the third Star Wars movie that’s Revenge
of the Sith I know that’s the prequels
they stink I get it it’s not the
classics don’t hate me I had a momentary
bit of nostalgia and I just went back
and watched them don’t hate me please
please okay but there was actually a
scene in this third movie that caught my
attention and do you mind if I reenact
it here for you would that be okay okay
all right I’m gonna do it anyways even
to those of you shook your heads so to
set the scene we’re all familiar there’s
the Jedi good guys and thus if the bad
guys even though the sets are cooler uh
so obi-wan is a Jedi one of the good
guys and he’s confronting his former
apprentice
Anakin who was a good guy and has now
turned into a bad guy and so Anakin is
there and he he’s he’s going on and on
about all of his accomplishments and
he’s saying I brought order and justice
and security to my new empire and Obi
Wan’s over here and he says your new
empire Anakin my allegiance is to the
Republic to democracy and Anakin says if
you are not with me then you are my
enemy and obi-wan says only a Sith deals
in absolutes Anakin that that’s drawing
the lightsaber by the way I will do what
I must
okay now I I’m a political science major
like Michael mentioned and so I have
sometimes been forced to study politics
fairly closely for the past four years I
could use a detox but at the end of
these 18 minutes and over the course of
studying politics I’ve noticed a pattern
a mindset if you will that kind of
permeates the way in which people not
only just think about politics but more
specifically the way they talk about
politics to illustrate that let’s do
this exact same scene again with
slightly different dialogue okay so we
got Anakin again and he says Donald
Trump is gonna bring order and justice
and security to America he’s going to
make America great again and only want
to be over here and say you think Donald
Trump’s going to do that what I stand
for liberalism for freedom and tolerance
if you are not with me then you are my
enemy
oh I see how it is I’ll do what I must
140 followers are gonna love this oh
yeah
all Republicans are Nazis yeah you
better believe it
this is what it’s come to this is what
political discourse the foundation of
Western liberal democracy has come to
absolutism is the word that I use and it
spawns from that little exchange of
dialogue if you are not with me then you
are my enemy
only a Sith deals in absolutes
absolutism if I were to express this in
in in a sentence it would sound
something like this this belief here
absolutism I am 100% correct in all of
my views you hi there how are you you’re
doing good enjoying yourself yeah okay
you you disagree with me well you are
100% wrong in your views okay that’s how
absolutism works you’re either with me
or you are my enemy it’s a binary system
you know what binary is it’s computer
code it’s ones and zeroes ones and zeros
you’re either right or you’re wrong
you’re either left or you’re right
you’re either black or you’re white that
is the way absolutism sees the world you
have there’s no room for moderation with
absolutism you got to pick a side and I
think this mindset has corrupted
political discourse that’s just
political conversations especially here
in the West and it’s I think the cause
of the division that we are seeing right
now so the question for me then becomes
why why if if it’s such a lie and
entrust me it is a lie why is it so
convincing why do we buy it so easy I
have two theories the first one is
because absolutism masquerades as
liberalism okay so what I mean here okay
so liberalism is is a broader ideology
than just political parties okay we need
to understand that right off the bat
like the Liberal Party is not like the
only party that adheres to liberalism
every Canadian political party is a
liberal party in a broad sense okay so
the ideas that are the foundation of our
society we’re talking about freedom
equality individualism human rights
these are all liberal ideas and it
underpins the way we think about
government in the way we think about all
of these sorts of ideas liberalism is is
the broad ideology that is the
foundation of our society absolutism
takes the basic tenants of liberalism in
extrapolates just a little bit more adds
a little something on to the end and
that’s where we liberalism turns into
something destructive so in order to
understand this we need to we need to
first trace a little bit back to the
beginnings of liberalism which can be
found in the Protestant Reformation and
Martin Luther so the present Reformation
was a direct response to the Catholicism
right the Catholic essentially monopoly
on knowledge the Catholic Church they
were the only ones who could read the
Bible so they could manipulate what was
taught and unfortunately they did
manipulate it and they taught doctrines
that someone like Martin Luther said I
don’t see this anywhere in the Bible so
as opposed to a situation where you grow
up in the church and you you learn about
who you are in the church where Luther
in his letter to Pope Leo expresses a
different idea what he says is as free
rational equal individuals we can find
God on our own that was essentially his
argument I’m gonna say it again here
free rational equal individuals so as
individuals who have our freedom and the
