It’s impossible to watch the Star Wars saga and not like Jedi Master Yoda. He’s one of the great science fiction characters of all time.
He’s not the only Jedi, however, and over at the Atlantic, Max Fisher asks of those guardians of the Old Republic: “Are Jedi Knights Libertarian or Socialist?”
Fisher notes that Canadian blogger P.M. Jaworski thinks that Jedi are libertarians, Jesse Kline thinks that they’re big government liberals, and Daniel Drezner thinks that they’re centrists. Here’s part of what Drezner has to say:
Are the Jedi big government advocates? That’s unclear. I think it would be more accurate to describe them as cartelistic — they refuse to permit a free market in learning the ways of the Force. After all, the Jedi Council’s initial inclination is not to train Anakin Skywalker despite his obvious talents, using some BS about fear as a cover.
Only when Qui-Gon threatens to go rogue do they relent. The Council does not inform the Senate that their ability to detect the force has been compromised.
They’re reluctant to expand their assigned tasks — they’re keepers of the peace, not soldiers. Just as clearly, their anti-competitive policies weakened their own productivity, given the fact that they were unable to detect a Sith Lord walking around right under their noses for over a decade.
I think Drezner’s right — not libertarians, and not socialists, either. I also think what he says about moderates would apply more nicely to so-called big government conservatives: they’re anti-market. The operate as a guild, and see the world that way. It’s a mostly closed order, no matter how cool it seems. (It does seem cool after all.)
One can see a version of this — although definitely not a cool version, in small-town government. A few people try to keep knowledge to themselves, for whatever reason (in town politics, these reasons are likely to be self-flattering and illegitimate).
As with other closed systems, the town grows unproductive over time, as uncompetitive systems always degenerate. Politicians’ husbanding of information and attempts to pick winners in the marketplace prove to be losing strategies when compared with system of free, private choices.
As for Yoda himself, however, I am quite certain of his views: deep down, he’s libertarian.
I’m just sure of it.