it's a damn sight more popular. Dune is the argument that the galaxy is better off ruled by the violent warlord than the scientific consensus.
Foundation is pretty crazy. It's about a pre-plan to manage the collapse and Build Back Better.
The Foundation comes under threat by someone that is born with special blood and divine gift. He is described as vile and reprehensible, but that's just from the perspective of the Foundation framing their opposition. They can't simply refute his means or his talents, they have to call him ugly.
It's not really trying to manage the collapse, it just acknowledges that the collapse is inevitable. From there, it tries to figure out how to bring things back to proper civilization as quickly as possible. It's been a while since I read it though, and I don't properly remember how they dealt with the Mule.
I use "manage" loosely. But yes, it's all a conspiracy. We can presume that the empire has quadrillions or pentillions to spend on researching mind control at the society level (psychomathmatics) and they use because they don't trust people to make decisions for themselves, they assume that people need a strong galaxy-wide empire to take care of them.
Star Wars is a conservative fantasy fable, much like all classic fantasy (LotR).
It's a world where progress is bad, the past is a source of wisdom and purity, the future is darkness and oppression. The heroes are heroic because of their special blood and divine gifts, not because of their beliefs. They win by trying to restore the world to its past state, violence is not only okay but morally necessary. The villains are evil because of supernatural forces; there is no compromise, no way to solve all the problems of the world. The heroes have to remain vigilant and keep using righteous violence to thrash evil every generation or so. The heroes rule through divine right and their inherent superior gifts, the only people who are upset by this are wicked and evil.
Compare it to Star Trek, the progressive fantasy. In Star Trek the heroes aren't special, they're the most educated. Violence is seen as an inherent failure state, something that should be avoided at all costs. The past is a source of barbarism and ignorance, the future is abundance, enlightenment, and utopia. The heroes win by educating everyone and freeing them from the oppression of the past. Religious beliefs are seen as defacto bad. All problems are solvable, all conflicts are the result of resource shortfall or prejudice. The heroes rule through consensus and democracy, never by fiat.
People like classic Fantasy because it's conservative, and that's why hollywood keeps trying to destroy it. Consider Dune vs. Foundation; similar issue. Dune is the anti-Foundation, and it's a damn sight more popular. Dune is the argument that the galaxy is better off ruled by the violent warlord than the scientific consensus.
Foundation is pretty crazy. It's about a pre-plan to manage the collapse and Build Back Better.
The Foundation comes under threat by someone that is born with special blood and divine gift. He is described as vile and reprehensible, but that's just from the perspective of the Foundation framing their opposition. They can't simply refute his means or his talents, they have to call him ugly.
It's not really trying to manage the collapse, it just acknowledges that the collapse is inevitable. From there, it tries to figure out how to bring things back to proper civilization as quickly as possible. It's been a while since I read it though, and I don't properly remember how they dealt with the Mule.
I use "manage" loosely. But yes, it's all a conspiracy. We can presume that the empire has quadrillions or pentillions to spend on researching mind control at the society level (psychomathmatics) and they use because they don't trust people to make decisions for themselves, they assume that people need a strong galaxy-wide empire to take care of them.