· This episode marks the first appearance of Darth Sidious “in the flesh.” In all other appearances, he has been a hologram.
· Obi-Wan Kenobi is wearing his Rako Hardeen disguise (from Season Four’s “Deception” arc) when he arrives on Mandalore.
· The much battered Twilight now sports a cartoonish illustration of Anakin as a boy Podracer pilot, with Aurebesh text that says “WIZARD!!!” The Twilight has not been seen since Season Two’s “Children of the Force.”
Rich Hoffman
As readers here know, I am a tremendous Star Wars fan. For my thoughts on Star Wars and the future implication of that vast mythological story, CLICK HERE. It goes without saying that the below press release I just received from Lucasfilm is news that I think is very valuable. I hold mythology as being far more important than politics, and considering how much time I spend on politics, that should emphasize my thoughts accurately. In my family, we relish mythology above and beyond all other transitory values, because the temperament of politics rolls in and out like the tide of an ocean, but mythology shapes society contextually and deserves a long view commitment. I have great hope for the future of Star Wars and the impact it will have on young people everywhere. So I am very, VERY proud that J.J. Abrams will be the next director of Star Wars: Episode 7. He was my deepest wish for this project, and I am happy to present the following press release as it was sent to me:
“Star Wars Is Being Kick-Started with Dynamite”
J.J. Abrams to Direct Star Wars: Episode VII
After a bevy of emails and phone calls, the formalities have been wrapped up, and at long last everyone can exhale and properly share the word with an excited Internet. Yes, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII, the first of a new series of Star Wars films to come from Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy. Abrams will be directing and Academy Award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay.
“It’s very exciting to have J.J. aboard leading the charge as we set off to make a new Star Wars movie,” said Kennedy. “J.J. is the perfect director to helm this. Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise. He understands the essence of the Star Wars experience, and will bring that talent to create an unforgettable motion picture.”
George Lucas went on to say “I’ve consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller. He’s an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn’t be in better hands.”
“To be a part of the next chapter of the Star Wars saga, to collaborate with Kathy Kennedy and this remarkable group of people, is an absolute honor,” J.J. Abrams said. “I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid.”
J.J., his longtime producing partner Bryan Burk, and Bad Robot are on board to produce along with Kathleen Kennedy under the Disney | Lucasfilm banner.
Also consulting on the project are Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg. Kasdan has a long history with Lucasfilm, as screenwriter on The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi. Kinberg was writer on Sherlock Holmes and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Abrams and his production company Bad Robot have a proven track record of blockbuster movies that feature complex action, heartfelt drama, iconic heroes and fantastic production values with such credits as Star Trek, Super 8, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, and this year’s Star Trek Into Darkness. Abrams has worked with Lucasfilm’s preeminent postproduction facilities, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, on all of the feature films he has directed, beginning with Mission: Impossible III. He also created or co-created such acclaimed television series as Felicity, Alias, Lost and Fringe.
Abrams is the director of one of my favorite monster movies of all time, Cloverfield. So I’m going to go get in line for Star Wars Episode 7 right now.
Because I think it’s going to be epic………………………………….it will be what you get when you mix dynamite with a side dish of TNT. What you get is……………THUNDERSTRUCK. And soon the magic of J.J. Abrams will strike us all.
Rich Hoffman
Before I get into a lengthy diatribe of translating the good experience of taking my grandson to his first book store as a 4 month old lad, I must comment on the video below featuring a middle-aged couple being hounded by their grown children after seeing the new movie release of Les Misérables featuring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crow and Anne Hathaway in a fantastic rendition of the popular play and book. The couple is noticeably emotional as they left the theater and were in the car on the way home. The sons of the couple thought the sight of their parents emotional state worth capturing for the YouTube archives. Les Misérables (usually pron.: /leɪ ˌmɪzəˈrɑːb/; French pronunciation: [le mizeʁabl(ə)]) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. In the English-speaking world the novel is usually referred to by its original French title, which can be translated from the French as The Miserable, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims. Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, focusing on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption.[1]
I don’t have the same experience with Les Misérables as the couple above. For me, the French Revolution was a failure, and the aftermath led them to become a country continuously conquered by the Germans thereafter. But, in American society, much of the love of Paris, Mardi Gras festivals, and even the roots for socialism among the so-called educated and cultured East Coast residents can be traced back to the popular play and their love of it. For me, the characters in Les Misérables do not have enough Übermensch in them, which is all that I find worthy in works of art these days. But I was thinking of that poor couple as my wife and I took our grandson to our weekly outing to the bookstore to stock up on more books for the week. Before our shopping spree however we went to Chili’s as I watched the preview show for the BCS Title game between Notre Dame and Alabama on ESPN. As I looked around the bar, everyone’s eyes were fixated on the same information being broadcast from the flat screen televisions all around the restaurant. As we ate, I discussed all these elements with my wife and grandson, we spoke about the BCS game, Brian Kelly in leaving the University of Cincinnati to bring Notre Dame to dominance in just two years, the consistency of the Alabama program, and why the poor couple coming home from the Les Misérables movie were so sad. I explained to my grandson that many adults have turned off their minds. Football, even though I enjoy the drama of the game is an accepted entertainment that occupies the neural development of the brain’s core processes and serves as a great distraction from the helpless, out-of-control nature many people feel in their lives. Many adults have turned their minds off to many forms of mythology unless the orthodox society has determined that something has great sophisticated merit over other forms. In other words, most adults wish to believe that they have arrived in their advanced age at a place of mental superiority over children like my grandson.
My grandson looked at me gurgling milk bubbles from his mouth as I spoke for nearly a half hour without pause. I’m not sure how much he understood, but he looked at me and didn’t interrupt as my wife fed him his bottle. I was feeling relaxed as we are on the third week of our unconventional vacation in the Star Wars galaxy of The Old Republic video game, and my wife and I have been having a blast. Unlike Les Misérables or sports of any kind, the philosophy of Star Wars deals often with topics of the Übermensch so more and more I turn to it for the level of thinking I enjoy indulging in, and two solid weeks of gaming on the new MMO The Old Republic with my wife and kids solving various political problems as Jedi Knights on the worlds of Nar Shaddaa, Coruscant and the shattered world of the once thriving Taris, I am at the closest place to complete bliss that I think is possible, and I suddenly felt very sorry for my adult contemporaries who only had the BCS Title game to look forward to, or a screening of Les Misérables. To me, those are passive—or dead mythologies. But Star Wars has always been a vast and creative mythology. The concepts set in the mind a motion that unifies complex ideas under the powerful process of mythology and in human history, there is nothing like Star Wars, and sadly parents like the couple crying over Les Misérables deny themselves the same experience with Star Wars because they mistakenly believe that Star Wars is for kids alone. It’s not. For the adults who can share those mythologies with their children—and in our case—grandchildren, Star Wars is the building blocks to the next great philosophic movement.
The start of this new philosophic/religious awaking is just beginning. Star Wars the Clone Wars just had their 100th episode aired on the Cartoon Network during the second Saturday of January 2013 and Kathy Kennedy is moving the production of the new movie trilogy into the casting stage. The servers are thumping for the MMO game that my wife and I were eager to get back to after our dinner and trip to the book store—so BioWare has been successful in bringing new interest to the game which I think is very valuable. But the reason for our outing was not to buy a new video game, see a movie, or even to eat out with our grandson. The purpose of our journey to the book store was to buy the new Star Wars book called Scoundrels which just came out on January 1st and is a book that my wife has salivated over for nearly 6 months. So after dinner we headed over to our favorite bookstore and suffered through the numerous people who wished to stop our progress and gaze at our grandson who was wide awake and smiling. I was happy to show him such a place of freedom—a book store. For me personally, there is no place better on Earth. I love the smell of them. I like the people in them. And I treasure the vast vaults of knowledge contained in them. So long as there is a free press, tyranny of any kind can never take full hold in any culture. Bookstores are the backbone to freedom and this was my grandson’s first experience in one–his first of millions—I will make sure of it.
For me, when I was only 9 or 10 years older than my grandson is now, I would spend all of my time away from home in two places, the arcade and the book store. When I ran out of money in the video arcade, I would then go to the book store and read through the titles for hours and hours never getting bored. In fact, I read the Egyptian Book of the Dead complete with hieroglyphic translations during these visits before I was able to purchase my own copy many years later once I started working at age 13. Back then, Star Wars as a mythology only centered on the original trilogies and had three novels out, the novelization of A New Hope (the first Star Wars film) a novel called A Splinter in the Mind’s Eye, and a book called Han Solo At Star’s End. Now, there are hundreds of novels, and they take up an entire section of the book store. In fact, there is no other section in any book store that is larger than most of the sections dedicated to Star Wars books. And I am proud to say that my wife and I possess every single Star Wars novel or junior book ever written and have them in our personal library. She has read them all, I have read about 2/3rds of them.
