To Be a Jedi: Part 3
society by virtuous leaders, and though the Taoists made fun of them for trying to instruct what was already there, neither side doubted what John Keats' might call "the holiness of the heart's affections."
In point of fact, the highest virtue in the Confucian ethical philosophy is simply humanity. It is written as "ren" or "jen" depending on whether one uses the Pinyin or Wade-Giles system of translation, but it essentially means "human-heartedness." It is also realized that a person is always going to be more than they can ever say about themselves. Its base is therefore genuine humanity, rather than ideal concepts about what humans should be.
At the end of the Old Republic, being a Jedi is a label - it's regarded as an ideal. The crux of all this is whether or not it interferes with being human. Contrary to what some critics have said, Anakin and Padme Amidala are actually very human characters. And as we all know - despite the proliferation of aliens - the saga is primarily a reflection of the human condition. It seems to me that the Jedi way does lead to spontaneous naturalness in certain respects. For instance, being afraid is perfectly natural, but being afraid of fear isn't. This is precisely the kind of fear that leads to hate, suffering, and the dark side.
On the other hand, there is a certain amount of censure that is going on. Whether intentional or not, there is much abstract idealism, even an aura, that surrounds being a Jedi. One has only to recall the scene on Naboo in which Anakin assures Padme who has heard him crying in the night that "Jedi don't have nightmares." There's something incredibly poignant in that line, maybe because having nightmares is not only a human thing, but about the last thing in the world a person can control. And of course, Jedi also aren't allowed to fall in love, so he simply tells Padme when she reveals her own feelings, "I thought that we had decided not to fall in love." But again, falling in love is certainly not a conscious decision. But this issue finds it clearest expression in the confession scene, in which Anakin breaks down after his revenge massacre of the Tusken Raiders who tortured and killed his mother. Additional dialogue will be put in the Attack of the Clones DVD in which Anakin says that he's better
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