NOTE: This is Part Two of a two-part series. If you haven’t read the first part, you can find it by clicking this link.
Last time, we took a look at the clues in the Original Trilogy of the Star Wars Saga to determine as much as possible about the economic situation in the First Galactic Empire, and came to the rather obvious conclusion, which I hope we all already were aware of, that the Empire is a military dictatorship. Hopefully we have added to that, the understanding that in a dictatorship the government controls the production and distribution of goods and services.
To be clear, this means there are no private businesses. All business is state business, and therefore Imperial Subjects would all work for the state, and be paid by the state. In this model all money not only originates with the state, but returns to it as well, as there is literally nobody else to trade with. Money in this context is little more than a government voucher. As stated in part one, this is just slavery by another name. That should give you a pretty clear picture of what the Rebel Alliance was fighting to get free of.
Here in Part Two we will examine the Prequel Trilogy to see what new information we can gather from those films. This will be fairly illuminating as the prequels are very political in their focus, and as we will soon see, Palpatine’s rise to power is predicated almost entirely on economic factors. From the opening crawl of “Menace,” we are told that the taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute, and that a group called the Trade Federation has created a blockade to stop all shipping to the planet of Naboo. We are given to understand that this is somewhat unprecedented, and that the Galactic Senate is doing an awful lot of talking about it and not much acting to settle it, so Supreme Chancellor Valorum has dispatched a couple of Jedi Knights, aboard a small diplomatic vessel called Radiant VII, to mediate the conflict.
The Trade Federation would be a massive conglomerate, a number of huge shipping companies and possibly other mercantile operations, joined together for shared security. The Galactic Republic has no standing army, but apparently it is legal for each member civilization within the Republic to have its own military organization and its own unique system of government, and it seems that huge conglomerates like the Trade Federation have similar rights, so they have a fleet and an army in order to protect their interests – hence the blockade, which they make sure to remind the Jedi and their escorts at the beginning of the film, “is perfectly legal.”
We can surmise that the trade routes are being taxed by the Republic, and that the Trade Federation is obviously unhappy about it because it’s cutting into their profit margins. The text of the crawl also paints the Trade Federation as “greedy,” – Lucas’s exact word choice – which is a clear signal to the viewer that the Federation are the bad guys here, bullying this little planet over profits.
Likely this shipping tax has already raised the price of goods and services for the people of Naboo (and other worlds for which trade is affected by the tax) but depending on the needs of the Naboo, they may simply decide to reduce the amount of importing they do. This would not be solved with a blockade, unless some measure of imports are necessary for the survival of their civilization, or if they are a planet whose economy is supported by a healthy export business, which would obviously also be affected by the tax.
George Lucas is the master of visual clues (my main man Zack Snyder is masterful with them as well), so what can we deduce from what we are shown of Naboo? The planet is populated by at least two civilizations who have had limited contact – first, the human inhabitants, who identify themselves as “the Naboo,” and the amphibious Gungans, who are a technologically advanced race living within a tribal system. They Gungans are insular and reclusive, preferring to remain mostly in their submarine home of Gunga City.
The Naboo, however, are spacefarers, whose ships are elegant, shiny and chrome, and they live in classically styled renaissance-type buildings, their cities resplendent with canals and massive statuary. This is an intentional choice by Lucas, and not just because he wanted to film in Italy and Spain. This choice shows us that the Naboo are artists, poets, and philosophers. Remember that in Star Wars, planets are one thing: Desert, Jungle, Blizzard, Swamp, Sky, Redwood forest… Naboo is the Liberal Arts Planet. The Renaissance Planet. This is supported by even the smallest details, like the Queen’s kabuki makeup and the Gungan chief basically calling them a bunch of pointyheads. And damn if the people in the Queen’s court aren’t dressed like they’re in a play about Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella.
Probably they export a lot of art and craftworks, and the blockade would be a serious issue because despite what people think, artists do what they do for more than just the sheer enjoyment of it. Artists like eating and living in houses as much as anyone. It takes time to create anything worthwhile, and it’s much more satisfying, as well as conducive to the overall quality of the product, if you can make enough money from your art to survive on it.
