Matthew continues the Antifascist Woodshed series with a two-part analysis of an extraordinary cultural event: rebellions within rebellions—or how a ragtag band of writers and worldbuilders Trojan-horsed an antifascist masterpiece into the Empire of streaming content.
Seven chapters:
(This past Saturday, main feed:)
Space Wizards or Antifascism?
Star Wars Culture Wars
A Post-Fragmentary Left
(Today:)
Hope and Love
Tony Gilroy’s Antifascist Field Manual
The Used Future
Antifascist Parents Are Better than Jedi Parents
NB: There will be spoilers for Andor!
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Welcome to Conspirituality, where we investigate the intersection of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience, and authoritarian extremism.
I'm Matthew Remsky.
We are on Instagram and threads at ConspiritualityPod, and you can access all of our episodes ad-free, plus our Monday bonus episodes on Patreon, or just our bonus episodes via Apple subscriptions.
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Thank you.
Okay, once again, that is Star Wars-themed original music from Luis Humanoid.
Not AI written, by the way.
It's copyright-free and fan-made, and that makes it really appropriate for a lot of the themes that I'll be getting into.
So this is part two of watching Andor with the kids.
There are spoilers, just so you know.
On Saturday, I set things up by looking at some origin story material for this half-century-old cultural event, mainly how the Lucasfilm political timeline begins with this fork in the road for Lucas himself and his interests.
He has a spiritual revelation at the age of six, and as an adult in the 1970s, he wants every kid to sort of have the same thing.
But he also grows up in the anti-Vietnam era.
And he starts his film career with work on Apocalypse Now and his own dystopic sci-fi cautionary tale about tech-driven authoritarianism.
Now out of a desire to inspire optimism in that demoralized post-60s milieu, he focuses on the spiritual war of the Jedi against the Sith, showing the sacrifices of psychological discipline and mental focus and emotional non-attachment.
But he also doesn't want to completely abandon the politics of anti-fascism and anti-colonialism.
And he can't.
He's set up an empire, after all.
And he's set up a rebellion.
And that conflict can't just stay in the ether.
And my meta comment here is that the worldview of conspirituality actually depends on not being able to differentiate between the need for spiritual relief and the desire for an end to oppression.
And the progression of Star Wars from the world of Lucas to the world of Gilroy is about learning what that distinction actually means.
Chapter 4, Hope and Love.
I'm going to jump in here right at the deep end.
I was talking with the 12-year-old about this fork in the road for Lucas circa 1974, and together we came to the conclusion that while he initially threw his lot in with the space wizards, both pathways actually provide for optimism, and maybe they can't ultimately be separated.
Now, just as a reminder and for comparison, Luke's progression was, This is a really powerful arc.
But on the other hand, Cassian Andor has nothing but his instincts and his luck and his burning hatred for injustice.
He has no illusions that his life will fade into Force Ghost White, and yet he keeps going.
That is optimistic too, but in a different register.
The Jedi connect with the Force to the extent they release their attachments, but Cassian Andor connects with his humanity by never breaking operational security and by never ever leaving anyone behind.
And I think there's an incredible serendipity that these two modes of optimism are in tension here for the world to see.
I think it's really inviting for young people to sense a dialectic between seeking spiritual relief and demanding material answers.
That dialectic grants the agency of comparison, consideration, and choice.
It allows the imagination to wander from magic to reality.
To feel the wonder of magic on one hand and the nobility of reality on the other.
or the hollowness of magic on the one hand and the brutality of the real on the other.
And my point is that kids do not need to choose before they can feel the differences here and develop strategies for resilience along whatever path they choose.
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