“Only a Sith deals in absolutes”
“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” —Jedi Obiwan Kenobi (Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith)
Implication:
The Sith are evil, and dealing in absolutes is bad.
Irony:
The quote itself is an absolute statement.
“Do or do not. There is no try.” —Jedi Master Yoda (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back)
Another absolute statement from the good guy team.
How often do we accuse our enemies of an action that we are guilty of ourselves?
Russia is invading Ukraine for a false reason (denazification) and are killing many civilians. I see a lot of Americans condemning these actions, while ignoring how the USA invaded the Middle East for a false reason (nuclear warheads) and killed many civilians. Is there a good guy in this scenario?
What about people who get worked up about politics, strawmanning the opposing side, and believing their own side is any better with less corruption?
A problem with thinking in absolutes is that reality is messy. Things rarely fit into simple binary containers that’s easier for us to wrap our brains around. Just about anything exists on a spectrum. Delving into philosophy, metaphysics, and epistemology, no one can be absolutely sure about anything. Our very existence could be a simulation with no way to confirm or access certainty of that knowledge.
That highlighted statement is an absolute. But it cannot be verified absolutely. This boils down to the paradox of absolutism: the only thing we can know is that we can’t know anything absolutely. Because as soon as someone says an absolute statement, someone else can challenge it to an extent where neither could absolutely confirm their claim.
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