At any rate, it’s fair to say that there is mostly free trade in the Galactic Republic. I say “mostly” because the tax on the trade routes represents a form of regulation. The question, and probably an unanswerable one, is how much regulation there is besides that. The fact that a little old tax has led to a situation described in the opening crawl as, “turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic” probably suggests that regulation has previously been next to none. Apparently, also fairly rare is armed conflict, as Sio Bibble is fond of pointing out that “there hasn’t been a full-scale war since the formation of the Republic!”
Of note is the fact that one man has played both sides of this. The Senator from Naboo, Sheev Palpatine, is also a Dark Lord of the Sith, who goes by the name of Darth Sidious. This isn’t revealed until Episode III, but if you’re a fan (or really good at recognizing chins) you knew it from the beginning. The Trade Federation is shown to be in league with Darth Sidious, even as Senator Palpatine is advising Queen Amidala of the Naboo.
He advises Amidala to accept Federation control of Naboo, knowing full well that she won’t, while he works to spur the senate into action; meanwhile under the guise of Sidious he tells Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray to assassinate the two visiting Jedi and invade Naboo, occupying the capital city of Theed. He even tells Gunray that “Queen Amidala is young and naïve. You will find controlling her will not be difficult.” He’s looking to escalate the conflict in the hope of generating enough sympathy in the senate to challenge Chancellor Valorum’s seat.
I don’t think he necessarily intended for the Jedi to survive the Federation’s assassination attempt, nor for them to break the blockade and escape offworld with Queen Amidala and her entourage, but the delight on his face when she arrived on the Republic Capital of Coruscant and rushed straight to his office to discuss their next move was probably genuine. After all, he gets to play the gentle soul while Amidala, in all her fiery, youthful glory, appears before the senate and demands that they resolve the conflict swiftly. “I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die while you discuss this invasion in a committee!”
Palpatine has stacked the deck, though; Chancellor Valorum has, by Palpatine’s account, “little real power. He has been mired by – baseless – accusations of corruption.” Soon afterward, as Queen Amidala asks for the senate to act, several senators refuse to believe that the invasion is really taking place, or that there have been any deaths at all. The Trade Federation has representation in the senate (which is fairly alarming) and denies any wrongdoing.
Now, as the pressure mounts for the Chancellor to lead the way, the bureaucrats step in and talk him down, and suddenly he shrinks back, buckling under pressure from the special interests to form a committee and investigate the veracity of the Queen’s claims. She can’t wait for a senate committee, of course, it’ll be a year or more while her planet remains occupied by the Federation. Palpatine, ever the master persuader, suggests they could take it to the supreme court, and the Queen is disheartened, knowing that this will likely take even longer than waiting on some useless senate committee. So, with masterfully played reluctance, Palpatine suggests that the queen could call for a vote of No Confidence in the chancellor, and watches with satisfaction as she does exactly that.
The senate votes Valorum out of the chancellery and, in a sympathetic reaction to the conflict on Naboo, the senate elects Palpatine to replace him.
By Episode II, entitled Attack of the Clones, ten years have passed and a separatist movement has sprung up. The opening crawl says that a number of star systems have announced their intentions to leave the Republic, but we’re not told why. However when we meet the separatists, they seem to largely be made up huge conglomerates like the Trade Federation. The others we meet have names like InterGalactic Banking Clan, the Techno Union, the Hyper-Communications Cartel, the Commerce Guild.
The separatists are under the leadership of a former Jedi with political ambitions, who goes by the name of Count Dooku. Dooku is actually Darth Sidious’ new apprentice, Darth Tyranus, and he’s a plant because the Trade Federation knows that Sidious played them. In order to continue to manipulate them, Sidious needs a middle man. Since Palpatine/Sidious is always playing two sides, and since the separatists are all massive conglomerates with interests in the production and distribution of goods and services, we can safely conclude that as chancellor, Palpatine has applied a very liberal helping of trade regulations. This would serve him well as it shows clearly that he is not like the feckless Valorum, and makes perfect sense as a platform for a chancellor whose homeworld was famously victim of a bloody invasion by a militant trade conglomerate. In effect, this is what he was elected to do.
