Is Yoda Evil? Star wars and the Jesuit maxim: Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.

Is Yoda the Kernel of Corruption in the Star Wars Universe?

Star wars and the Jesuit maxim: Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.

Often referred to as the most misquoted and misrepresented maxims of all time the “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man,” best situates itself in popular ideology as a process where the youth can be indoctrinated and thus corrupted by a belief system. Nazi ideology and religious cults have long been used as examples of such a claim resonating in practice, thereby, perhaps straying away from the noble intention Ignatius of Loyola may have been prescribing. But the George Lucas helmed Star Wars saga, long championed for its clear defining of good and evil can be read as reinforcing such a notion and it is the Jedi not the Sith who are the perpetrators of such corruption.

Star Wars Episode 6 Revenge of the Sith has been rightfully heralded as a work of art by academics such as Camille Paghlia in her 2012 book Glittering Images A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars. The film, primarily the last act explores the destruction of the self through Anakin Skywalker via a superb script, set piece and display of love and hatred. Yet the corruption on Anakin did not begin this episode or the episode before but during the less impressive episode 1 the Phantom menace. In this instalment, we meet the quintessential vessel for corruption who is lauded with praise for his traits which make him force sensitive. In full view of his mother, who could arguably be describe as possessing a significant naivety, he is groomed by recruiters and taken to a cult where the impressionable mind is made to trust in the older mentor type. This Sensei is short, green skinned and lizard like and if one was to switch off the postmodern popular cultural mindset and revert to the tropes of mythology Star Wars embodies, Yoda represents corruption. More importantly, the absolutes this Jedi master prescribes has the child see things only in black and white. Ironically later on in the story, Kenobi informs Anakin that it is only a Sith who deals in ideas that express such finality. Also of Alarm is the advice the lizard mentor gives Anakin when he mourns his mother and fears for his lover which is cold and loveless at best.

By the stage the Sith Lord Palpatine is ready to recruit Anakin, the youth’s mind has been moulded to accept influence without question. The soon to be emperor becomes master only when he is disfigured and in a sense can shadow in appearance that of Anakin’s former sensei. Interestingly we are shown how Anakin’s brain was a receptacle for control by Yoda, but we are given relatively little examples of the teachings of the Sith. Of course, by this stage, we know that Anakan is stripped of any trait which shows rebellion and will be easily moulded by the emperor to do his evil doings, which is due of course to the corruption and grooming which took place in his childhood.

Anakin Skywalker is the ultimate Pandora’s Box. Conceived and devised to be tampered with and to inevitably explode. He brought balance to the force in the same way that Rambo in First Blood Part 1 brought balance to safety of small town America. These films serve as great warnings of what mentor figures can do to the young and stress the need for awareness and critical reasoning as the key priority of education. Many of the heroes in the Star Wars saga lose their hands in battle but it is actually their eyes and cognitive receptors that is truly injured.