The book we came to get, Scoundrels was sold out in just two days. The book features Han Solo in a Timothy Zhan story taking place immediately after A New Hope. My wife really wanted to read this one, because it takes Solo back to the time of his late 30’s. In the books that will lead up to the new films being produced by Lucasfilm and Disney where Harrison Ford will reprise his role and introduce Han Solo’s glorious daughter Jaina to the silver screen, Solo is well into his 70’s—so he’s been around a long time. (No Lucasfilm has not confirmed that Jaina will be in the new film. I just know it to be the case—my own deductive reasoning.) Well, apparently we weren’t the only ones wanting to buy Scoundrels. The book store employee who was very excited to talk about the Star Wars books he’s been reading with us, called around town to find a store that had the new book. While we waited, a young man was in the Star Wars section buying up four paperbacks while his girlfriend waited patiently. I was impressed to see his ambition as he declared to me that he “loved Star Wars.” I saw on his face a more mature and controlled emotion than the one shown by the distraught Les Misérables viewers. With that being said, I noticed that the book store had more Star Wars books than usual and it was explained to me that a combination of the BioWare game The Old Republic, The Cartoon Network television show The Clone Wars, and the announcement of a new Star Wars trilogy coming to theaters in 2015 along with a very aggressive publishing effort pumping out books like Scoundrels every couple of months–nothing is selling hotter than Star Wars these days.
I enjoyed the passion of the young man in the Star Wars section and the book store worker. I saw on their faces an enthusiasm that was much different from the patrons at the Chili’s bar watching the BCS pregame statistics. That football game will come and go and be forgotten within months. Star Wars will be remembered and built upon by the fans who read the books in a mythology that takes place over 37,000 years of interconnected story that spans thousands of characters arcs. Nothing against Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables but as a literary endeavor alone, Star Wars is the greatest single work of literature ever created—and it’s not just for kids. Adults could learn a lot.
We traveled across town and picked up the book that was being held at the counter for us. Barnes and Noble at The Streets of West Chester had a copy left and my wife erupted into delight when she put her hands on the meaty hard cover book. “It will be so nice to read a story where Han and Chewie are together again” There was a love on her face that was much more sophisticated and honest than the poor people who were broken up over the ending of Les Misérables. There is a truth in Star Wars that is eluding the rest of our 21st century society and only Lucasfilm has really managed to put their finger on it fully. I have been visiting book stores for nearly 35 years and this was the first time it really hit me that a wave of new philosophy is about to impact the human race with a freshness that modern mankind has never experienced. And it happened during my grandson’s first visit to a book store to get a Star Wars novel.
If there is one thing that I have learned on my 3 week vacation in the Star Wars galaxy it is that there is a New Hope manifesting in reality. It is percolating subtly through art, politics, and philosophy through the work of children’s stories that contain within them the answers we are all seeking. If Les Misérables is about the harsh conditions and sympathies toward revolution and oppression, Star Wars is about the hope of crushing that oppression with a balanced life of kindness defended with passion and aggression—a very different message than the one provided by the great Victor Hugo novel which Ayn Rand loved so much.
http://exaltedmoments.blogspot.com/2009/06/ayn-rand-on-victor-hugo.html
But Star Wars is the next artistic step in mankind’s long quest for truth, justice, religious purpose, and the endless desire to discover what’s over the next horizon. At least, that’s what I told my grandson, and judging by is facial expressions—he was listening intently, even if he has not yet constructed the ability to express himself with anything more than a smile.
Rich Hoffman
I had said that I was going to reward myself for all the hard work I did in 2012 and celebrate the first quarter release of my new book Tail of the Dragon. Typically authors in my position might take a cruise to the Mediterranean, or schedule a few weeks in Hawaii to celebrate the conclusion and release of their novels but I had stated that I was going to do something different, I was going to invest in a video game that my wife and I had been eager to play for all of the last year, but didn’t have time–or to be honest–the machines to properly play them on. Instead of an external vacation, we were planning to go on an internal one by playing the very involved MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is the latest creation of Bioware, LucasArts, and Electronic Arts with a production budget of over $200 million dollars. The Old Republic MMO is the very latest of its kind following along the tradition of World of Warcraft, and the popular, Guild Wars. MMO’s are very involved, all-encompassing, and can be very complicated. There are a lot of computer calculations that are made per second with people from all over the world playing at the same time as you are, so they require computer systems that can operate at peak performance all the time, and that required me to make a major computer upgrade just to play for myself. However, for my wife to play with me, it would require two supercharged computer systems, so after the fourth quarter sales closed on my Tail of the Dragon and with the help of my son-in-law, we built two specially designed, eight core processor, 75 Watt power-driven monsters for a few thousand dollars just to play The Old Republic which is very graphics intensive, and at times stunning to behold, especially if you love Star Wars like we do, enjoying the story lore with great reverence.
For kids who have grown up with MMOs–who have been over 13 years old since Play Station 2 came out, I think they are missing the wonder of these modern games. I have read some of their reviews of Star Wars: The Old Republic before making my purchases, and I think they have the attention span of a nat. Their expectations in the field of gaming are unreasonably high, which of course can never be satisfied completely by anybody. Because of my schedule being as intense as it had been for many years, the only type of video gaming I had time for were X-Box 360 classics like Red Dead Redemption, Dragon Age, also from BioWare, and an old X-Box game that my wife and I loved to play together called Gladius, which was an RPG co-op–an early design that has obviously carried over into Old Republic. My family, meaning my kids, my wife, and my extended nephews played Star Wars: Galaxies a lot, and World of Warcraft, but I never had the time to play with them, and found it irritating that most of the MMO’s did not have a way for players to co-op in story mode in the way that Gladius had, so I stayed away and my wife never invested much time because of it. This problem has been fixed in Star Wars: The Old Republic, which allows two separate players to do just about everything together, with two totally different storylines—and the way that BioWare pulled this off now that my wife and I have played it for over a week both day and night is nothing short of a technical miracle. For the kids who want the kind of story content available in The Old Republic, to go on forever, they are deeply unrealistic. There is no video game on the market today that is as deeply story driven as The Old Republic, and everything is absolutely epic in scope. For people like me who grew up watching the original Star Wars movies in a movie theater when they were first released, and had to wait almost an entire decade for the ability to watch those movies at home on a LaserDisk—well before VHS video tape or DVD’s, the work that has went into The Old Republic is a small miracle.
My wife is playing as a Jedi Counselor and I am playing as a Jedi Knight, and The Old Republic allows us to both play our stories in a co-op mode that is just stunning in its conception. If all married couples could find something like Old Republic to do together, I think the divorce rate in America would drop off the chart putting many lawyers out of business—because the game is simply wonderful in its co-op play. For instance, my wife and I got up at 5:30 AM on Saturday December 30th after playing the game intensely for 5 consecutive days, and we logged into the game on our two monster computers, each of them being cooled down by 5 internal fans just to keep the video card temperature down. We logged off the game at midnight that same day and went to bed but were up again 5 hours later to follow the same routine on Sunday and Monday. The story content is very intense, and every couple of hours of play there is a major climax in the action similar to most movies, where there is a plot driven introduction, a series of problems that must be overcome, then a resolution to conclude that portion of the story. In one instance on the capital planet of Coruscant—which is absolutely stunningly rendered in the game—I had convinced a member of the Senate who I had caught doing a lot of double-dealing between the criminal underworld, and the people’s business of the Senate, to resign. She offered me a lot of money to keep her name clean, which of course I didn’t take—just like in real life—and forced her to come clean with her resignation. The Senator in question was not a bad person, or evil in any way. She was doing what she felt she needed to do politically, but she had crossed the line and lost her way, and it was my job to make sure she stayed clean. In the world of Star Wars that is the job of a Jedi Knight—a defender of the Republic from not just countless hoards of bad guys, but from the corruption that is indicative in politics. Jedi are a great plot device that fills a need that is indicative in all democratic republics, such as what The United States is facing with unbridled corruption within politics. Jedi are the stabilizing spiritual force that keeps everyone honest and reminds me of the kind of philosophical leader that Plato had in mind in his book The Republic. The Old Republic as a video game excels at giving players those types of moral dilemmas every few hours of game play and so far, my wife and I have over 70 hours each invested, and we haven’t even scratched the surface of the sheer amount of content that is available.
