Star Wars and Empires with the Aesthetics of Rebellion

I find the most recent Star Wars trilogy significant because it demonstrates an empire with the aesthetics of rebellion, which mirrors real life American tropes.

In the previous movie, The Return of the Jedi, Princess Leia and her oligarch friends successfully regime changed the entire galaxy and put themselves in power. 20 years later in The Force Awakens, we see the fruits of their labor. There is still slavery and extreme poverty all over the galaxy. None of the problems people complained about have been fixed. I find it particularly funny that Leia herself is in power and controls the entire galactic military. The completely fair and democratic system decided that the person who overthrew the previous president is the most fit candidate to be the new president. Not rigged, not a coup, not a scam, we swear.

“The people who cast the votes don’t decide an election, the people who count the votes do,” as Stalin famously said.

Meanwhile, there was a growing faction of dissatisfied citizens who miss the empire and would like it to come back. These people organize and call themselves the First Order.

The First Order are, in every sense of the word, rebels. Leia and her co-conspirators in the galactic color revolution are now the government. Team Leia are the big bullies and the First Order are the underdogs.

But Leia’s government gives themselves the aesthetics of rebellion. They wear the same ragtag uniforms and the same symbols. They even call themselves “the resistance,” which makes no sense because they are literally the government in power. The First Order are the resistance, not the government.

I suspect these Disney Star Wars films were meant to be an analogy for the dangers of rising right-wing extremism in the USA, and the analogy got more overt after Trump was elected. Indeed, this is a strange situation. The “right wing extremists” are the underdogs, they’re the rebels who complain that the system is corrupt and unfair. The American institutional Left itself presents itself as the victims of right wing extremists. Even though they control the FBI, CIA, NSA, the entire American military, and the most powerful multinational corporation on Earth, American ultra leftists still present themselves as plucky oppressed rebels.

Trumpists, or “MAGA” as they like to call themselves, are like the First Order. They believe America used to be great and would like to bring those days back. On the other hand, modern American leftists are like Leia and the “Resistance.” They control the entire government, but still whine and act like they are oppressed rebels, even though they’re the literal opposite.

That’s what I call the Empire with the aesthetics of rebellion, and this applies to American foreign policy as well. For example, we’re supposed to consider Ukrainians as plucky rebels, like Leia and her oligarch friends in the movies. But in real life, Ukraine is supported by 30+ countries with a combined GDP more than 35 times greater than Russia. Looking at simple power dynamics, Ukraine is the empire in Star Wars and Russia are the rebels, and this is particularly true for the Donbass rebels. Ukraine has been a close partner of NATO since 1993, and were defeated by rebels in sneakers and shooting Mosin rifles.

The “rebellion” aesthetic is even more absurd in Palestine. We’re supposed to believe the zionist entity are the plucky rebels and the Palestinians are the empire. Really, come on. The IDF is backed by the most powerful global empire to ever exist in human history, but is struggling to defeat a few thousand rebels with homemade rebels. That’s the ultimate empire-rebel power dynamic. But again, this is the aesthetics of rebellion, whether or not it makes sense.

Ian Kummer

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