same we are all the same we are all
equal we all have the same mental
faculties we can find God on our own we
don’t need the church to tell us about
God that was his essential argument and
so this idea of a free rational equal
individual is skurd forward throughout
history from Thomas Hobbes to john locke
to jean-jacques Rousseau you have no
idea who these people are it’s okay it’s
carried forward and it becomes liberal
ideology that like I said underpins our
society so what absolutism does is it
adds to those basic tenets so if I were
to re express it it sounds something
like this it’d be I am a free rational
equal individual I am entitled to all of
my views the government can’t tell me
what to believe
the church can’t tell me what to believe
my parents can’t tell me what to believe
hi mom and but more than that not only
am I entitled to these beliefs but I am
100 percent correct in these beliefs and
ain’t no one who disagrees with me is
100 percent wrong
so it’s liberalism plus something extra
so when we think we’re being liberal in
exercising our individuality we
oftentimes are behaving with an
absolutist mindset and so that’s why
it’s easy to fall for it because it’s so
close to something that’s still familiar
my second theory is that absolutism
preys on our insecurities so another
byproduct of the Crosstour Reformation
was this process of self-discovery no
longer did we have the church to tell us
about ourselves to tell us what our
values were who we were going to be we
had to discover that on our own
and again that’s the idea that carries
forward through history and so even
today we spend our whole lives searching
who are we what makes me me what are my
values and I think and I’m not that old
but I think we never really figure it
out and if we do we’re not 100%
confident in it there’s always that
self-doubt that insecurity and so in
whatever whenever we’re criticized
whenever someone comes along and even
constructively critiques our views we
respond defensively right we’re like Ooo
Ooo
and at that moment absolutism comes
alongside misses hey buddy buddy it’s
all good you don’t have to listen to
them there are a hundred percent wrong
you’re a free rational equal individual
you need to listen to them you just you
just got to stand up to the haters and
so instead of listening to that feedback
even constructive feedback we shut them
out and say they’re wrong you’re wrong
you can see the problem there you miss
out on potentially becoming a better
person so what are consequences of
absolutism if this is what it is and
this is where it came from and this is
why we buy the lie what are the
consequences of it I got three three
macro level so big-picture consequences
and they’re like dominoes okay that one
falls into the next falls into the next
okay it starts with the suppression of
opinion okay so when you and I’m gonna
use the example United States right now
because honestly they are a nation being
torn apart by an absolutist mindset and
it’s it’s it’s hard to watch it really
is so let me let me give you an example
your and it happens on both sides
suppression of opinion here people on
the Left state everyone on the right you
are racist homophobic xenophobic sexist
okay okay no I think that’s an insult to
our human complexity the reasons why we
vote the the things that that influence
the way we vote you know I’ve seen maps
of America where on both coasts you know
where you had generally a lot of Hillary
Clinton voters you would screw you would
written in red white and blue in America
but then in the swath in the middle was
colored in white and written in white
trash a Stan do I need to tell you
what’s wrong with that now we’re so
seeing everyone who voted with fur
Donald Trump with terrorism I I don’t
see it what I do see is an attempt to
delegitimize the views of the right so
that you can save its unamerican to vote
for Donald Trump you shouldn’t even be
allowed to speak the suppression of
opinion on the right though they are not
the victims here because the right looks
the left and says all left-wing media
are fake news except for Breitbart and
Fox so they only watch Breitbart and Fox
they’ve shut out all other news media
organizations cuz they supposedly
promote liberal agenda and again it’s
the same thing trying to delegitimize
the views of the other side so you don’t
have to listen to them why would you
listen to an opinion who you think is
dead wrong anyways and what happens is
both sides lock themselves in to echo
chambers of their own opinions and of
course then you have the second
consequence the deterioration of
discussion if you’ve locked yourself in
an echo chamber you’re only listening to
views that reaffirm your own beliefs why
would you talk to anyone who disagrees
with you and we see this all
it’s so easy in an era of social media
just go block unfollow because why would
I let their their their trash opinions
into my newsfeed
and of course once you have the
deterioration of discussion I would
argue to you do you get the death of
democracy itself this might seem like a
stretch but again look at the states
right now would you not say the people
are questioning their institutions
questioning their ideals what makes them
American I think and they’re not there
yet
but I think that this is where it goes
when you have the suppression of opinion