The servers we are playing on were all full much of the time we have been on the game, so it looks like Electronic Arts strategy of offering a free-to-play option worked. Lots of people are flocking to the game, and on the worlds especially like Coruscant, there were many people running around just like any major city. They were everywhere, even in the most far-flung corners of that particular planet. But my wife and I are subscribers and proud to be. I saw that Amazon.com was offering The Old Republic for $14 dollars which will allow people to play under a preferred status. BioWare is offering the game for a free download off the web site. But I personally think they should sell the game for over $200 each, because it’s worth it. The game is that good. It simply dwarfs similar games that are console driven. The computer programming alone to make planets like Coruscant or the space port of The Republic Fleet look so great is mind-blowing. In fact, when my wife and I arrived at the Republic Fleet Space Port we were slammed in the face by the sheer size and scope of the place, the countless video advertisements, the street vendors, the sights, the sounds, it reminded me a lot of a real life Las Vegas where you can’t help but look out the window at the scope of creativity put forth by the human mind in the rows and rows of theme driven hotels and resorts. Star Wars: The Old Republic is loaded with these kinds of bewildering scenes leaving many hours of discovery open to any diligent gamer.
The Old Republic is simply an amazing game that exceeds all my expectations and then some. I was a tremendous fan of the previous two X-Box games called Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Republic II but The Old Republic MMO is in my opinion the best game I have ever played. It’s also been the nicest vacation I’ve ever been on, and I’ve been on a lot of good ones. My wife and I have been having so much fun that we forgot to eat but two complete meals during the entire previous weekend. We were so wrapped up in what we were doing that we didn’t want to go into the kitchen to get food. Instead we ordered Chinese and took 10 minutes to go and pick it up. Once when our shoulders were getting stiff from sitting in the same position for about 15 straight hours we sat in the hot tub for an hour to loosen up, then we went back at it for another 5 hours before going to bed. I don’t know of any place that a couple can go and have that much fun and be clean as a whistle, and still be deeply satisfying physically, emotionally, and intellectually. The Old Republic has all the intellectual stimulation of a great novel, all the visual dazzle of a blockbuster motion picture, but all the strategic satisfaction of the most intense simulation games. In fact, at times it reminds me of a favorite game my wife and I used to play when we were first married called Star Wars: Assault on Hoth, which was a board game of sorts that was a role-playing adventure similar to Dungeons and Dragons. This was well before computer games were anywhere close to where they are now, in fact LucasArts biggest title back then was a game I played all the time on an Atari 7200 called Ball Blazer. That should put things in the proper time frame. She and I would play Assault on Hoth three or four times a week popping a bowl of popcorn and going to war together on the paper landscape. Many years later we would introduce our children to similar war simulation games such as Wiz Kids wonderful Pirates series (CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW MUCH WE ARE INTO THAT). So we are used to playing these kinds of intense strategy games as a family, and The Old Republic is simply every bit as good as I’m saying it is. It is the pinnacle of the gaming genre to date. There is nothing like it, and it may be a long time before something close to it comes again. The production values that went into the game are unusually over-the-top and not likely to be seen again. The cost to produce as much content as BioWare did with The Old Republic is just prohibitive. That is an economic reality that few who play games understand.
I anticipate that my wife and I will stay on this vacation well into the summer, so if my readers here wonder why I seem more reclusive than normal, and difficult to contact, or to pull commitments out of, blame it on The Old Republic. I haven’t turned on a television in over a week, and have only casually scanned news reports, so the benefit of the vacation has been effective in this case. There are few things that could divert my mind as effectively as something so intellectually stimulating as The Old Republic. It is a miracle of the modern age and I cherish every moment I get to play it. It is worth the thousands of dollars I spent just to play the game and then some. It is a lifetime experience that my wife and I will never forget.
Elections have consequences…….but they don’t force people to participate in a fools game, and that is what modern politics offers. Atlas Shrugged was right all along. The Old Republic is my personal Gulch and I’m thankful to have it.
Rich Hoffman
One of the questions I get asked most often is how I have remained so diversified over the years, and so passionate over such a wide variety of subjects and still maintain my optimism. My answer is often difficult and obscure in articulating, and most do not understand once they have heard it, but symbols are a powerful ally into healing the mind from the many unfathomable tribulations it might encounter in a lifetime—and when a mind beholds a symbol it holds in reverence, it becomes possible to always calibrate ones thoughts to the values that are most functional, and beloved. Religions often use such symbols to focus their minds on eternity, or spiritual awakening. Voodoo priests use symbols to focus their minds to speaking to those who have crossed over dimensional understanding. Shamans use symbols to invoke focus on the problems at hand that only have answers in the world of the unknown. I have always needed something that does all that and more, and for me, the symbol that I most reverently adhere to is the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, the intergalactic starship that is the hero of the entire saga, and has been a representation of complete freedom as shown in that fantasy epic from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
The picture shown above is one that I have had on my freestanding Craftsman tool box that I have had for years as I worked in machine shops and other assembly plants where exotic tools were needed to perform the task at hand, and as every real man knows, the size of a man’s tool box says a lot about the level of the mind that owns it, and their ability to solve problems—and my tool boxes have always been big. While my co-workers would fill their opened tool box lids with pictures of women in various states of undress, hot rod cars, and images from their favorite sports teams, my tool box had pictures of the Millennium Falcon pasted all over it as it has been a long-standing dream of mine to build an actual full-scale model of that famous movie space ship, and looking at those old construction photos from The Empire Strikes Back has always inspired me to think outside the box, and to never allow my mind to linger on the impossible. The Millennium Falcon for me is a symbol of always having hope, never surrendering even when the odds are terrible, and trusting that effort will always triumph over technical superiority. I wrote recently about my intention to build a real Millennium Falcon for $15 million dollars that actually flies with anti-gravity technology. CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW. In Tennessee there is a small group that is planning to build a replica of the Millennium Falcon for similar education purposes, which I am very excited to see. CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO VISIT AND OFFER SUPPORT:
I adore people like those at Full Scale Falcon.com. I wish the world was filled with more of them.
I have made it no secret that the car in my new novel Tail of the Dragon was inspired heavily from the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars and many times in my life, I have looked reverently to that classic star ship to reset my thinking on any given topic. My wife can attest that I engage the engines to my electronic Millennium Falcon that sits right next to our bed every night before I go to sleep. So I did what I promised myself I would do after a contentious election season in 2012 and that is give myself a break. I decided to rest from all the heavy-duty philosophy and history that I typically read and pulled a book off our book selves that my wife read last year and had been urging me to give a chance, James Luceno’s novel called Millennium Falcon.
To be honest I did not think the book would be any good and the reason I did not read it earlier was because I needed to finish a few books ahead of it on the Star Wars timeline from the Legacy of the Force series, so just picking the book up to read was not as easy as just reading one book. Millennium Falcon is a sort of bridge book between the Legacy series and the Fate of the Jedi series, so I didn’t want to spoil anything for myself. I waited till I had a chance to get to it when I wasn’t so busy. After the election and all the very heavy reading I did after November 6th 2012 going through books like War and Peace, The Golden Bough and many others, I decided to catch up on some of the Star Wars books from the Legacy and Fate series as well as the Old Republic novels.
James Luceno’s book Millennium Falcon was marvelous, and well worth the wait. I didn’t know how much I had been wanting to read it, or how much I would enjoy it, because the story is about the 100 year lifespan of the Millennium Falcon from its construction on an assembly line to almost the events that will lead up to the new films that Disney is about to produce, Episodes 7 through 9. In the Millennium Falcon’s long history under many different owners featuring crime lords, galactic pirates, rogue politicians, fortune hunters, medical innovators, circus performers, and rebel heroes it is literally a star ship that has launched a thousand fates—perhaps billions. The Millennium Falcon is to Star Wars what the Black Pearl is to Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. The Millennium Falcon is a hot rod pirate ship and is simply the coolest piece of technology ever put into a movie. Unlike other famous movie star ships, the Falcon represents individuality, and freedom which is why I behold it as a symbol still after all these years.
I enjoyed every page thoroughly of Luceno’s book as he takes readers on a heck of a fun story into the Millennium Falcon’s past which was unknown previously in the Star Wars mythology. I didn’t think it would be possible for a skeptical 45 year-old man to be as excited as a 10-year-old boy over a fictional symbol of freedom in a galaxy that only exists in the mind. But after reading the book it made me think even more seriously about someday walking through a real Millennium Falcon that I build for real function, or one like the good people at Full Scale Falcon.com are building to inspire a whole new generation of young people to reach for the stars. The Millennium Falcon has a special place in the hearts and minds of millions and as this evolution has occurred I am more proud than ever that I displayed those original construction pictures so prominently on my tool box, which are still there. The only difference is that the big stand up unit I used for staying gainfully employed is now in my garage. That tool box got me through some hard times as I worked excessively hard to make a living for my growing family, and never let my co-workers provoke me into removing my pictures of the Millennium Falcon from my tool box in favor of girls in bikinis. I can honestly say that the Millennium Falcon is sexier than any lingerie model in any state of super normal sign stimuli pose.
