Ah yes, it feels like just yesterday that Luke and his buddies were out trying to save the galaxy; getting into bar fights, trying to kill his dad, making out with his sister, flying down trenches in space stations armed with only two torpedoes with a target two metres wide.
We have to face it, Luke was a legend. Well, is a legend, I guess. I mean, if it wasn’t for him, we would all still be under the control of that dude in the suit and his evil grandpa.
We owe a lot to Luke, that’s for sure. But what you may not have ever considered are the ramifications for his “victory” that fateful day.
Call me crazy, but let us just consider the magnitude for destroying a moon-sized space station. Completely filled with people, animals (presumably), plants (also presumably), and probably billions of dollars worth of infrastructure and machinery. The people alone would have to be in the high thousands, so you can imagine how many of them would have been either (a) entirely innocent, (b) did not agree with what was happening but had no say, or (c) had said something, and were awaiting their clearance to leave (or their execution).
Hitler, Genghis Khan, Saddam Hussein, we all know the stories of the evil leaders that had an army at their disposal that was under their control. We also know the stories of people that did not agree with their leaders, yet chose to keep their mouth shut on account of putting food on the table. Understandable, of course, but think about it, how many of those thousands of people on the Death Star were in the same boat? I would estimate at least 30%.
Now look, I understand that when Luke destroyed the Death Star he did it for the greater good. But surely Luke could have gone about it a different way. For starters, perhaps he could have just called the Emperor real quick. You know, left him a quick message on his interstellar answering machine. Or maybe just a simple text or space email. Perhaps in doing so he could have sort the whole situation out with them and stopped them from wanting to blow up innocent planets and take control of the galaxy.
At the very least, Luke and his band of rebels could have just given the station a little heads-up to give them all a chance to GTFO and save their lives. I mean, I wonder how many of those people left for work that day and didn’t say goodbye to their family, or who were having persistent, petty arguments with their friends. I wonder, even, how many of them were hating their lives, yet choosing to do nothing about it.
Recently, Twizzle released an estimate regarding how much the Death Star would cost to build. Without taking into consideration the equipment, computers, beds, food, nightclubs (again, presumably), bathrooms and laundromats riddled throughout the station, they came out with a total of $22,452,000,000,000,000,000. Now, we shall assume that this is in US dollars, so after converting it to AUD we get a mere $30,105,191,237,040,001,024. Yep, that’s right, the number 30 with a total of 18 numbers after it. 30 quintillion. Pretty pricey, if you ask me.
Think of the possibilities the entire galaxy could have done with that kind of money. Selling the steel, the copper, the equipment, the Van Gogh paintings, and various other items scattered throughout it would have easily cover the cost of finally ending famine, poverty, homelessness.
Again, I know Luke acted for the greater good, but right now Luke sure seems like a douchebag.
To make things even worse, you can’t help but think of the real losers in this scenario: the families of the people that worked on the Death Star. What of the thousands of babies that maybe just started to walk that day, the kids that just had their first day at space school, the people that were just about to graduate from space college, the families that had planned a holiday to the nearest beach planet? These are the people that were most affected by Luke’s doing that day.
But, the people of the Death Star might have been just like you. You know, going about their daily life, getting stuck in the “rat race”, thinking that they’ll change it someday, waiting for that magical opportunity to arise.
There is certainly a lesson that we can all take away from Luke’s evil doings that day: each day we live is another chance to do what we want to be doing. We can alter our lives at any given moment and we never have to succumb to the illusion that we must do what is required of us from a social norms perspective.
If you are not happy with where you’re at, change it. If you are not happy with who you hang out with, change that. If you are not happy with what you do each and every day, do something about it. Instead of being bored or worried or stressed or depressed or unsure of what you want to do next in life, do something different.
If you’re at a loss, write down some things that you’d love to be able to do, see, experience, learn. Write down your emotions, your thoughts, your goals, your idealisms.
For me, my idealistic scenario is simple: if I so happen to be on a Death Star tomorrow that is blown up by some punk-ass, manic teenager, I hopefully would be happy with the attempt I make in life.
But, let’s hope Luke doesn’t show up to teach our galaxy a lesson.