which leads to the deterioration of
discussion you eventually have the death
of democracy because Western liberal
democracy needs conversation it’s one of
the great privileges of living in the
West is the ability to talk the ability
for me to say to someone hey I disagree
with your opinion I disagree with the
candidate that you’re voting for and
they can say why disagree with you and
that’s okay you can you know in Russia
just this week Vladimir Putin banned a
photo of him they someone at Photoshop
it so he was a transgender clown it’s
it’s pretty funny you should find it and
exercise your freedom and spread that
but we live in a country where we won’t
be put in jail we won’t be shot for
disagreeing with our leaders and our
politicians but there are countries
where that is the reality so this is
where we go I think so is that it
that’s the end we’re all headed towards
the death democracy we’re all
absolutists were all Sith Lords know
there is hope so I want to bring to your
attention a very very smart man named
John Stuart Mill you might have heard of
him he’s a political philosopher and he
highlights I think the consequence but
subsequently the personal benefits that
come from fighting back against that
absolutist mindset that suppression of
opinion let’s look at a quote here okay
if the opinion that you are trying to
suppress turns out to be right
they being the people are deprived of
the opportunity of exchanging error for
truth but if wrong so if the opinion you
are suppressing is actually wrong they
lose what is almost as great a benefit
the clearer perception I love the way
says this and livelier impression of the
truth produced by its collision with
error so regardless of whether the
opinion you are suppressing in your
absolutism whether the penny new are
suppressing is wrong or not you lose
either you’re missing out on the
opportunity to exchange your error for
their truth or even if they turn out to
be wrong you still miss out on the
opportunity to learn more about what you
believe and more about the world around
you because this is the reality all
silencing of discussion and this is
another John Stuart Mill quote all
silencing of discussion is an assumption
of infallibility raise your hands fear
and fallible they’re one hand no K good
I was worried for a second this is the
reality when you start to suppress
people’s opinions because you find them
wrong you are assuming that you are
infallible in your judgment of right and
wrong and that’s simply not the case I
want to show you a quick a quick
illustration here if this circle here
represents all knowledge all human
knowledge that has ever ever been known
ok how much of that do you think or no
part of me this is all knowledge that
can be known this is all knowledge that
could be known this circle represents
what we know what we’ve discovered it
might be optimistic you know might be
optimistic but let’s say the throughout
human history of all there is to know
this is what we figured out how much of
that circle do you think you know maybe
yeah that and that’s probably optimistic
too isn’t it
the reality is when you think with an
absolutist mindset oh hey look now
there’s more uh when you think with an
absolutist mindset you are assuming that
you’re one little yellow dot actually
represents the entire blue dot I have
nothing else to learn I already know
everything when
in reality that’s just ridiculous there
is so much we can learn from the people
around us not only just about politics
and in terms of understanding the other
side but just in terms of you know our
humanity it’s a common theme that’s come
up I think a lot today and I hope it’s
what your general takeaway is is that
there is value in conversation hint hint
that’s the solution here how do we fight
back against absolutism this the scourge
that threatens to destroy democracy
itself we need to rediscover the art of
conversation and believe me it is an art
form because I’m sure we’ve all had
those conversations with people who do
not want to talk to us and who do deal
with this in this absolutist way if you
are not with me then you are my enemy
right we’ve had those conversations and
that’s why we don’t talk but I encourage
you I plead with you to abandon
absolutism and talk to each other and
you have a great opportunity coming up
because we got an election coming up
here in BC you all remember that yes
okay we got an election coming up and I
would hate to see us us as Canadians
fall into the same patterns as the
Americans and tear each other apart over
differences of opinion and that’s really
all it is I encourage you to talk to
each other learn from each other as John
Stuart Mill says even if they are wrong
gain a livelier impression of the truth
gain a greater understanding a greater
depth of understanding of your own views
by conflicting them with views with
others there is strength and
vulnerability people there is strength
and allowing your views to be critiqued
and then analyzed getting saying why do
I believe what I believe absolutism is
not inherent it doesn’t have to be this
way we are seeing right now is not
normal
don’t be a Seth if you are not with me
then you’re my enemy no no no no if you
are not with me that’s okay let’s talk
it out don’t be a Seth ladies and
gentlemen thank you very much
you [Applause]