The Jedi, Jesus and the UN

[Stravo]

Ok, this should belong in PSW but frankly I think it fits better here.

Say that Obi Wan and Yoda are fleeing the Empire and instead of going to Tatooine and Dagobah respectively they fall into a wormhole and end up here with Luke and Leia in tow.

Now they come to the world and ask for refuge here and wish to start a new Jedi Order here on Earth after discovering quite a collection of Force sensitives for a single world.

Say that the world governments have no hidden agendas and won't be killing Obi Wan and Yoda nor will the Jedi be on a slab being disected. Yoda slyly palms off some Republic technology to bribe over any concerns. Instead they are offered a small parcel of land in a neutral counrty, say by a lake in Switzerland or something like that and the first Jedi Temple on Earth is founded.

Luke and Leia are the first to be trained but soon many more are coming as potential Jedi. In exchange for these concessions from Earth the Jedi Order will be at the beck and call of the UN as peace keepers as soon as Yoda is satisfied with the first batch. Say also that Yoda and Obi Wan are follwoing the shake and bake technique for Jedi training so the first batch are ready in a few years. Luke and Leia are getting the full treatment so they will take the alotted 10-15 years to be ready.

How do the religions of the World deal with the arrival of the Jedi who proclaim to follow another faith, prosthelize whenever they can, take children and start training them at an early age and most important of all have miracles to back up their faith unlike the others?

Would we see a mass exodus of people leaving religions here to follow the Force? Will the Jedi be instant celabrities or will they be viewed with suspicion? Will Obi Wan be a sex symbol?

How will some of the more nefarious governments deal with the Jedi as they starft showing up in Africa South East Asia and most interesting The Middle East? How will the Great Powers deal with the Jedi when they start numbering in the dozens wielding lightsabers and looking alot more powerful now in numbers. (Earth for some reason has about 1,000 - 2,000 Jedi potentials at any one time.) Will the UN become a force to be reckoned with as they now have Jedi at their disposal?

[SirNitram]

Sudan gets pacified very damn quickly by judious application of 'Force Push'.

[Mr Bean]

This deserves a longer reply but sufficet it to say for now,(Till I get back from work)
That there is already a few contries were Jedi are recongized as a religion, not to mention the whole massive fanboy army they would have aviable.

[The Aliens]

Probably going to be a dramatic increase in fundamentalism as more and more religions attempt to pull off their own 'miracles' to prove they're the real thing. Especially in areas that don't have access to free education or mass media, these Jedi miracles are going to be denied, played off as trickery, as Lucifer, as basically anything aside from the one true God. If the Islamic and Christian churches play the "Jedi get their power from Satan" card, expect to see fanatical resisatnce against the Jedi wherever they're deployed by religious fundamentalists.

[Zero]

If they're on earth, do we still see the star wars movies here? I mean, this would HUGELY affect the outcome, and the possible deification of George Lucas...

[Surlethe]

How do the religions of the World deal with the arrival of the Jedi who proclaim to follow another faith, prosthelize whenever they can, take children and start training them at an early age and most important of all have miracles to back up their faith unlike the others?

Presuming Star Wars has not been seen on this RAR-verse Earth, the religions do what they've always done to competition: branded it as heretical.

Would we see a mass exodus of people leaving religions here to follow the Force? Will the Jedi be instant celabrities or will they be viewed with suspicion? Will Obi Wan be a sex symbol?

Suspicion and then outright rage from the fundies: OMG T3H S4T4N!!!1!, etc., etc. Practical people will turn; I'm not sure about the details of the Jedi religion, but if it offers people emotional solace, that -- coupled with demonstrative force pushes and other gimmicks on international TV -- will probably convert millions. To the secular world, "Jedi" will become synonymous with "hero" as their exploits gain them fame. After Obi-Wan and Yoda hunt down Osama bin-Laden within the year, for example, expect the U.S. to adore the Jedi order.

How will some of the more nefarious governments deal with the Jedi as they starft showing up in Africa South East Asia and most interesting The Middle East? How will the Great Powers deal with the Jedi when they start numbering in the dozens wielding lightsabers and looking alot more powerful now in numbers. (Earth for some reason has about 1,000 - 2,000 Jedi potentials at any one time.) Will the UN become a force to be reckoned with as they now have Jedi at their disposal?

The Great Powers will try to steal some Jedi for their own, or at the very least go looking for possible force trainees to try to make their own. There are some practical questions, though: can Jedi block bullets? Does Earth have the resources to build lightsabres? How long will it take for some of the more powerful trainees to fall to the Dark Side, split off from the Jedi, and start pulling strings behind the UN and other world governments?

I would hope the UN would become a force to be reckoned with (pardon the pun); it would now have practically an army of superpowers, prescient, and able and willing to TK any opposition. Most importantly, however, the Jedi are dedicated to peace and justice.

Expect the White House to get some visitors in the near future...

[Drunk Monkey]

Well assuming Yoda and Obi get lots of media attention well probably have a live debate between Yoda and some evangelical.

Evangelical: “how dare you sate such blasphemy of sinful arts like telekinesis”

Yoda: “through the force unnatural things possible be there”

Evangelical: “can your sinful power’s separate a river demon midget”

Yoda: *shakes head in disgust* “foolish are you Hmmm” *Yoda then separates the Mississippi river in two* “much to learn you still have*

Evangelical: *starts worshiping Yoda as a god*

Yoda “hhmmmmm castrated must you be, disgraceful to the force you are”

[Darth Wong]

Hardcore fundies will rail at the evil false prophets, but most moderates would find this whole phenomenon incredibly convincing and might be convinced to switch, particularly over several generations. The simple fact is that if this new religion could actually demonstrate its miracles under controlled observation, that would be an enormous kick in the teeth to all of the other religions and their bullshit miracle claims.

[wolveraptor]

I think that Jedi can block bullets, but with the modus operandi being force push, not the lightsabre. Obi-Wan, in the cartoon SW, force pushes Durge's needle-projectile-things. Of course, I have no idea how fast those travel, so maybe only a Jedi with extreme precognition could stop the bullets in time. A more practical method would be to disarm the soldier in the first place by simply taking the gun away. A reasonably skilled Jedi should be able to sense if a guy has a gun and is planning to attack. Assasinations would be difficult without one on one fighting.

IMO, there'd be anarchy. Every country would beg and plead for the council to be on their territory, and so many warlords would try to swipe semi-trained Jedi children and use them as Force-sensitive body guards, like the Emporer's Hands. The Jedi council would require a private cruise-liner in the middle of the Pacific, or maybe a bubble-city in the Antarctic, and would need a sizeable Jedi army, one that had captured many terrorists and done many deeds, before they'd be safe. The Jedi would obviously hope to strengthen the UN, and weaken individual governments, and the UN would be on the best terms with them.

[Drunk Monkey]

I think that Jedi can block bullets, but with the modus operandi being force push, not the lightsabre. Obi-Wan, in the cartoon SW, force pushes Durge's needle-projectile-things. Of course, I have no idea how fast those travel, so maybe only a Jedi with extreme precognition could stop the bullets in time. A more practical method would be to disarm the soldier in the first place by simply taking the gun away. A reasonably skilled Jedi should be able to sense if a guy has a gun and is planning to attack. Assasinations would be difficult without one on one fighting.

IMO, there'd be anarchy. Every country would beg and plead for the council to be on their territory, and so many warlords would try to swipe semi-trained Jedi children and use them as Force-sensitive body guards, like the Emporer's Hands. The Jedi council would require a private cruise-liner in the middle of the Pacific, or maybe a bubble-city in the Antarctic, and would need a sizeable Jedi army, one that had captured many terrorists and done many deeds, before they'd be safe. The Jedi would obviously hope to strengthen the UN, and weaken individual governments, and the UN would be on the best terms with them.

Something like Neo from the matrix I bet except they’ll probably do it in a cooler fashion then standing holding your hand up.

[wolveraptor]

Actually, they do just hold their hands up. It's just a force push, you know. Obi wan didn't make them stop and stand in mid-air though. He just deflected them away.

[Lusankya]

Will Obi Wan be a sex symbol?

What kind of silly question is this? Of course he will be! He looks like freakin' Ewan McGregor for crying out loud! Plus we know he's going to age like Alec Guinness, rather than, say, Mel Gibson, and we know he's a good guy, so all the girls will take one look at him and think "this guy's a keeper."


One question, though. Do the world leaders recognise them as being Yoda and Obi-wan from Star Wars? Because if they do, I imagine they'll be a lot more successful in immediately winning everyone to their side. After all, they've already had 28 years of propaganda working at us and getting us to view the Jedi, and them in particular, in a good light.

[wolveraptor]

Wasn't it mentioned that in this paRARlell Earth, we wouldn't have the movies?

[HemlockGrey]

Prospective Jedi would be approached by their national governments looking to use them as assassins and spies. Can you imagine the use the CIA would have for a fully-trained Jedi? He could kill Mugabe, Kim Jong-Ill, probably track down Zarqawi *and* off Castro for old time's sake.

And, as we all know, once you start down the Dark path...can you say, "Tinpot Jedi?" A Dark Jedi would be an immensely destabilizing political force.

[Lusankya]

Wasn't it mentioned that in this paRARlell Earth, we wouldn't have the movies?

Not that I can read.

