Will the force be with us?

By Charles Camosy

The Dallas Morning News

The debate after the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attacks couldn’t have done a better job illustrating just how divided the American people actually are.

Many reacted as if having fewer guns was the obvious response of all reasonable people; others genuinely thought this was crazytown, and that the obvious solution is more guns.

This kind of disagreement is now all too familiar in other areas of public debate. Whether the issue is race, abortion, marriage, health care, immigration, or gender, the fundamental assumptions we bring to the table are so different that we might as well be speaking different languages.

And, in some sense, we are.

In the world of academic ethics, we spend a lot of time thinking about the implications of the disintegration of not only our political culture, but of any common moral language or ideas we could use to have genuine engagement. More and more ethicists are even challenging the basis of fundamental ideas such as the equal dignity of all human beings. Professor Ruth Macklin of the Einstein College of Medicine, for instance, famously argued that “dignity is a useless concept.”

We used to have a common set of theological ideas on which to draw, but our growing commitment to freedom of religion and a secular public sphere has meant such appeals today have little force. Claims that, say, all of us are created equal by God – or that we have a special duty to the stranger and the poor – have no special authority. We used to be able to appeal to the words and ideas of our founding fathers, but in an era of sensitivity to race, gender, and colonialism these are also anything but authoritative.

We seem to be running out of resources here.

‘Star Wars’

But in just two days, huge swaths of our culture will drop everything and watch “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Many will do so multiple times. The trailer has over 70 million hits on YouTube. Ticket presales are ridiculous, and many (including even Steven Spielberg) predict it will be the biggest movie of all time.

One of the main reasons so many think “Star Wars” will break all the records is that it manages to bring together an unbelievable number of people – what-ever their race, whatever their gender, whatever their politics and whatever their age. Think about how many sets of grandparents, parents and children, for instance, will find time over the holidays to see this movie together.

George Lucas’ goal in making “Star Wars” was a self-conscious attempt to appeal to primordial stories and images and ideas, and his great triumph was the successful creation of a new kind of mythology. His success is now even more important as one of our last remaining resources for meaningful ideas that can transcend our deepest divisions.

“Star Wars” fans of all kinds can agree with Yoda that, “Luminous beings are we – not this crude matter!” We can agree with his teaching that power should be used for “knowledge and defense – never for attack.”

Given that director J.J. Abrams has committed to the genre, stories, and approach of the original three movies, there is reason to be hopeful. Americans might not be able to agree on what Christmas means in our culture, but we can agree on what movie to see during the Christmas season.

Charles C. Camosy is an associate professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University and a contributor to “The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy: You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned.” He wrote this for The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency,