-- Fear is a great motivator.
Everyone remembers the financial crisis, right? And everyone remembers that the thing that enabled the financial crisis to happen was the deregulation of the banks, right? Well, this episode deals with deregulating the banks of the Republic in an effort to drive the war machine even farther. Basically, the Republic needs more money for more clones, but it's the corporations who are making money off of the war who are pushing for the deregulation. After all, it's all about the profits.
With that as the backdrop, we get our first real look at the people fighting on the side of the Separatists. Not the droids, the people, a point the episode highlights as Ahsoka meets the son of a man who was killed during a Republic attack. Before the war, the boy had believed the Jedi were good; now, he's not so sure. After all, they were the leaders of the attack that lead to his father's death and, of course, the Separatist rhetoric is that the Jedi serve at the will of the corporations and are therefore as evil as the corporations.
What we really get to see, though, is how it's the same bad guys driving both sides of the conflict. The Trade Federation and the banking clans might be a part of the Republic Senate, but they take their orders from Count Dooku. And, of course, then there's Palpatine, the man pulling all of the strings.
In the end, the people fighting on both sides of the conflict, the normal people and the Jedi, are all good guys. They are all people who could have sat down and worked things out in a rational manner. They could have if, you know, there weren't other people who were making money off of the fighting.
The episode isn't quite all philosophy and politics, though that is what it mostly is. For a look behind the curtains, so to speak, this is definitely an episode worth watching.
"In this case, our business is violence."
With that as the backdrop, we get our first real look at the people fighting on the side of the Separatists. Not the droids, the people, a point the episode highlights as Ahsoka meets the son of a man who was killed during a Republic attack. Before the war, the boy had believed the Jedi were good; now, he's not so sure. After all, they were the leaders of the attack that lead to his father's death and, of course, the Separatist rhetoric is that the Jedi serve at the will of the corporations and are therefore as evil as the corporations.
What we really get to see, though, is how it's the same bad guys driving both sides of the conflict. The Trade Federation and the banking clans might be a part of the Republic Senate, but they take their orders from Count Dooku. And, of course, then there's Palpatine, the man pulling all of the strings.
In the end, the people fighting on both sides of the conflict, the normal people and the Jedi, are all good guys. They are all people who could have sat down and worked things out in a rational manner. They could have if, you know, there weren't other people who were making money off of the fighting.
The episode isn't quite all philosophy and politics, though that is what it mostly is. For a look behind the curtains, so to speak, this is definitely an episode worth watching.
"In this case, our business is violence."
We recently finished The Night Manager, an AMC miniseries about arms dealers and espionage. The "our business is violence" was a prominent theme in that story, too.
ReplyDeleteTAS: I've heard of it, but I haven't had a chance to watch it, yet. I'm more interested, now, though.
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