Star Wars Meta: Jedi Cult?
I like to joke about how the Jedi are actually just a messed up space cult, but let’s take a look at that claim, shall we? The International Cult Studies Association defines a cult as “an ideological organization held together by charismatic relations and demanding total commitment.” Sounds like the Jedi to me. Cults can vary widely in terms of the degree of control they exert over their members. The greater the degree of internal control, the higher the risk of physical or psychological harm to members. The Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame is a handy 18-factor frame work for identifying just how controlling, and thus how potentially dangerous, any cult-like group is. Each factor is evaluated on a sliding scale with 1 as low and 10 as high. Groups which score highly in five or more factors can be classified as potentially dangerous cults.
1. Internal Control: Amount of internal political and social power exercised by leader(s) over members; lack of clearly defined organizational rights for members.
The Jedi score a solid 9 on this one. The Council has unilateral control over advancement, mission assignments, and punishments. The Order also maintains their own secret prison to contain those members they feel have gone bad. Members have no clear way of raising concerns and no clearly defined rights.
2. External Control: Amount of external political and social influence desired or obtained; emphasis on directing members’ external political and social behavior.
Jedi score somewhere between 7 and 9 on this. Members are forbidden from forming outside attachments or contacting their families, and they are not allowed to participate in the political processes of their home worlds.
While the Jedi Order claims to eschew political involvement, they maintain a pod in the Senate and meet regularly with the Chancellor in an advisory capacity. When Chancellor Palpatine asks to spend time alone with a young Anakin in the new Obi-Wan & Anakin comic, the Council agrees in order to maintain their friendly relationship and repeatedly attempt to use the friendship between Anakin and Palpatine to influence and spy on the Chancellor. They technically serve the Senate, but regularly conceal information about secret deployments, intelligence about the Sith, etc. When the Chancellor attempts to exert more control over the Council by appointing Anakin Skywalker, the Council beings to plot a coup against him even before they learn he is a Sith.
3. Wisdom/Knowledge Claimed by leader(s); amount of infallibility declared or implied about decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations; number and degree of unverified and/or unverifiable credentials claimed.
Solid 9. Yoda is the oldest and wisest among us. We must trust in the Council.
4. Wisdom/Knowledge Credited to leader(s) by members; amount of trust in decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations made by leader(s); amount of hostility by members towards internal or external critics and/or towards verification efforts.
Solid 9. See above.
5. Dogma: Rigidity of reality concepts taught; amount of doctrinal inflexibility or “fundamentalism;” hostility towards relativism and situationalism.
Somewhere between 6 and 8. We hear individual Jedi privately express views other than those approved by the Council, but we also hear other Jedi expressing shock and horror at those ideas. Jedi like Qui-Got who persist in doing their own thing have trouble advancing within the Jedi hierarchy, or may even lose status. The Jedi ideals of maintaining internal peace and harmony help to squash dissent and doctrinal disputes mostly be pretending they don’t really exist.
6. Recruiting: Emphasis put on attracting new members; amount of proselytizing; requirement for all members to bring in new ones.
8 and 9. Jedi recruit children under the age of five. They have an in-universe reputation as kidnappers and were actually forbidden from visiting the planet of Bardotta thanks to their aggressive recruiting. On at least two separate instances they recruited children via ‘rescue’ without informing the children’s parents. See the Baby Ludi drama for details.
7. Front Groups: Number of subsidiary groups using different names from that of main group, especially when connections are hidden.
1. They don’t have any…that we know of. Just kidding. No front groups.
8. Wealth: Amount of money and/or property desired or obtained by group; emphasis on members’ donations; economic lifestyle of leader(s) compared to ordinary members.
I’d put them around 5. Individual members don’t get paid and aren’t supposed to accumulate possessions or wealth, and that includes the leaders. That said, Council members have much larger apartments than the rank and file. The Jedi Order as a whole maintains several large and fancy temples throughout the galaxy including one massive and swanky one on Courscant.
9. Sexual Manipulation of members by leader(s) of non-tantric groups; amount of control exercised over sexuality of members in terms of sexual orientation, behavior, and/or choice of partners.
Idk 3-5? Jedi aren’t permitted to marry or ‘form attachments’ except in those weird old EU cases where certain (Council) members received special permission because their species was endangered or some shit. Casual sex is cool though, I guess.
10. Sexual Favoritism: Advancement or preferential treatment dependent upon sexual activity with the leader(s) of non-tantric groups.
1. The Jedi don’t do this shit and that’s probably a good thing. The idea of people having to put out for Yoda kind of makes me sick.
11. Censorship: Amount of control over members’ access to outside opinions on group, its doctrines or leader(s).
6-8. Younger members are literally not permitted to leave the temple or contact anyone outside, including their own families. Teenage members are only permitted to do so under the supervision of the Council or their masters. All education is handled in-house. According to the new Darth Vader comic, there was also a good bit of internal censorship where only certain members were permitted access to certain types of information about the Force and the Order.