I feel that my life has reflected the fictional history of the Millennium Falcon after reading the Luceno novel, which I never would have known prior. But there is something destructive and positive at the same time in reaching for one’s individual freedom and sovereignty, and the Millennium Falcon represents that quest. And I’m not alone in my sentiments. Good people like Chris Lee at Full Scale Falcon.com feel it as strongly as I do, and are taking actions to make the Millennium Falcon a reality that young people can touch, smell, and walk through—and from those young minds are the next great inventions that will bestow upon the human race a wave of miracles that will usher in a new day in the long story of all of us. Everything starts with a thought, and a symbol can hold those thoughts into focus as the turbulence of life tries to wash away our dreams. Holding onto our symbols can keep those dreams anchored to the foundations of our souls.
That is why I LOVE the Millennium Falcon!
Rich Hoffman
We live in a dangerous time, the progressive utopia of collectivism is failing dramatically worldwide, and every cog in that machine is collapsing primarily impacting teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses, politicians, and virtually every government employee. The world of progressive vision is failing and the participants are thrashing about like fish just caught and thrown upon a dry deck moments before being cooked over a propane oven—and we all know it. The failures of that society are due to a focus on all the wrong human attributes, and have materialized into massive economic failures. Those who bought into those progressive social fantasies are in store for serious social unrest and are now beginning to panic like guests on the Titanic once it had been realized that the ship will sink—slowly, and they will all find themselves soon in the freezing water fighting for their lives.
People like me, and my readers here knew as soon as the ship of America hit the iceberg, that the ship would sink, and we immediately took action to save ourselves. We knew that when America was faced with life or death in the icy water that it would take individual effort to save ourselves, and collectivism of any kind would result in drowning. We were wise to not embed ourselves into any collectivism, so that when the ship of our nation sank, we could swim freely, and be away from the chaos—driven by shock that will surely follow.
But it is painful to see my fellow countrymen suffer needlessly, because I tried to warn them—we all did. But they did not listen—expectantly. They thought we were pulling their leg, that we were “conspiracy theorists” that we were radical right-wingers—which of course does not justify why we are prepared for the detriment of the fiscal cliff, and they are not. I was asked the other day what I do to stay sane during the whole ordeal, and I replied that I read. In fact, I read a lot. Right now, I’m averaging three books a week, completing one about every 3 to 4 days. The only exception is that I spent about a week and a half on War and Peace, and before that, about the same amount of time on The Golden Bough.
Out of all the books that I have read lately however, one book jumped out at me as being wonderfully reflective of our times here in modern America, and how I personally feel about it. Oddly enough, that novel was a Star Wars book from The Old Republic series called Deceived which takes place 3650 years before the action of the popular films that are so well-known. I found that book to be extremely relevant to what is happening all across the contemporary earth, particularly in United States politics. The gist of the book is that the Sith Empire has made a move against the Republic stronghold of Coruscant to destroy the Jedi Temple who are the guardians of peace and justice throughout that fictionalized universe in events that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The villain of the novel utters to the Jedi prior to the Sith attack, “Our time has come. For three hundred years we prepared; we grew stronger while you rested in your cradle of power believing your people were safe and protected. You were trusted to lead the Republic, but you were deceived, as our powers of the dark side have blinded you…you were deceived and now your Republic shall fall.”
I couldn’t help but be a little haunted by how relevant, and current some of the drama was in that novel. It was extremely compelling and I highly recommend reading this fine book, even if science fiction is not the normal preferred type of reading material. Deceived is a novel that explores what happens to people on the microcosm and macrocosm of political failure and how it affects individuals and multi species demographics across the face of an entire galaxy. I enjoy most of the Star Wars books for the obvious reasons of big ideas, and fun fantasy, but this Deceived novel was quite impressive. The novel follows the events of the attack shown in the above video advertising the new MMO computer game from Bioware titled Star Wars: The Old Republic. And no, Old Republic is not just a simple video game—it cost $200 million to produce and counting, and is the absolute cutting edge standard in online computer game play. It is stunningly epic.
Ultimately, the novel hit a theme that I spend a lot of time considering, and that is how do you re-build a society once it has crumbled? What do you do when it is realized that the ship of society that we are all floating on is destined to sink into the abyss? What is the proper method of maintaining integrity in the face of so much devastation and destruction? For me, the ideas were explored in the novel Deceived and were wonderfully relevant, and a much-needed vacation from the treacherous events of the real world, and the many plots of destruction that are unfolding upon the American landscape where it is now obvious that we have all been Deceived in nearly the exact way that the Sith characterized in that very good Star Wars novel from the Old Republic Era.
Don’t forget, Friday, December 14th is Star Wars Dress up day. Support Katie Goldman. (CLICK HERE)
Rich Hoffman
It is highly likely now that Barack Obama is president for a second term that I may make more Star Wars comparisons since much of what is happening reminds me of a list of books that I read from that popular film series. Increasingly my friend Matt Clark and I have been using Star Wars metaphors to discuss current events in a way that young people can understand since they have been taught to dislike the American Revolution in their public educations and media culture. So to provide the proper context that is needed for a voting republic, Star Wars is an excellent reference of why responsible participation in government is necessary. Below is the bumper clip that WAAM Radio in Ann Arbor, Michigan has been using during their broadcasts of Glenn Beck, Denis Miller, and Laura Ingraham featuring a recent discussion that Matt and I had on his radio program.
Star Wars is not a political party driven philosophy. I would doubt that Star Wars creator George Lucas would call himself a Democrat or a Republican or even a Libertarian. I would say he is a story-teller with an excellent grasp of history and technical innovation. And I see Star Wars as an offering that can redeem society in ways that are currently unimaginable. For my daughter’s 23rd birthday she wanted a special cake, something that really meant something to her personally, so my wife made her a Star Wars cake complete with an Ewok Village created out of all edible elements. Only the Lego Ewoks were parts of the cake that couldn’t be eaten. Star Wars many times in my family’s past has served as a backdrop for unlimited imagination and teaching values that were family oriented. The trees were made out of ice cream cones, and also the huts. The trees were made out of pretzels. The bridges were made out of candy and graham crackers. Of course she loved it. 
A message to my Tea Party friends and social reformers deserves mention, no matter how dark things may seem it can always get worse or better depending on the quality of the people who make up a republic. In fact I look very forward to Disney’s ownership of the Star Wars franchise because there may come a day real soon that the series of books spawned from the movies may be made into television or movie formats in the future similar to how today’s Clone Wars series is presented on Cartoon Network—which my wife and I watch—religiously————and I mean religiously every Saturday morning at 9:30 AM. I find them visual beautiful to look at, but at the same time intellectually stimulating. I disagree emphatically with the clip below of Adolf Hitler’s assessment of the Disney acquisition of Star Wars from George Lucas.
The following books tell the story better than anything available of religious peril, the invasion of a galaxy by a very hostile unknown species, political upheavals, family tragedy, scientific mystery, social redemption, life after death—(in great detail), personal conquest, spiritual enlightenment, galactic civil war, quests for freedom, the origins of evil, justification for violence, and in essence the entire meaning of life in a span of books that runs 42 novels long each about 500 to 700 pages in length. 
I consider them to be the most encompassing gathering of literature ever done on a subject of any kind and I say that with my hand on one of my favorites, Leo Tolstroy’s War and Peace. While the Star Wars books are not the most artistic as they are designed to be read by young people from the 7th and 8th grade on up, the content of the stories is truly significant and beneficial to anyone who takes the time to read them. They are in order:
Vector Prime, Dark Tide 1: Onslaught, Dark Tide II: Ruin, Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial, Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse, Balance Point, Recovery, Edge of Victory I:Conquest, Edge of Victory II: Rebirth, Star by Star (one of my favorites), Dark Journey, Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream, Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand, Traitor (one of my all time favorites), Destiny’s Way, Ylesia, Force Heretic I: Remnant, Force Heretic II Refugee, Force Heretic III: Reunion, The Final Prophecy, The Unifying Force (an absolutely stunning story), The Joiner King, The Unseen Queen, The Swarm War, Betrayal, Bloodlines, Tempest, Exile, Sacrifice, Inferno, Fury, Revelations, Invincible, Outcast, Omen, Abyss, (very spiritually bold in that half of it takes place in the afterlife), Backlash, Allies, Vortex, Conviction, Ascension, and Apocalypse.
I believe with all my heart and soul that because those books are not politically motivated, and they take place in a galaxy a long time ago, far, far away, that they have the chance to shape our society in a unique way that is yet uncharted in human existence.
