Between The Force and Forcing It: What I know by 40...

... is that there's The Force and there's forcing it, and never do the two meet.  Most of us wade through our days floating and sinking on the waves in the distance between forcing it and The Force.

When George Lucas created the Star Wars franchise, he formulated a phenomenon of mythological philosophy in The Force, a mysterious energy that, through faith, people can tap into to perform miraculous feats such as...



The wisdom of Yoda pointing out that the force is life itself and that it exists everywhere not withstanding, the nature of the force requires faith.  And once the faith opens the floodgates, a tiny, little creature can lift a spaceship with nothing but a gesture and a breath (see Countryman for the Jamaican Yoda).  That's the mustard seed moving a mountain stuff we call faith.  That's The force and it is the opposite of forcing it.

(As an aside and speaking of forcing it, people who felt that the black character in The Force Awakens, the latest Star Wars movie, was forced "anti-white propaganda" joined the #boycottstarwars hashtag because some people suck.  The white supremacist paranoid schizophrenia predictably spread to attacks on J.J. Abrams (the Jewish director of Star Wars who was lambasted by the same folks for
having the nerve to be Jewish).  Funny thing is that the people who started the hashtag did it as a way to rile up (troll) twitter SJWs (Social Justice Warriors) for fun and ended up exposing a bunch of very real racist monkeys who hurled shit in anonymity while a sea of people (96% of those who used the faux racist hashtag, in fact) celebrated the diversity of the film.  It will all likely drum up ticket sales and hopefully we won't all leave the movie feeling like black characters did seem forced in to boost said ticket sales. But I digress (but not really))

The real-life (and infinitely sucky) version of The Force is called Social Media.  It works like this:  post a controversial hashtag, people respond, people respond to the responders, and a storm is born.  It's like the Butterfly Effect (when butterfly wings that flutter in west Africa and send a hurricane to America).

And this is the dumb luck (aka marketing genius) version of the force, the way that anybody forcing anything can ultimately tap into the worst in people to get people to behave in the way they want.  And unfortunately, that is the way the mainstream (hegemony) works.  It pushes with overwhelming (manipulative) force (control over means of production, distribution, and media) and forces everyone to go with its (lava) flow or get burned, flattened, or pummeled into pumice.

This is the paradox of Social Media in a nutshell.  Using it to keep in touch with people forces us to have social-media based, detached relationships where, in the distance, we can categorize and compartmentalize people in ways real life and real interaction doesn't allow.  Like (or not), friend, unfriend, follow, unfollow are the boundaries of the neat little lawns of relationship we call social media friendship (with comments and replies being the flowers and/or weeds).  Facebook and Twitter (AKA the Darkside) control our relationships and our relationship to our relationships, ultimately controlling how (and if) we have relationships.

But again, the force is the opposite of forcing it.  And there is an excellent example from another movie soon to be released.  Creed, a movie by up and coming director Ryan Coogler is a new take on the old Rocky franchise.  It features a Black lead and stays true to the franchise at its best.  Here is Coogler talking about the movie and notice what he says is the main theme of the film:



It is our relationships which make The Force and you can feel the relationship between Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, and Ryan Coogler in this interview.  Here are three very different guys from different generations, different backgrounds and yet the relationship between them is certainly what made this movie, by all accounts, great enough to gain the biggest opening of all Rocky movies and high critical praise across the board.  

More relevant for this reflection on the difference between The Force and forcing it, relationships are where we experienced the difference most vividly.  You just can't force friendship.  You can't force love.  You can't force unity.  But when you feel it, real connection, The Force is unstoppable.

The Civil Rights Movement couldn't force racial justice as American society is arguably as straddled with racial strife as ever.  Neither suffrage nor feminism could force gender equality as women still earn less political and social freedom than men.  Neither Communism nor Capitalism could force economic justice as the U.S. and China have the highest income inequality rates of any nations.

The Force is found only is relationship, in bringing people into relationship such that they can identify that force that creates affinity, community and, ultimately, civilization.  The force is the relationship between living things, "between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere," as Yoda would put it.  And therein lies the difference between The Force and forcing it.

When you force it, you go at it alone, like the rugged individualists in America's dream (fantasy) of is America.  America at its best (is The Force) is a nation built on the relationship between diverse people.  America at its worst (AKA The Darkside) sends groups (tribes) of people into fear and loathing to try to force their way to power (war).  Humanity at its worst is war, and that war trickles down to every individual person, into every thought, into every action (may peace be with you).
itself.  The Force taps into the relationship between people, such as people who were here before Columbus, people brought here as slaves, and people who immigrated seeking a new life.  If that relationship is healthy, America is at its best.  If not...

The horror is real.

(a moment of silence)

So as I wade through these days, now 10 days from 40, I'm looking for where I am forcing it, at war with myself, where I am isolated and out of relationship with life in all its forms and I am seeking healing and reconnection.  I am tapping into The Force by looking for relationship.  Maybe that relationship is within my family or culture, and maybe not.  Maybe it is in common hopes I and other people share for ourselves, or for our children.  Maybe the relationship is simply that we are breathing the same air because we are in the same space and time, ultimately dealing with the same consequences of pollution (#climatechange).  Regardless, I am going to focus on relationships (The Force) everywhere, even in social media.

And (P.S.) I'm going to see The Force Awakens and Creed, as opposed to sitting at home watching Netflix, so I can go out and experience something with a bunch of other people that I can't experience alone:  The Force at work and at play, everyday, everywhere, and in the shared experience of excitement about a new story.  Hope to see you there.