12 Isolation: Amount of effort to keep members from communicating with non-members, including family, friends and lovers.
10. Jedi are removed from their families before their fifth birthday and forbidden to communicate with them ever again. In some cases, they are given new names to further distance them from their birth families. They are not permitted to marry. Having outside friends is treated as suspect.
13. Dropout Control: Intensity of efforts directed at preventing or returning dropouts.
9-10. Prior to the Clone Wars, only 20 masters ever left. The Order maintained a secret prison for those Jedi they felt had lost their way. No word on what exactly ‘losing their way’ meant.
14. Violence: Amount of approval when used by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s).
8-10. All members were combat trained since pretty much minute one and were regularly deployed on missions which involved combat. They were technically serving the Republic, but most of their missions were dictated by the Council rather than directly by the Senate or other civilian body. Very little violence was directed at Order members by their superiors. That said, young members were often placed in life threatening situations as tests. See the ice caves of Illum or the temple on Lothal for details.
15. Paranoia: Amount of fear concerning real or imagined enemies; exaggeration of perceived power of opponents; prevalence of conspiracy theories.
6-8. The PT-era Jedi never shut up about the Dark Side and are constantly on alert for it within their own members. During the Clone Wars, they become increasingly (and justifiably) worried about the Separatists and the Sith. While deeply afraid of the power of the Dark Side, they tend to underestimate the skills and intelligence of actual Dark Side users.
16. Grimness: Amount of disapproval concerning jokes about the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).
2-4. While there are a few very serious Jedi, most fall somewhere between whimsical and sassmasters.
17. Surrender of Will: Amount of emphasis on members not having to be responsible for personal decisions; degree of individual disempowerment created by the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).
8-10. Surrender to the will of the Force. Trust in the Council. Trust your Master. Seriously, watch the Clone Wars. The sheer number of times Anakin and/or Ahsoka is told to turn off their brain and do as instructed is mind boggling. Also, Jedi as a whole practice literal mind control.
18. Hypocrisy: amount of approval for actions which the group officially considers immoral or unethical, when done by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s); willingness to violate the group’s declared principles for political, psychological, social, economic, military, or other gain.
7-9. See the entirety of the Clone Wars for details, but some examples include: maintaining a slave army despite believing slavery is a tool of the Sith; making deals with known slavers despite believing slavery is a tool of the Sith; handing over the Zillo beast to be experimented upon and killed despite believing in the sanctity of all life.
The International Cult Studies Association lists some additional risk factors including: excessive use of mind altering practices such as meditation; elitism; us-vs-them mentality towards external enemies; and attempts by the leadership to induce feelings of guilt or shame in members. Jedi exhibit all of these traits to varying degrees.
In short, the Jedi are a cult, and a potentially harmful one at that. Agree? Disagree? Want to clarify or refute any of my points? Is it just me, or are there a bunch of cults in the Star Wars universe?
1. Internal Control: Amount of internal political and social power exercised by leader(s) over members; lack of clearly defined organizational rights for members.
The Jedi score a solid 9 on this one. The Council has unilateral control over advancement, mission assignments, and punishments. The Order also maintains their own secret prison to contain those members they feel have gone bad. Members have no clear way of raising concerns and no clearly defined rights.
2. External Control: Amount of external political and social influence desired or obtained; emphasis on directing members’ external political and social behavior.
Jedi score somewhere between 7 and 9 on this. Members are forbidden from forming outside attachments or contacting their families, and they are not allowed to participate in the political processes of their home worlds.
While the Jedi Order claims to eschew political involvement, they maintain a pod in the Senate and meet regularly with the Chancellor in an advisory capacity. When Chancellor Palpatine asks to spend time alone with a young Anakin in the new Obi-Wan & Anakin comic, the Council agrees in order to maintain their friendly relationship and repeatedly attempt to use the friendship between Anakin and Palpatine to influence and spy on the Chancellor. They technically serve the Senate, but regularly conceal information about secret deployments, intelligence about the Sith, etc. When the Chancellor attempts to exert more control over the Council by appointing Anakin Skywalker, the Council beings to plot a coup against him even before they learn he is a Sith.
3. Wisdom/Knowledge Claimed by leader(s); amount of infallibility declared or implied about decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations; number and degree of unverified and/or unverifiable credentials claimed.
Solid 9. Yoda is the oldest and wisest among us. We must trust in the Council.
4. Wisdom/Knowledge Credited to leader(s) by members; amount of trust in decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations made by leader(s); amount of hostility by members towards internal or external critics and/or towards verification efforts.
Solid 9. See above.
5. Dogma: Rigidity of reality concepts taught; amount of doctrinal inflexibility or “fundamentalism;” hostility towards relativism and situationalism.
Somewhere between 6 and 8. We hear individual Jedi privately express views other than those approved by the Council, but we also hear other Jedi expressing shock and horror at those ideas. Jedi like Qui-Got who persist in doing their own thing have trouble advancing within the Jedi hierarchy, or may even lose status. The Jedi ideals of maintaining internal peace and harmony help to squash dissent and doctrinal disputes mostly be pretending they don’t really exist.
6. Recruiting: Emphasis put on attracting new members; amount of proselytizing; requirement for all members to bring in new ones.
8 and 9. Jedi recruit children under the age of five. They have an in-universe reputation as kidnappers and were actually forbidden from visiting the planet of Bardotta thanks to their aggressive recruiting. On at least two separate instances they recruited children via ‘rescue’ without informing the children’s parents. See the Baby Ludi drama for details.
7. Front Groups: Number of subsidiary groups using different names from that of main group, especially when connections are hidden.
1. They don’t have any…that we know of. Just kidding. No front groups.
8. Wealth: Amount of money and/or property desired or obtained by group; emphasis on members’ donations; economic lifestyle of leader(s) compared to ordinary members.
I’d put them around 5. Individual members don’t get paid and aren’t supposed to accumulate possessions or wealth, and that includes the leaders. That said, Council members have much larger apartments than the rank and file. The Jedi Order as a whole maintains several large and fancy temples throughout the galaxy including one massive and swanky one on Courscant.
9. Sexual Manipulation of members by leader(s) of non-tantric groups; amount of control exercised over sexuality of members in terms of sexual orientation, behavior, and/or choice of partners.
Idk 3-5? Jedi aren’t permitted to marry or ‘form attachments’ except in those weird old EU cases where certain (Council) members received special permission because their species was endangered or some shit. Casual sex is cool though, I guess.
10. Sexual Favoritism: Advancement or preferential treatment dependent upon sexual activity with the leader(s) of non-tantric groups.
1. The Jedi don’t do this shit and that’s probably a good thing. The idea of people having to put out for Yoda kind of makes me sick.
11. Censorship: Amount of control over members’ access to outside opinions on group, its doctrines or leader(s).
6-8. Younger members are literally not permitted to leave the temple or contact anyone outside, including their own families. Teenage members are only permitted to do so under the supervision of the Council or their masters. All education is handled in-house. According to the new Darth Vader comic, there was also a good bit of internal censorship where only certain members were permitted access to certain types of information about the Force and the Order.
12 Isolation: Amount of effort to keep members from communicating with non-members, including family, friends and lovers.
10. Jedi are removed from their families before their fifth birthday and forbidden to communicate with them ever again. In some cases, they are given new names to further distance them from their birth families. They are not permitted to marry. Having outside friends is treated as suspect.
13. Dropout Control: Intensity of efforts directed at preventing or returning dropouts.
9-10. Prior to the Clone Wars, only 20 masters ever left. The Order maintained a secret prison for those Jedi they felt had lost their way. No word on what exactly ‘losing their way’ meant.
14. Violence: Amount of approval when used by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s).
8-10. All members were combat trained since pretty much minute one and were regularly deployed on missions which involved combat. They were technically serving the Republic, but most of their missions were dictated by the Council rather than directly by the Senate or other civilian body. Very little violence was directed at Order members by their superiors. That said, young members were often placed in life threatening situations as tests. See the ice caves of Illum or the temple on Lothal for details.
15. Paranoia: Amount of fear concerning real or imagined enemies; exaggeration of perceived power of opponents; prevalence of conspiracy theories.
6-8. The PT-era Jedi never shut up about the Dark Side and are constantly on alert for it within their own members. During the Clone Wars, they become increasingly (and justifiably) worried about the Separatists and the Sith. While deeply afraid of the power of the Dark Side, they tend to underestimate the skills and intelligence of actual Dark Side users.
16. Grimness: Amount of disapproval concerning jokes about the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).
2-4. While there are a few very serious Jedi, most fall somewhere between whimsical and sassmasters.
17. Surrender of Will: Amount of emphasis on members not having to be responsible for personal decisions; degree of individual disempowerment created by the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).
8-10. Surrender to the will of the Force. Trust in the Council. Trust your Master. Seriously, watch the Clone Wars. The sheer number of times Anakin and/or Ahsoka is told to turn off their brain and do as instructed is mind boggling. Also, Jedi as a whole practice literal mind control.
18. Hypocrisy: amount of approval for actions which the group officially considers immoral or unethical, when done by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s); willingness to violate the group’s declared principles for political, psychological, social, economic, military, or other gain.
7-9. See the entirety of the Clone Wars for details, but some examples include: maintaining a slave army despite believing slavery is a tool of the Sith; making deals with known slavers despite believing slavery is a tool of the Sith; handing over the Zillo beast to be experimented upon and killed despite believing in the sanctity of all life.
The International Cult Studies Association lists some additional risk factors including: excessive use of mind altering practices such as meditation; elitism; us-vs-them mentality towards external enemies; and attempts by the leadership to induce feelings of guilt or shame in members. Jedi exhibit all of these traits to varying degrees.
In short, the Jedi are a cult, and a potentially harmful one at that. Agree? Disagree? Want to clarify or refute any of my points? Is it just me, or are there a bunch of cults in the Star Wars universe?