Let me explain—most of the work that shaped the American Revolution consisted of small works, such as the literature of John Locke, Adam Smith, Plato even Shakespeare—all of which I’ve read. The thoughts about communism that are so prevalent today were shaped by Karl Marx’s little book The Communist Manifesto and the left has used the methods of Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience to organize support during the Civil Rights Movement. That is another small book that has had a big impact on the world around us. All those works combined do not equate to the amount of work and effort that Lucas Publishing has expended in telling the marvelously epic story of Star Wars described in the books mentioned above. But the story doesn’t end with just those books—not even close–there are over 100 books that take place during a 6000 year span of time that displays vividly the violent rise and fall of many generation’s governments and how different species of beings interact positively and negatively against each other.
When I think of the book burning rituals that took place whenever dictators rose to power to assert their strength over the previous cultures, I think of the attempt by those despots to erase from the minds of mankind the knowledge they need to question reality—which is the point of burning books. Most of the time because of the cozy relationship business often has with government out of the necessity of survival books like the Star Wars series could never have been even conceived let alone achieved, but under George Lucas he has pulled off the feat and done human kind a tremendous service.
It is only a matter of time before the young people who have read these Star Wars books are in a position socially to act on what they’ve learned, and I can say that when that day arrives, the world will be much better off. Star Wars is about fighting and winning personal freedom in the context of social responsibility. It’s a big concept that has tremendous potential philosophically, and socially and the best of Star Wars is not in the films, which simply plant the seeds of story for curious minds to follow, but is in the books which takes readers deep down the Rabbit Holes of life for a journey that holds many of the keys to all the possibilities that exist. The impact of this literature has yet to be felt, but in time it will. The literature of Star Wars is the key to understanding many of the complex issues of our modern age in the context that they must be taken in—and within that knowledge is a security that can only come to an increased intellect. For that, I will always be a fan—and be eternally grateful. It is for that reason that I suggest to all those feeling hopeless and desperate in their lives to take a few years off life and read all those books in the order that I presented them, and you will discover within yourself a life of unlimited potential and everlasting joy that cannot be taken by any government or social parasite.
George Lucas has always been much more of an advocate of education than a mindless capitalist like he’s been accused of. He used his money to educate the world in a way that was so cleaver that the worst of the tyrants never knew what was happening, until it hit critical mass and entered the subconscious of the world in an unstoppable force that now has a life of its own. The first of that education miracle is Angry Birds Star Wars, the game of time, distance, trajectory and impact strategy!
Rich Hoffman
The picture above is a fan design shown at Star Wars Celebration V of a future theme park that appears to be much more than fantasy now that Disney has purchased the long treasured franchise. This is significant because as I stated in my previous article about how George Lucas is the greatest anthropologist ever, I discussed why Star Wars is so important to the advancement of mankind.
If there is a great hope that I have for the future of civilization, it is in the philosophy advocated through Star Wars to the mass population, and specifically the youth. My views on this prompted Matt Clark and I to discuss the issue on WAAM Radio in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In the story arch of Star Wars it is not about just one character, or even one family. It is a very encompassing idea that is nearly as complicated as Greek Mythology and is about the fundamental conflicts of a philosophy that embodies pure aggression and conquest against another focused on understanding. Within the story arcs done up to this point not only in the movies but the novels governments and the politicians behind them rise and fall many times, but always the heroes prevail through tenacity to give rise to another day. The one primary consistency in Star Wars is the prevalence of the Jedi Knights to always be present to offer logic and solutions, even when they find themselves enemies of the current political regimes. Sometimes they are on the right side of history as honored heroes, and sometimes they are fugitives fighting for their very existence, so whenever a long view is needed, Star Wars is a great mythology to partake in.
Under Disney it is my hope that Star Wars explodes culturally, not to make everyone sick of it, but in today’s tumultuous political climates and social atmosphere there really isn’t any other story that paints such a clear picture of right and wrong than Star Wars. At its roots, Star Wars is an old-fashioned story that paints the picture of moral dilemmas exceptionally well. It is my great hope that Star Wars under Disney ends up on cartoon stations, live action television and as many feature films that can be churned out from now till the end of time—because the essence of what Star Wars is about is good for society—because it invokes “thinking.”
So a theme park like the one shown above is not far off, and when it comes, I see big—positive things happening on a scale never seen before in any entertainment venture. To my thinking there is nothing more powerful in human society than the myths people live by. No invention of the human mind—be it cars, airplanes, electricity—anything, has the power of a great story. And Star Wars is a big story about big ideas. When the theme park is built, it will allow for the first time visitors to not only live out these big ideas within the context of a movie, or a book, but to walk around in these environments in a way that has never before been possible except with the massive resources of a big company that does great good like the Walt Disney Company.
When the new Star Wars Park opens, I will be one of the first in line with my entire family and I will be extremely excited to be there among the magic that perpetuates great ideas, and wonderful philosophy placed in a context that has significant social application. In my house we have over 265 novels and junior novels that capture the epic story of Star Wars with a literary legacy that is unparalleled. I have read most of them, my wife has read them all, and we will use those books to bring huge ideas to our growing family. It is a great relief to us to see that Star Wars will always be there for the decades to come and will become more of a reality than the fantasy that it currently is within our lifetimes.
Rich Hoffman
In the small political battles of our day—the ones over which idea is better than the other, I see such conflicts to be minor squabbles in the scheme of existence. I prefer always the long view of looking at big things with much distance between myself and the object so I can see the situation clearly. 
When I have to engage against competing tribes of political view who attempt to interrupt my enjoyment of the long view I am all too happy to display their conquered scalps as trophies of war, but I am very aware that such things are small insignificant victories upon the tapestry of living. When battles are raging around you, political or otherwise, there are only two choices, win or become a victim. Choosing not to play is a choice towards becoming a victim.
I will have to thank my friend over at the Atlas Shrugged site Galt’s Gulch, Dr. Brett for being the first to break the news to me that Lucasfilm had been sold to Disney for $4 billion dollars. As any who read here clearly know, I think a lot of Star Wars, and specifically George Lucas, so the news that Lucas has officially hung up a company he built all his life as a sole proprietor was very sad for me, almost as sad as losing a loved one to a death. 
I respect deeply the creative environment that Lucas utilized to build Star Wars into one of the most recognizable names in the entire world. I respect all the companies of George Lucas because he maintained his ownership of them the way he should have, and he never yielded to pressure to make his films into anything but what they are. He reserved his right to make films like Howard the Duck which were bombs, but he also made wonderfully powerful films like Tucker: A Man and His Dreams, Willow, and of course the Indiana Jones series which has changed dramatically the entire field of archaeology and anthropology. But it was and is Star Wars that made all those films possible, films that couldn’t be made by anybody else no matter how big the studio or the personalities behind them were.
It might seem that no amount of news could eclipse the massive Hurricane Sandy that had shut down the eastern United States, but news that Star Wars was now under the tent of the Disney Company eclipsed the tragedy of that event–even of the presidential elections. The news that Star Wars was now owned by Disney and that the company fully intended to make more Star Wars films rocked the world of Twitter, Facebook and news organizations all over the world with shock and awe.
I grew up with Star Wars; I raised my family on Star Wars. Star Wars is one of the great sacred bonds that my wife and I share. We love it, have watched the movies thousands of times, and read all the books. 
In fact, she has read every single Star Wars book ever written. They take up an entire section of our home. I enjoy watching Family Guy primarily because of all the parodies that Seth McFarland has done as a tribute to Star Wars. I get along most with Star Wars geeks and adults who aren’t afraid to admit that they love the films. My father-in-law and I have always shared an intense love for Star Wars. My nephews and I have stayed up entire nights playing Star Wars video games, and those memories still bond us as busy adults. Star Wars is always a dominate topic at every Christmas and Thanksgiving Dinner on both sides of the family. It is also the most commonly given gift for birthdays and Christmas in my family on both sides for over 30 years now. For me the love of the films are not an immature reach for eternal youth and fantasy, but rather, the long view at philosophy and life in general that they offer against the backdrop of fantasy in a far away time and space that allows ideas to reside in neutral territory. I find it repulsive when some fans accuse George Lucas of turning Star Wars into simply a cash cow, or that he sold out to the big and powerful Disney—allowing his sole creation to be turned over to some evil empire of the Disney Company. They simply don’t understand the situation and how the dots connect.
I have spent considerable time explaining at this site Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom why some people believe making money is bad—where those ideas came from, and actually how they hold society back. 
This is why I propose that Ayn Rand’s ideas are far more relevant philosophically for mankind than Karl Marx and that if one idea must be refined philosophically over another it should be those of Rand over Marx. Those reflections can be heard clearly in the opinions of Star Wars by the general public, but one thing that Star Wars does is unite people who would otherwise not be able to talk politics.
