Star Wars Quick-Takes: Attack of the Clones- Blind Seers

We don’t get too much about what the Jedi Order used to be like from watching the Star Wars film, (you people who write for Wookiepedia can fill me in on the expanded universe stuff), but we get the impression that the age that the prequels are set in is far from “The Golden Age of The Jedi”. When we discussed The Phantom Menace, we took a look at how blind the Jedi Council had become to things going on outside of their ranks. In Attack of the Clones, we see the true extent of their hypocrisy and blindness.

Obi Wan Kenobi’s diner-owner friend Dex makes the poignant statement in his conversation with Obi Wan, “I should think you Jedi would have more respect for the difference between knowledge and wisdom”. This seems to be a good summary of the decay that is taking place within the Jedi Order in the prequel trilogy. They have retained knowledge, but lost wisdom.

Generally, knowledge is considered to be the cold, hard facts of a matter. The raw data, the charts, the graphs, the numbers, the word-for-word recitation, the names and dates, and technical ability. Wisdom is knowing what to do with knowledge. It is being able to see through the data, charts, graphs, and numbers to the heart of the issue. It is understanding and applying the word-for-word recitation. It is knowing the faces behind the names, and the significance behind the dates. For the main spiritual and philosophical entity in the galaxy to have lost the ability is a grave situation.

When Obi Wan goes to the Jedi Temple to investigate the planet Kamino, and discovers that it has been wiped from the databases, he is told by the temple librarian that it obviously doesn’t exist. This reflects the prevailing attitude of holding to facts without discernment. Later, when the plot to create a clone army has been uncovered, Yoda admits to this fault on the part of the Jedi leaders, “Blind we are if the creation of this clone army we could not see.”

When the spiritual leaders of a society sacrifice their wisdom for mere facts, that society is vulnerable to attack. When the artists, and thinkers, and prophets forget about wisdom and focus merely on transmitting information, crisis is inevitable. Rulers come to power who would rather that understanding remained dim; because, if the people were enlightened to the truth, these rulers would lose their authority. The masses are deceived, and the truth remains suppressed until a new group of people,who have the ability to see, rises up. The restored balance between wisdom and knowledge brings with it, well, a new hope.