His dual identity has allowed him to continue escalating the conflict, by pitting the people against big business; in effect turning the common people against the rich, driving a narrative of regulation vs. corruption and greed. The Separatist Union, being comprised of mostly giant businesses and their supporters, has the resources to mount an army, and begins doing so, quietly, on the strength of the Trade Federation’s droid army and its manufacturer, Geonosian Industries.
The increasing conflict has overwhelmed the relatively small Jedi Order, and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has begun pushing for the senate to commission an Army of the Republic in order to back up the Jedi and protect the Republic’s member nations. Senator Padme Naberrie Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo, is nearly assassinated upon her arrival on Coruscant where she would surely have voted against commissioning an army. All of this acts as a distraction that splits up Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi on separate missions – at the chancellor’s request – while the separatists are developing plans for a very familiar planet-killing superweapon.
Obi-Wan, attempting to track down the would-be-assassin, ends up on the ocean world of Kamino, where he discovers a large cloning operation, creating an army they claim was ordered by a Jedi Master whom Obi-Wan knows to have been dead at the time the order was placed. Still, the army is for the Republic, and the Kaminoan cloners happily show Obi-Wan around the facility. Of course Anakin and Padme’s paths intersect with Obi-Wan’s by the end of the movie, on the termite-mound planet of Geonosis, where they are all to be executed in a gladiator arena, having been captured by the separatists.
By this time, though, Jar Jar Binks, now a Junior Representative for the Gungans in the Senate, was convinced to propose the Emergency Powers Act. When the vote passed, Palpatine, promising to lay down the powers as soon as the crisis was averted, immediately issued an Executive Order commissioning “a Grand Army of the Republic, to counter the increasing threats of the separatists.”
Yoda was sent to Kamino to pick up the first wave of Clone Troopers, while the rest of the available Jedi converged on Geonosis and tried to bail out Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme. Yoda arrived with the cavalry just in time to back up the depleted Jedi ranks, and the first battle of the Clone Wars raged across the planet. By the end of the film, Bail Organa and the rest of the Loyalist Committee stood by in despair as a legion of Clone Troopers arrived on Coruscant on huge Corellian cruisers.
Now Palpatine’s Machiavellian plan is in full force. The captains of commerce and industry are standing on one side, the leaders of the free galaxy on the other, and he controls both sides. He effectively has two ways to win.
In Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, it’s been some three years since the Battle of Geonosis. The Separatists are kicking some serious ass, and in a metaphorical sense, everything is on fire. They’ve gained so much ground they’re able to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine before the movie starts. Naturally Palpatine wanted this, it’s the natural escalation of the conflict, but it also serves to let him pit his favorite young Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, against his existing apprentice, Darth Tyranus, who is doing his existing in something of a state of decrepitude.
As Palpatine begins to make his persuasive case for Skywalker to join him, he chooses to reveal his true nature. When the Jedi move against Palpatine, this plays directly into a narrative he has created by having the clone army ordered from Kamino in the name of a dead Jedi Master, and by having a former Jedi head the separatist movement. As Anakin defends Palpatine against Mace Windu and his posse, this not only seals Skywalker’s fate, but allows Palpatine to finally cast the Jedi as traitors to the Republic, effectively making Anakin, the newly-minted Darth Vader, his champion and lord defender of the realm, as it were. Using this extra layer of chaos to justify his last push for supreme power, Palpatine activates a secret piece of genetic programming in the Clones, authorizing them to use deadly force to put down their Jedi generals, and sending Lord Vader to slaughter all the children in the Jedi Temple.
With that done, Palpatine reassigns Anakin to go to the secret lair of the Separatist Council and murder them all, thus ending the conflict and bringing all means of production and distribution directly under state control. Palpatine appears before the Galactic Senate, announcing that “the Republic shall be reorganized into the First Galactic Empire, in order to create a safe and secure society.”