For instance, many of the writers of The Huffington Post who might argue with me about the merits of socialism versus capitalism share a love and passion for Star Wars. 
Many who believe that Star Wars is just a movie don’t understand why it is such a phenomena, but Star Wars is not just a movie intending to make money, but a tool that George Lucas has utilized to create the most important, and powerful mythology human civilization has ever known and it is intended to take Earth from a .7 Type Civilization that it is now, to a Type 1 Civilization on it’s way to an accelerated Type 2 with an intent to become a Type 3 and still have a basic philosophy that will hold up to such an expansion. For people who think Star Wars is just a silly movie, they do not understand that the foundation blocks of any civilization is its basic philosophy that is reinforced by its mythology, and Star Wars created by George Lucas is intended to be a giant mythology. Disney as a company envisioned by Uncle Walt was created to interpret and communicate mythology to the world, not to just make money. What most people miss due to the fact that they have been taught to hate money is that Lucasfilm and the Walt Disney Company have billions of dollars of value between them because they offer a very good product—but the value of that product is cultural enrichment through mythological creation that improves the general philosophy of all human beings. While it is true that Star Wars is geared for children, the messages within that mythology contribute greatly to the improvement of world-wide philosophy. Lucas and Disney both as heads of their companies have managed to perfectly bring together two important attributes necessary to human survival, the ability to produce wealth, and to use that wealth to dramatically improve the living conditions of mankind.
The limits so far with Star Wars is that George Lucas has been the “brand” of his company. He has become so big that anything done in Star Wars as a story, because they are so important mythically speaking to so many millions of people, is distracting, even limiting. I believe Lucas being the “way ahead of the curve” kind of guy that he is has recognized this and has positioned his company, its employees, and the product of Star Wars itself through the television experiment of Clone Wars on the Cartoon Network to make this move with Disney at a very reasonable price. 
Disney, as a giant company with no direct face that is the “brand” can take Star Wars to places it could not otherwise go being headed by George Lucas. Disney has the ability to build an entire Star Wars park so visitors can actually walk around in the Star Wars Universe. They can expand on the television, the movies, even the video games. Disney has the power to take Star Wars from a household name and make it a room to room name within that household.
To understand why I think this move to Disney for Star Wars might have a severe impact for the positive it would require knowledge of George Lucas as I have, so to know what he is most likely thinking. Back in the 1990’s George Lucas was a board member for The Joseph Campbell Foundation who was being carried on by Campbell’s wife Jean after Campbell’s death of which I was also a member. Lucas has always been interested in using Star Wars to bring young people to the study of comparative religion and world mythology studies. Few people know it, but Lucas always wanted to be an Anthropologist and books like The Golden Bough and The Hero with A Thousand Faces had a powerful impact on him as a youth and he has always planned to use Star Wars as a way to introduce youth to higher philosophical concepts. 
To understand to what extent Lucas has been committed to this just look at his company Lucas Learning. I would bet everything I have and everything I ever obtain on the notion that Lucas has intentionally planned to inspire young people to reach for the stars with the stories of Star Wars in fields of science, medicine, politics, art, virtually every aspect of society, and Lucas has done this as an anthropology/archaeology enthusiast, not as a film maker. Lucas, never really wanted to be a film maker, but instead used film making to communicate his interest in cultural studies. 
It is his interest in anthropology that gives the Star Wars Universe such a rich texture, that far exceeds any other science fiction endeavor so far to date. 
And I believe the result of this investment Lucas has made in civilization will be the necessary mythological tool that is needed to continue the social evolution into a Type 1 Civilization where religious barriers, scientific limitations, and politics get in the way of arriving at these necessary human advancements. This was why George Lucas made Episodes 1 through 3 the way he did about Galactic Republics and the demise of governments in spite of the efforts of the noble Jedi Knights. Lucas solved the political problems of his galaxy that has embraced laissez-faire capitalism but is not regulated by untrustworthy politicians, by using Jedi Knights who are governed by a deep commitment to philosophy, not crony capitalism that goes on between gangsters, pirates and politicians, to maintain order.
In a 1964 article on searching for extraterrestrial civilizations, the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev suggested using radio telescopes to detect energy signals from other solar systems in which there might be civilizations of three levels of advancement: Type 1 can harness all of the energy of its home planet; Type 2 can harvest all of the power of its sun; and Type 3 can master the energy from its entire galaxy.
Based on our energy efficiency at the time, in 1973 the astronomer Carl Sagan estimated that Earth represented a Type 0.7 civilization on a Type 0 to Type 1 scale. (More current assessments put us at 0.72.) 
As the Kardashevian scale is logarithmic — where any increase in power consumption requires a huge leap in power production — we have a ways before 1.0.
Fossil fuels won’t get us there. Renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal are a good start, and coupled to nuclear power could eventually get us to Type 1. More info can be found at this article.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/22/opinion/oe-shermer22
Nothing ever starts until the human mind can behold the concept. From there, invention and personal innovation will bridge the gaps. Currently, politically, our global societies are locked between a struggle between individualism and collectivism as political systems of all types are struggling to maintain the former power bases of class society indentured to resources controlled by the very few, whether that few are crony capitalists, socialists, pirates, thieves, looters, or kingdoms. The future is moving away from these kinds of regionalized controls and the internet is the first step in that particular direction. But there are still religions that are standing in the way of life expectancy and medicine, and governments that are restricting space travel as the human race is pushing violently against the limits of the past. Star Wars is a giant leap forward, but at the same time, into the past so to join in the minds of mankind with the possibilities of now. 
In Star Wars the galaxy they are living in is coming close to a Type 3 as they are able to travel across the entire Galaxy through hyperspace routes that are like intergalactic highways through worm holes in space. Such a concept is scientifically viable and scientists are beginning to seriously think about such things—because of Star Wars. And the utilization of the religious aspect of Star Wars, which is the Force follows many aspects that are just being discovered in quantum mechanics and presents them in story form in ways that human minds can find a practical use in the randomness of ideas. I could literally go on and on about this type of thinking, but in short, Star Wars is a big galaxy that has a lot of very fresh ideas in it from communication devices to propulsion systems, and those scientific concepts are quickly finding their way into the everyday lives of our current civilization.
Further, Disney as a company is about to do something that I think Walt Disney always fantasized about–it is about to take a bold step forward from a market driven motion picture market place and become a truly world power that will benefit the lives of the entire planet. For instance, China because it is a communist country only allows 10 foreign films to show in their country per year, which is actually a big step for them. The people of China are already looking forward to the next installment of Iron Man that is gearing up for a tremendous 2013 release—again another property by Disney who is uniquely positioned to take such a powerful mythology as the Marvel Comic properties and present them to a world hungry for the ideas in those stories. 
This is greatly helping China become more and more prone to the free market in all manners of business, slowly but surely brushing aside the kind of communism that has held those people down for over 60 years now. Star Wars has the potential to communicate those types of messages to a mass audience perhaps 10 times more powerfully, because the texture and depth of Star Wars is so deep and engrossing, and if Earth is to become a Type 1 Civilization, the same idea has to be held in the mind over most of the world. In other words, the people of China cannot think so much more different from those in The United States. But the lifestyle of The United States cannot be brought down just to level the playing field globally, but the rest of the world must be brought up to the level of America. The best way to do that is to export American ideas, like Star Wars to those countries so they can understand what they should be doing, and how to do it.
I feel sorry for some of my fellow adults who share my age, but not my youthful optimism. They truly believe that Star Wars is just another movie like everything else designed to make money for Lucas, or Disney. In fact in the days after this big announcement of Disney buying Lucasfilm that was the first thing that most people said to me, “Looks like Lucas just got even richer.” Those same people rush their kids to soccer practice while they update their Facebook accounts religiously and po-poo anything that isn’t rooted in the reality of their current busy lives. 
Their kids feel the magic on Christmas morning hoping they get a new Star Wars toy, or on Halloween when they get to dress up like a Jedi Knight. The parents feel the magic just a bit when they walk down the isles at Target and look at all the Star Wars toys designed specifically to massage the mind of young people by the toy makers in a plot Lucas hatched decades ago to expand the consciousness of the human race by beholding in their minds all of life’s potential.
When I was a little kid, I wanted the full-sized Millennium Falcon from Star Wars for Christmas like nothing else. This would be way back in 1980. But my parents couldn’t afford it, because it was really expensive. So I built my own Millennium Falcon out of a card board box that I played with for years. Once I got older and could afford to buy it myself, the toy had been off the market for a number of years, so I was never able to get it. But in 1995, prior to the Special Editions in 1997 Lucasfilm released all the old toys only updated with new manufacturing techniques complete with the “battle worn” condition made so popular in the films. 
