The Power to Protect

This topic makes me think of the quote that Uncle Ben makes in the new Spider-man movie, and the scenes that followed.

Uncle Ben says, "If you have the ability to do some good in this world, you have a moral obligation to do so".

"Spoiler Alert" The scenes that follow are of Peter Parker witnessing a robbery, he doesn't intervene even though he has the power too, and the robber ends up shooting his Uncle Ben.

I know we don't have superpowers but I agree with Daniel L, and the quote from Spider-man. If you can, you should!

In terms of Jedi, yes I personally it is. That, however, does not necessarily mean you need to seek out opportunity, you merely need to answer it when it is presented.

RiddleNox wrote: Is it the Duty of those who HAVE power to protect those who do not?

full disclosure, i did not read the rest of this thread. this is solely my own opinion. and its conflicted anyway for whats it worth.

short answer, i dont know. to elaborate, there are obvious scenarios where the answer is an emphatic yes. first ex that comes to mind is if i happened to be nearby when an adult violently struck my son with no reason. i imagine it would be a very bad day for that adult. as i said, that is an extreme and obvious example.

however, im sure you meant your question in the larger sense. how do we as jedi respond when the powerless are attacked or subjugated? here is where to 'im not sure' comes in. in another thread about a genocide ignored, someone was adamant about defending the rights of the boer in south africa against the native ANC or zulu. this was the genocide that was being ignored. the problem in my mind was that both sides had reason to kill the other. the zulu only wanted their land back, and to avenge what they considered to be past atrocities. the boer want to defend their ancestral outpost (they have been there over a century) and of course also avenge perceived past atrocities. well, where does that end? we all know that violence begets violence. if we as a civilization are ever to transcend violence and look upon it as the acts of barbarism that it is, one thing must happen: we must stop using violence.

further, who are we to act as arbiter of morality here and decide who is 'right' or not? the genocide thread got godwinned early as the comparison was made that they boer were the equivalent of the jews during the holocaust. yes, the holocaust needed intervention, that much is obvious. but do we intervene here? again, im not entirely sure, but i err on the side of non-intervention/nonviolence.

i have rambled long enough. entire books can be and have been written on this topic. i hope my point was clear-ish. and to reiterate the short answer, i dont know.

I have to agree here with Desolous...

Duty...

Each circumstance is different...

From a life saving event? Most defiantly...

From a bully, or over exertion?

I summed up here... A year ago... lol...

http://www.templeofthejediorder.org/home/sermons/1907-sermon-072411

Great sermon post, Jestor.

And, I completely agree! Nonviolence is important. It is a policy I think that is central to a Modern Jedi. Maybe not in the Republic of SW, and maybe that is where Star Wars is in error.

While Jedi should be in good shape, and have basic martial training in order to step in safely during a physical assault of some kind, I feel like war training and immense physical violence should not be included in "protecting".

Because, in the end, shouldn't we protect the attackers as well? Do we put value in "life" itself? Or, do we put value in the choices one makes with their life?

I would think I would be trying to remind myself to remove emotion, and to be mindful of the level of ignorance that might exist within me to what is actually going on. Managing the emotion's in conflict is interesting because the body naturally tends to react emotionally to it.

So its probably impractical to think we can ascertain right and wrong, or concepts of justice, during conflict itself and then perhaps the best duty of the Jedi would be to facilitate the cessation of violance and promote non-violent means to resolve conflict. Therefore I'd put the value on all life, and yes protect the attackers as well.

Even the SW:EU material supports reducing the damage incurred against an opponent to be the minimum required to stop a particular act of violence, such as in the fiction it seems to go; negotiate, detain, disarm, disable, destroy, noting that the sometimes disabling or destroying the person weapon is enough to shift the scenario back to negotiate or detain.

Obviously when pressed they might cut them in half with a lightsaber but you get my point :huh:

About dealing with emotions, (advice from someone who well remembers growing up in a world before Star Wars) take another look at Mr. Spock and the Vulcan way from Star Trek. Seriously.

I find myself agreeing with Jestor and Desolous

Each circumstance is different so each respond or 'duty' to respond is different

Should all of us now immediately join the armed forces to protect our country? This seems to suggest that maybe we should...

But that, in my view, is obviously quite ridiculous...

There are many ways that we can protect

RiddleNox wrote: While Jedi should be in good shape, and have basic martial training in order to step in safely during a physical assault of some kind

And what about the duty to protect those with problems of the mind?

Should Jedi also be trained psychologists as well as trained martial artists?

How about the power to be able to train ourselves to help protect two countries from annihilating each other? Should we also train as diplomats and join the UN as well as being psychologists and martial artists just to cover all our bases of all potential outcomes that require protection?

We cannot protect against everything...

But I would hope that if we felt that we could that we would

Akkarin wrote: We cannot protect against everything...

But I would hope that if we felt that we could that we would

Maybe one day the Jedi presence will be large enough to cover all aspects of protection; mental, physical, social and so on and so forth. With professional teachers and recognised training schemes, maybe one day the Jedi will be a globally recognised society that people could turn to.

Honestly, I think physical protection, as in martial arts, is a pretty useless thing... For protection... Remember, I do teach it... What is most important, is good health.. Martial Arts teach more than just self defense....

I stood up and protected people long before ever learning martial arts, I was just willing to take a butt whooping... lol...

But, the number of times I've had altercations, usually, it never got physical... And, how often does it? Really?

Its balls... Cajones... Forgive me ladies of the Temple....

Its standing up in the face of adversity when the odds are against you...

Right now, it would seem that people's "inner bullies" are who they need protected from...

The idea that they are important, and are needed... Their lives do have value...

Of course (nilhist, that was the term I was lookingfor in that other thread.. lol...), the opposing view of nothing has value was presented by me in the other thread... lol...