It would seem like hope is in short supply these days. I don’t really need to elaborate on why people think that the world is in a really bad place (or why I have to agree with them).
I’m going to tell you something that you might not believe:
There is still reason to have hope.
There are a lot of bad things happening now. And bad things will happen in the future. But there are still a lot of things in this world that are good. And many good things are still waiting to happen.
Last December, a little movie called Rogue One: A Star Wars Story came out. This film was about the team of Rebel spies who stole the plans for the first Death Star. Other than the obvious aim to make a profit, why would Lucasfilm want to go back and tell this story?
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| Wired |
It’s like when a leader in my church brings up a story from the scriptures to make a certain point. We already know who wins. We know what’s going to happen. We already know the obvious moral of the story (the good guys win). But in the retelling there is a point being made that isn’t quite so obvious. Rogue One is about the battle against the odds that a mismatched team of heroes had to overcome to accomplish the feat that led to Princess Leia running from Darth Vader at the beginning of A New Hope--odds that included doubt from the leaders of the Alliance itself.
Lucasfilm’s point, whether or not intentional, was that everything those rebels worked for, everything literally fought and died for, was based on a shred of hope that the empire’s most dangerous weapon could be destroyed, and they could take down the empire and help the galaxy to be free of oppression.
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| My edit |
Say what you will about the Empire’s ability to allocate resources and provide a system of order: it was a corrupt institution, run by corrupt people. The Empire didn’t care about what happened to the people it ruled over: it took what it wanted and punished those who disagreed with it. It controlled through the fear of force. Twenty years after the end of the Clone Wars, the Empire had finished constructing a superweapon that could obliterate entire planets. Now the Empire could not only punish dissent but destroy billions of innocent lives at the same time just to make a point.
“If the Empire has this kind of power, then what chance do we have?”
The Rebel Alliance council? They backed out because the odds of success were so slim. And because the Empire could do whatever they wanted. They didn’t have any way to compete with the Death Star. Not enough weapons. Not enough resources. Not realistic.
“We have hope,” says Jyn Erso. “Rebellions are built on hope.”
Cassian Andor had told Jyn the exact same thing when they were on Jedha trying to get a hold of Saw Gerrera. In her experience, there wasn’t really much reason to have hope, because she never had anyone in her life that she could count on to come through for her. Anything she hoped for never worked out. In spite of whatever efforts she made to have a life for herself, everything always went wrong. So she was kind of surprised to hear Cassian say that the Rebel Alliance operated merely on the hope that their contacts would come through for them.
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| Giphy |
But what convinced Jyn otherwise? Seeing Chirrut Imwe stand up to a bunch of stormtroopers with just the Force and a walking stick helped her to see that anything was possible. Seeing Jedha destroyed by the Death Star had convinced her that she couldn’t turn a blind eye to the Empire’s atrocities any longer. And the hologram message from her father had given her the hint that, powerful though it was, the Death Star had a fatal flaw that could be exploited. Her father had only worked on the Death Star on the hope that by doing so he could keep Jyn safe and undermine the system he hated so much. He had built the flaw in the reactor. He knew that so much power in the hands of the Empire was wrong. And he knew that Jyn would understand that idea.
The Empire had troops and fighters and ships and endless resources. They had a weapon that could obliterate entire planets in seconds, and it was heavily protected so that attacking it would be futile. Being realistic, the Rebellion didn’t stand a chance. But Jyn and Cassian went ahead and got a team together to steal the Death Star plans from the heavily-fortified archive on Scarif because they knew that somewhere in those plans there was a key to destroying the Death Star and striking a blow against the Empire. If they could steal the plans and find the design flaw, then they had a chance to do something. At every step during the battle, everything could have gone wrong. Every main character--Jyn, Cassian, K2S0, Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze--had to find the hope to take the next step without the guarantee that they would succeed--without the assurance that they would live to see their effort rewarded.
“Do you think anyone is listening?”
The Battle of Scarif was actually a huge decision point for the Rebellion: either they took the opportunity to do something about the injustices of the Empire, or they just walked away. And when a small group of rebels decided that something needed to be done, there was no turning back.
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| Bustle |
Sometimes winning a real victory is not about how many guns and ships you have. It’s about using your brains. And your heart.
“We will take the next chance and the next, until we win or the chances are spent.”
The fundamental thing is, rebellions are about hope. Hope that an unjust government CAN be overthrown. Hope that improving the system will bring provide life, liberty, and happiness for others. Hope that the risks to get those freedoms are worth it. Rogue One is a film about the sacrifices that heroes in a war-torn galaxy made so that hope could be possible.
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| Geek n' Sundry, via Pinterest |
In real life, when it seems like everything goes wrong, it can seem more logical to think that there is no point making an effort to better your lot, because it won’t work out. But when you do whatever it takes to reach your goals, the little things day after day, your hope can become a reality, even if it takes shape slowly.
Whenever you see an opportunity to do something, to make a difference, to change the way things happen, take it. Do what needs to be done even if your chances of failing are astronomical. Take action or else your enemies will win. As a great Jedi master once said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Either you take action or you don’t. The ability to act is in your control. To attempt the thing is to DO the thing. But you have to believe that your effort will be what is needed.
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| Favim |
Sometimes hope is a lot less substantial than a message from your dad informing you of a reactor flaw and a thermal exhaust port. And sometimes you know that the odds of you getting whatever you’re hoping will happen are a lot steeper than someone being able to actually hit a two-meter exhaust port with a missle.
But it’s okay to hope that things will turn out for the better. Because it’s not unreasonable that they will. You don’t have any reason to believe that you’re going to fail. Your life can be as happy and rewarding as you want it to be. It IS within the realm of possibility. Even when the rest of the world is collapsing, there is still reason to have hope that things will be all right--that you will be all right.
When the time comes and you have the chance to make a difference, seize it. Even if you fail. Even if you lose. Even if you die, it's worth it.
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Have courage.
Have hope.
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