That year for Christmas my wife bought me the new electronic Millennium Falcon with the updated paint scheme and everyday since that Christmas I have proudly set it next to my bed where I engage the engines every night before I go to sleep. Every night. And what’s strange is that it still has the same batteries in it from 1995, and they still work. Call it the FORCE! When I have had to fix a number of complicated problems around the house from broken dishwashers to electrical problems I have sometimes stared at that toy for hours pushing the buttons and thinking about the problem at hand which often frames the answer for me with perspective. The toy for me is a symbol of innovation and technical marvel, so it often elevates my logical trouble shooting thinking. That magic has stayed with me my whole life so far and doesn’t appear to be abating. And I know I’m not alone.
Under Disney, these toys, the books, the multiple nick-knacks will flood the marketplace and without question a sector of the population who hates money will call the whole ordeal a symbol of capitalist excess that is just making a lot of money for Disney and its shareholders. 
But the estimates from people like George Lucas are that the money drives the product and allows more people to experience such magic, and even the most hardened skeptic against capitalism or fantasy stories knows that they too feel a little of that magic when the media blankets the release of a new film, or they hear the famous tune to Star Wars which indicates to the ear that something great awaits the witness of the story at hand, they feel the magic. Lucas has attended many of the Star Wars Celebration events that take place each year, and he has seen the multitude of grown adults who share with their children love for a mythology that makes more sense to them than the reality of their daily life. With Disney now pushing the mythology machine of Star Wars, these events will explode with interest by even more people. Already the Star Wars weekends at Hollywood Studios in Florida that take place from May to June is so packed that the visitors have to use the parking lots at Epcot Center and Animal Kingdom to hold all the extra Star Wars fans. That was before Disney owned Star Wars. Now, it is certain that the parks in Florida will have a continued and much, much larger presence during the entire year and new generations will catch the fever even more than in the past, because if Disney does with Star Wars what they did with The Avengers the possibilities for how big Star Wars may become is immeasurable.
I have my doubts that the new Star Wars films will be as good as Episode 4 and Episode 5. But I have no doubt they can be as good as the other four. The proof is in the Cartoon Network episodes of The Clone Wars currently on television every Saturday morning at 9:30 AM. With that in mind, Disney could make Star Wars movies for centuries, because the material is that rich, and is so vast that the plot lines are literally infinite. 
I believe that with Disney at the helm of Star Wars, the ideas contained within it will find their way to every corner of the globe and in that way, will put every human being on common ground for the first time since the Tower of Babel separated all human beings with foreign language. That is what it will take to move Earth to a Type 1 Civilization, and Star Wars is the best hope for getting there.
So, in a lot of ways the news announced on October 30th 2012 has seismic consequences for every human being on planet Earth. Star Wars is not just another movie, and it is not just another product of Hollywood. It is modern mythology that surpasses the work of the Iliad, all the Greek classics, the Book of the Dead from Egypt, War and Peace, or all the works of Shakespeare, anything ever done in literature. It is the next step put into visual form what human beings are supposed to be working toward and they weren’t created superficially by whim from the mind of George Lucas, but are mythic characters dusted off from past stories and placed into the future for all to see with common eyes transcending language, political, and sociological backgrounds. That is the magic of Star Wars and the potential impact that the decision to move Lucasfilm under the umbrella of Disney can explode into uncharted waters never before seen by–anybody.
So I’m a fan of the move even though it does sadden me. The sadness is a selfish one, which I wish to preserve what Star Wars meant to me growing up, wanting to freeze-frame those films in time for my own enjoyment and memory. But I see the strategy and like Lucas I want the same thing. I want to see a world that embraces capitalism, embraces technical advancement, embraces philosophy, and never losses its belief in the limitless potential of the human imagination. There are only two directions possible at this juncture in history one where societies regress backward, or one where they move forward into space, colonizing the moon, Mars, and planets beyond with the effortless propulsion utilized in Star Wars. And the inventors of those future technologies are probably not yet even born, but will grow up in a world where Star Wars entices their minds with sounds and images plunging their imaginations into fantasy yearning for a Christmas toy under the tree to open and play with while they work out all the problems of advanced propulsion systems, gravity manipulation, and medical miracles performed without the added complication of losing their very souls to a shackled embrace of institutional imprisonment which always threatens to cast the mind of man back to the creation of fire.
That is what the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm means, and why it is very good. Also as a side note to George Lucas, when he enrolled in Modesto Junior college to become an anthropologist, and a philosopher he succeeded as both and those titles many years from now will come to describe him once all the concept of filmmaker is lost to the scrolls of time. Not only was he successful in studying the past and developing an expertise of history, but he has also changed the future for the better in ways that are subtle, yet unfathomably powerful for a civilization that is teetering on the brink and may yet survive thanks to Star Wars.
And…………………..for me, Han Shot First!
Rich Hoffman
The release of the latest Atlas Shrugged Part 2 film in theaters all across America has again touched off a firestorm of debate in the media, as the gate keepers of the political left have revealed how deeply entrenched many of the parasite destined proletariats of progressive propaganda wish to propel The United States. They have like demons thrashed about as if involved in an exorcism involving Holy Water and the incantations of a sorcerer priest to dislodge the evil spirit from the body of an unsuspecting victim upon hearing the simple words…………….Ayn Rand—or Atlas Shrugged. The most universal attack against Rand by these progressive thinkers is to say that she was selfish, and that all her work is a mindless manifestation of capitalism that stands at odds with global socialism, and it is not to be tolerated. The characters of Atlas Shrugged have been attacked for being one-dimensional, lacking emotional depth, being self consumed, and in general being angry—reprehensible—and entirely too self confident. In fact, such utterances about the new film version of Atlas Shrugged Part 2 would have viewers believe that the movie was just a boring discussion about the virtues of capitalism versus socialism—that the lovers of socialism find the message of ASP2 a threat to their core beliefs, and their screams over the plot have masked the real nature of Atlas Shrugged as a story—which is that of science fiction. Yet it is, Atlas Shrugged the movies, as are the books, very much about action, adventure, and the unfettered exploration of the human soul against the sands of time, where the villains are those who wish to prevent the full development of the individual imagination. The picture shown above is from the new film, and declares that Atlas Shrugged is not just about political philosophy, but is a magnificent work of science fiction, and the roots of it predate some of the most beloved movies in American culture. In fact, the picture above reminds me of another film that virtually every American knows well—a film that when I first read Atlas Shrugged I felt I had uncovered a long-lost Rosetta Stone from the past. And the most popular character from that film went on to become the most popular film series in history and is a character that is right off the pages of any Ayn Rand novel. The movie is Star Wars, and the character that is undeniably Randian is Han Solo.
Atlas Shrugged the novel was written in 1957 and a young George Lucas in love with Jules Verne novels, Flash Gordon comic strips, and Walt Disney films without question ran across the work of Ayn Rand. You can see her influence in his film THX-1138, and in Star Wars, Atlas Shrugged is all over the very first film A New Hope. Lucas being a smart businessman who knew how to play his cards close to his vest knew not to show too much love of Ayn Rand publicly because of her controversy, so he changed many of the themes and events of Atlas Shrugged and set them in “A Galaxy A Long Time Ago in a Land Far, Far Away” and used Joseph Campbell’s great book The Hero of a Thousand Faces to build mythic themes for his space saga that would tell the vast story arc of Luke Skywalker, the rise of a Galactic Empire, and the sad fate of Darth Vader as a failed victim and perpetuator of a vast and tyrannical political system intent to crush individuality. But Lucas wisely and quietly used the character of Han Solo played by Harrison Ford to help all the giant themes go down the mind’s eye with a character right off the pages of Atlas Shrugged. Han Solo is a combination of virtually every hero in Atlas Shrugged–he’s competent, self-proclaimed to be out for himself, and he’s unstoppable. Han Solo is one of the two most popular characters from Star Wars; the other is Boba Fett, the bounty hunter and nemesis to Captain Solo. Solo is a pirate in the Star Wars films, while Fett is an independent assassin. 
Both characters come right out of the Sergio Leone films that Clint Eastwood played so effectively—The Man With No Name—who are also the type of characters apparently very influenced by Atlas Shrugged in the 1960’s. Bill Whittle below covers an intense recent controversy of how there was a lot of Hollywood pressure to re-edit the scene from the original A NEW HOPE in a classic gun fight scene involving Han Solo inspired from those same Sergio Leone films to meet the modern temperament of progressive thought–much to the discontent of millions of fans.
