Is Star Wars inherently conservative?

Found this reference to a conservative movie site, where conservatives are trying to claim Star Wars for themselves. For myself, I've never understood this urge to argue that everything one likes or enjoys is consistent with one's political views. Indeed, many of the things I like have little, if anything at all, to do with politics. And I like it that way. But it seems some people favor totalizing (totalized?) ideologies, and they require everything they like to be "conservative." (This also applies to some people on the left, but not liberals as I understand that term.) I don't think one should give primacy to politics over every other sphere of one's life. Sometimes politics should trump other areas, but certainly not always.

In fact, many of my favorite authors are conservatives, especially Evelyn Waugh. Gasp. My favorite book, The Lord of the Rings, is conservative in outlook, if not in theme and tone (and in treatment of the Men of the East and South, not to mention the orcs). Art is art, politics is politics, friendship is friendship (I would say that half of my good friends in the whole world are political conservatives). There's no single solution to the conflicts between the separate spheres of life.

Back to the point, though: Is Star Wars conservative?

Well, the first thing I would note is that there is no place in the Star Wars Universe for Christianity. Some people might argue that the story is an allegory for Christianity, but I'm not buying it. It's more pagan, or at least Manichean (and that's a Christian heresy, especially for my Catholic friends). To the extent that American conservatives rely on Christianity as a bedrock principle--and come on, you know they do--than Star Wars is not conservative. I don't give points for the idea that it's a Good versus Evil story, and that that's somehow inherently conservative. Liberals can believe in evil, too.

The mysticism of Star Wars (the Force) seems pretty New Age-y to me, and I associate that with the left ("the looney left"). One might argue that it is tied to a kind of Heideggerian right, but . . . seems like a stretch to me.

One might argue that much of conservative thought warns of the danger of power--power corrupts and all that. So the Dark Side of the Force could be seen in those terms. But again, liberals are also against tyranny.

Does Episode II have an anti-cloning (and therefore pro-life) message? Some of the links suggest that the images of babies in bottles was "pro-life." I'm not so sure that those scenes are inescapably pro-life, although I will agree that, if you are pro-life already, you are almost certainly going to see those images as a condemnation of cloning. The movie is not so clearly anti-cloning, though. Remember, the Jedi (the Good Guys) fight with the clones. Now, maybe this is their downfall, but we haven't seen that yet. The clones are presented as just another form of technology here. Now one can see this from a Heideggerian pov and reject technology, but in today's politics is that right or left?

Are the Jedi conservative? One could argue that they are seeking to conserve the Republic; but Episode I made pretty clear that the Republic is not really worth conserving at this point. It is portrayed as corrupt, inefficient, unable to defend itself. This is a strange way to present conservatives, if that is the goal--defending the indefensible. (If I were a conservative, I wouldn't want to be portrayed that way.)

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