[Stravo]

Wasn't it mentioned that in this paRARlell Earth, we wouldn't have the movies?

Not that I can read.

Actually I meant our world now, today as in right now. So yeah Lucas would really be someone that Yoda and Obi Wan would really like to talk to and the Jedi get instant credibility in that respect.

[Darth Wong]

Wasn't it mentioned that in this paRARlell Earth, we wouldn't have the movies?

Not that I can read.

Actually I meant our world now, today as in right now. So yeah Lucas would really be someone that Yoda and Obi Wan would really like to talk to and the Jedi get instant credibility in that respect.

YODA: "From your mind, we appeared. Taller, could you not have made me?"

[Lusankya]

So all the people who wrote down "Jedi" as their religion on the census suddenly get vindicated, and everyone who would have liked to have put Jedi down but didn't because they wanted to take it vaguely seriously would begin to actually quote it as their religion, Jedi being proven to be true and all.

I'd suggest that in First World countries, the Jedi will have quite high status, but in dictatorships, the Jedi's political and intrinsic power would either make the government attempt to use "their" Jedi as tools, or they would attempt to suppress the growing "Jedi" religion so it wouldn't violate their sovereignty (or both).

Obi-Wan and Yoda would also probably have to let go of some of their fervour for democracy. I know that in an ideal world, they would want the Earth to be 100% democratic, but realistically, they couldn't immediately destabilise the world by overthrowing every dictatorship. Using their religious influence to turn public opinion against China etc would also probably only have the effect of turning these countries against them.

[2000AD]

What would the impact on the scientific community be?

Telekinesis, telepathy, etc. have all been dismissed for ages, but now you come along and find they're possible? Would a Jedi submit to scientific testing to see how they're powers work?

Also i bet fundies would jump on it and say "See!?! Science was wrong! Evolution is a big lie!!!"

[2000AD]

Also, would Obi and Yoda be able to deal with the tech gap and the culture clash?

They're used to a civilisation that can cross a galaxy in a day, we have trouble getting to our moon. Even in their self imposed exiles they probably had technology that made it easier.

Living with us must be like going to live in an Omish society, probably worse.

[The Guid]

Do the Jedi actually follow any sort of belief system of how the world is created etc.? Do they have a God? From the films I do not get that impression; if they turned up I can't see it changing my faith in God and it would only turn those who are drawn in my miracles and not by faith.

If I knew nothing about them then I think I'd probably want them dealt with as well... all male monastry... stealing children...? Warriors?

If I had seen the movies then I would probably insist still on constrant surveillance to check that none of these new Jedi are turning in their beds going "Mum! Mum! no!"

[Drunk Monkey]

What would the impact on the scientific community be?

Telekinesis, telepathy, etc. have all been dismissed for ages, but now you come along and find they're possible? Would a Jedi submit to scientific testing to see how they're powers work?

Also i bet fundies would jump on it and say "See!?! Science was wrong! Evolution is a big lie!!!"

I don’t see why not, the one book that came out around the same time as TPM said that Jedi are scientist who discovered Midchlorians.

[Surlethe]

What would the impact on the scientific community be?

Telekinesis, telepathy, etc. have all been dismissed for ages, but now you come along and find they're possible? Would a Jedi submit to scientific testing to see how they're powers work?

I would think the Jedi would submit to testing, in keeping with their amenable feelings towards free expression and democracy. Although not once do we see Jedi being tested in the movies, the SW universe is scientifically stagnant (having discovered all natural laws millennia ago), so the Jedi were probably tested during that process of discovery.

[Coyote]

Have them at the beck and call of the UN? Hell, I'd want them to be the UN. I'd trust Yoda and Obi-Wan to run that sort of organization far more than any of the chowderheads we have today.

I think that most of the people with advanced media technology and where literacy is common would have an easy time of it (except for the fundie enclaves but you can't please everyone). So Europe, North America, Asia, Australia would deal with it okay.

Places where outside contact and literacy was controlled or repressed in order to shore up oppressive regimes would see it as a false religion by Satan (ie, the Middle East) or Yankee Capitalist Infidel Hollywood tricks. The Jihadis would flip out and force their own destruction as they tried to crash airliners into the Jedi "Satans". (And the world would breath a collective sigh of relief afterwards).

Mmmm... lightsabers. Cool...

[Lord Zentei]

That there is already a few contries were Jedi are recongized as a religion.

Wait... what?

And yeah, fundies would be a problem and James Randi would become one million dollars poorer. We would have an explosion in mystic new age bullshit until they conclusively fail to perform according to Jedi standards. As a result, TK and TP standard testing procedures would be legalized, and Sylvia Browne and similar frauds would rapidly loose their fanbase as a concequence.