Lucas after his box office flop THX-1138 knew it was possible he’d never make another movie but his friend Francis Ford Coppola helped him make American Graffiti, forcing Lucas to learn to sell his ideas disguised behind contemporary plot devices. Coppola, was the director of The Godfather and it was the producer of those fantastic movies Albert Ruddy who purchased the rights to Atlas Shrugged in the mid 1970’s just before the release of Star Wars, and worked heavily with Ayn Rand to bring her book to the big screen. The deal almost worked, except Rand insisted on final script approval which Ruddy couldn’t give her. The film was killed eventually when Fred Silverman rose to become president of NBC.
Lucas watching all this activity by his film mentors placed into his Han Solo creation all the gallant traits of Ayn Rand’s classic heroes. But he sold it brilliantly on the screen by having Solo interact with the idealistic youthful Princess Leia, who represented the progressive feminist movement, and served as a vehicle for the audience to fall in love with Solo, just as the young princess did. Also there is Luke Skywalker, who represents the silly yearnings of all young people and their impractical quests built off good intentions. However, it is always Han Solo who saves everybody in the end. It is Solo’s bold rescue of the princess lured by Luke exclusively over money that would eventually save the entire rebellion effort against the evil empire, and Solo would save Luke on many occasions just at the right moment. Han Solo was chastised by Leia and Luke in the film for being selfish–conceited—recklessly bold—and a menace to the life of all mercenaries, but such accusations never pierce the thick skin of Solo.
At the end of A New Hope while the rebels are fighting to destroy the dreaded Death Star Solo is told by Luke that he’s “only out for himself” as Solo takes his reward and threatens to leave rather than get killed attacking the dreaded weapon of the enemy. In the end, Solo saves Luke without violating the rules of self-interest. Solo likes Luke and saves the kid out of self-interest without giving up his reward, or his independence. In fact the Death Star in A New Hope serves exactly the same purpose as Project X does in Atlas Shrugged. And Solo during The Empire Strikes Back would go through a very similar torture scene as John Galt had to undergo in Project F, near the end of Atlas Shrugged. Lucas had done with Han Solo something that no filmmaker in Hollywood has been able to do since; he brought to the screen the best rendition of Ayn Rand’s classic characters since Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood in a work of fiction that would sell the ideas without the contemporary fuss that we see in 2012. Without question the same people who criticize Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged as being a loathing work of selfishness and capitalist propaganda, most likely love Star Wars, and secretly love best Han Solo or Boba Fett—two of the space sagas most “selfish” characters.
George Lucas is a brilliant man. There are not many like him and nobody working in Hollywood today can match his unique ability to create characters like he has in his films. The later Star Wars films produced from 1999 to 2006 did not have a character like Han Solo in them to keep the audience interested in the story, and the films suffered as a result. In fact, there have been few movies made since The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 that have had characters anywhere close to being as strong and personally confident as Han Solo. Solo in the end solves his problems on his own, he wins the girl, and gains his wealth on his own terms, and he stays loyal to the causes he deems are important. When Lucas tried to appease the idealistic side of his sensibilities which he shared with many other Hollywood types then and since, Star Wars lost some of its power.
In The Return of the Jedi where Luke saved Han Solo from the vile gangster Jabba the Hut, something ends up lost in the story. The movie was still fun, but it lacked the honesty and punch of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back—primarily because Han Solo was turned into the role of the victim. Solo also let his old friend Lando fly his beloved Millennium Falcon on another Death Star run which was a form of sacrifice that psychologically was rejected by millions in the audience. Another story failure was the scene on Endor where Solo showed Princess Leia that he could be “compassionate,” by giving her a hug when she was in a state of turmoil. Lucas was by this time trying to show the Han Solo had “evolved” as a character, which is standard fare in progressive Hollywood. He tried to show that Solo had learned to think of others more than he thinks of himself, and the story suffered as a result. Sacrifice as a theme in Star Wars is only accepted superficially in the standard dialogue that religions function. Deep in people’s hearts, it is Han Solo that holds the entire story together which Lucas seemed to learn as he progressed through the story. For Lucas, what started out as a simple plot device inspired by Ayn Rand’s classic novel became the glue that held the entire thing together and separated Star Wars from every other attempt in film history to duplicate, including Star Trek. If not for Han Solo, Star Wars and Star Trek would have very few distinguishing characteristics to separate one from the other. In Star Trek there is The United Federation, which is a socialist idea, and in Star Wars there is the rebellion against individual conquest. However, the means to get there is not through organizations, Jedi Councils, rebel Leaders, and these tend to always fail as they are rooted in collectivism. It is always through rogue pirates like Han Solo, and his belief in himself, for his own preservation that directly results in the success of everyone in his wake. It is because of him that rebellions succeed and wealth is created.
Han Solo is so important to Star Wars that even after over 200 books written since Return of the Jedi when Solo and Princess Leia go off to supposedly live happily ever after, Solo is still alive in his 80’s and still flying his Millennium Falcon, gun slinging bad guys and performing acts of death-defying bravery. His kids, his wife, his brother-in-law Luke, along with all their friends are all magical Jedi with super powers that defy logic. But Solo is always there when courage is needed and logic is in short supply. He has gifts that no magic Jedi can utilize and no author can overcome in plot necessity. If a story wants to be successful it must have characters like Han Solo, and since Star Wars came out in 1977, there have been watered down versions that were enjoyed, but never achieved quite at the same level of love as Han Solo. It was the character of Han Solo that made Harrison Ford a star, and without Solo, there would have never been an Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford would have lived out his days as a carpenter trying to get work in Hollywood as a bit player. Han Solo is the ultimate producer, the fearless advocate of individuality, and the bridge between common sense and fantasy. Without him Star Wars is just another mythic tale that would hit the movie screen, make a little money, then disappear from the minds of mankind forever.
But because Lucas wisely intentionally or unintentionally made Han Solo to resemble Ayn Rand’s classic characters Star Wars will forever be as loved as Ayn Rand’s books are. The film makers of the modern Atlas Shrugged films know they are doing something special and their enthusiasm comes out in scenes like the one shown in the picture above. When I saw the mysterious plane taking off in Colorado trying to escape from the pursuit of a hunter, I thought of the Millennium Falcon piloted by Han Solo blasting off from Mos Eisley in Star Wars: A New Hope. 
The modern filmmakers however are businessmen, so they tend to focus on the politics and business aspects of Atlas Shrugged. Lucas however being a lover of history, comparative religion and world mythology captured wonderfully the essence of what Ayn Rand created in her novels in the much beloved film series called Star Wars. But it doesn’t change the fact that the rules of plot dictate a severe discrepancy between what progressive media types and film makers acknowledge as truths, and stories that show strong characters in a reality that is subconsciously understood. This later idea is where Ayn Rand was functioning from, and this has caused much anxiety from the social reformers who wish to socially engineer these traits from the mind of all human beings. It is the same people who root for Han Solo to win in Star Wars who also try to commit society to the schemes that gave rise to the evil Empires in that galaxy far, far way—a long time ago. Their duality is a result of social sickness that has not yet come to terms with their inner workings and instead have attempted to achieve the work that creative people like George Bernard Shaw, and H.G. Wells tried to create—which Lucas attacked in Star Wars. Atlas Shrugged as a novel was the first of its kind to show what the potential of man can be, and George Lucas was the first to successfully place on the movie screen a character that Ayn Rand would have written if she had been the author of Star Wars. Instead the torch was handed down to the next generation, and yet again a new generation is struggling to maintain such heroes for the preservation of ideas that will propel into tomorrow the magnificent potential of the human race—personified by characters like Han Solo. It is that fight and tendency that critics of the new Atlas Shrugged film scream about in protest, and is also why there has not been another character like Han Solo in any film since 1980.
For the record, Han Solo SHOT FIRST and it will be up to the next generation to make sure everyone remembers it so that all the great heroes of the future can “Live Long and Prosper.” (Star Trek) George Lucas in the quiet of his home I think would agree, and it will take filmmakers like those producing the modern Atlas Shrugged films to help make a Hollywood who will defend Han Solo along with all the men and women like him, and not try to re-write history to fit the agenda of modern politics. Even the best and brightest sometimes lose their way when the wonder they gained from reading a book like Atlas Shrugged in their youth gets pounded out of them in the realities of life. As Lucas has said, sometimes while trying to tell the story of Luke Skywalker you can become Darth Vader lost in the blind devotion to a system not of your own making. And this is what happens to many good people who find through years of philanthropy that they lose the Han Solo in them and become Darth Vader, or even the naive Luke Skywalker–fighting for a sacrifice to something other than themselves. It is in those dark moments of “maturity” that these poor souls need Han Solo to save them from the crushing weight of service to a system that is brainless collectivism paving a way to hell with a brick road each marked with a good intention. It is in those moments when the question must be asked……………………….”WHO IS JOHN GALT.”
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Rich Hoffman
The Overmanwarrior 