There are a few takeaways from this. The first is that this absolutely confirms my reading from Part One of this essay: that the Empire controls all means of production and distribution of goods and services throughout the Star Wars galaxy.
In your face, Randal!
It also fits Lucas’s overall theme for the prequels, which is greed. Greed turned Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. But it also drove the Republic into corruption, and drove the Trade Federation into working with a Sith Lord. Greed divides us, and love unites us, and that, my friends, is Star Wars in once sentence.
Are there lessons here for us today? Oh, absolutely. I can think of a million of them. Our current president is a persuader, a trait he shares with Palpatine. He also is creating a rather hectic tone in Washington, and is manipulating the media in ways both obvious and subtle (there are layers).
However, I don’t hold anyone blameless. Most of the media is dishonest most of the time. One major party wants to create conflict between the rich and the rest of us. The other party talks about the free market but loves to wield authority just as heavily as the other.
Corruption is everywhere. At least our industries don’t have senators, but they do have lobbyists, which nets the same result in the end. It’s all a bit terrifying and it’s hard to know which way to turn. However, a few things are obvious.
Both president GW Bush and President Obama, gave themselves more power than presidents had before. And now we have this guy, who I still maintain is probably not the second coming of Hitler. However, he is a persuader and that can be terribly effective, either in a good way or a bad one, depending solely on intent. And the fact that trust is not something he inspires in the American people, makes it difficult for most to expect anything good. Especially when his policies go against what half of the country apparently believes in.
So…the guy talks abut Civil Asset Forfeiture? BAD. Guy talks about reducing government regulation? Good.
The most important thing, however, is the free market. As long as we have a free market, we have the means to control our own destiny. As long as the government does not control the flow of money, we are not slaves, but free men and free women.
I talk a lot about balance. You hear me borrow a phrase from some of my anarcho-capitalist friends. I’m not one, but I know a few, and I like them. They talk about how government is literally evil. You hear me basically lean into that when talking about liberty. What nobody ever asks me, is if I think government is necessary. Like I said, I’m not an anarchist. I DO believe government is necessary. I also believe that it is basically the opposite of freedom, since in order for government to exist, you have to give something up. That’s just the way it works. So we give up some freedom in exchange for security. Taxation is theft, but it buys safety in the form of police, firefighters, and armed forces. Yet some of these people are not very popular right now with a lot of taxpayers. Just think about it, is all I’m saying. You get mad when your tax dollars go to pay for stuff you don’t like.
The more power you give government, the more freedom you give up, right? I had a liberal friend-of-a-friend recently tell me that we’re not free, and she said it like it was a good thing. I basically stopped arguing with her after that because in my mind she’d just torpedoed her own ship. Any impartial reader would have walked away from her side of the table after that. Cognitive dissonance is an amazing thing.
Just remember, the First Galactic Empire — like Adolf Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist movement – was all about peace, through the eradication of conflict. Palpatine actually utters the phrase, “safe and secure society.” He literally stole all the freedom so he could have security in power. In his mind he really thought this was better, because there’d be no conflict he couldn’t end, no war he couldn’t win, no wrong he couldn’t right (actually no right he couldn’t wrong, if we’re being honest, but he wouldn’t have called it that way).
So, here’s my point. Greed is bad. Don’t be greedy. But be careful who you give things away to. Don’t give your power to the Sheev Palpatines of the world. Don’t even put your power where it can be used against you. If Trump does turn out to be evil, it won’t merely be the fault of people who voted for him. It will be the fault of every single politician who gave the presidency more power, of every congress that undermined the checks and balances in the constitution, and of every voter who didn’t participate when they had the chance.
Don’t be greedy, but don’t cast your pearls before swine.
Don’t breed division, but don’t fear conflict. Fearing conflict leads to the need to squash differences of opinion, which leads to a lust for power, and that IS greed.
Respect differences. Don’t hate, don’t fear. Talk.
Be rational dissidents.
