Book Review – How the Force Can Fix the World by Stephen Kent

Happy Revenge of the Sith, friends! I just finished reading a mind-blowing book on American society through the lens of the Star Wars universe, and wanted to share its wisdom with you today. Enjoy!

The Book: How the Force Can Fix the World by Stephen Kent

I found this book back at the beginning of April at my local library and immediately knew it was coming home with me. Anything that mentions one of my fandoms in the title, regardless of its actual topic, is something I want to read. Even though this book has a lot of political and social commentary, I found it very interesting and relatable.

Likes and Dislikes

This book includes seven chapters and an introduction, and each chapter covers one of the seven themes of Star Wars/Jedi philosophy: humility, empathy, fear, hope, redemption, balance, and choice. Stephen Kent does a FANTASTIC job of discussing each theme in depth, then discussing a current theme or trend of North American politics and society, and then connecting the two things together. He finishes each chapter with some action steps to apply what the chapter covered in actual daily life. There is so much good stuff in this book, I used up an entire set of page flags trying to mark all the quotes I wanted to remember (because it’s a library book, so I can’t make notes or highlight).

Here’s a short list of all the things I enjoyed the most about How the Force Can Fix the World:

• it’s very relatable
• the action steps at the end of each chapter
• comedic timing and veiled references to current events
• the illustrations at the beginning of each chapter
• it makes political topics easy to understand
• it has a pretty balanced perspective, as close to being “unbiased” as any human can probably get

There was one thing that I wasn’t a super huge fan of about this book, but I can understand why the author took the path that he did. Kent makes several references to different religious beliefs throughout the book, especially Christianity. I noticed, however, that he references religion from the outside, which led me to wonder about his own perspective or beliefs for most of the book. He does mention that he holds Christian beliefs towards the end, but continues to treat all religions as if they were equally true. I can understand why he did this, as the book itself isn’t meant to be Christian, and one of its strengths is the ability to look at different sides, but I still wish that he had let his own beliefs come through a little more strongly.

Notable Quotes and Wisdom to Impart

To finish off this review, here’s a couple of the quotes I would have highlighted, circled, bookmarked, etc. if this book were my own and not library property:

Chapter 1: A Child Queen and a World Divided

The Naboo clearly place a high value on the intuitions of their young people, while maintaining a respect for the age and experience that is reflected in the Advisory council. when I think of children at their best, they are champions of curiosity, adaptability, openness, and, above all, humility.

p. 26

The thing that’s so tricky about pride is that no one wants to discourage someone, like a child, from being confident or believing in themselves. That would foster an insecurity that can be ugly in its own right. The difference is that confidence is the understanding of your own abilities, as well as your own deficiencies… Pride, on the other hand, is taking one’s achievements and constantly ascribing them to yourself.

p. 30

Chapter 2: A Creature in a Mask

In a world where the powerful want to limit your cognitive ability to relate to others and build unlikely friendships or bonds of affection, empathy is a rebellious quality. More empathy could help fix the world.

p. 39

Masks by their nature are hiding something. In some cases, it’s something the wearers don’t want you to see– ugliness, shame, or maybe truth. Sometimes it’s a thing the wearers themselves don’t want to see, or maybe would prefer to forget. In other instances, the mask can itself be a new identity to fill the void created by losing your sense of self and becoming something new. One or all of these things can be true, sometimes all at once. We all wear masks, don’t we?

p. 55

Empathy opens us all up to pain and disappointment. I’m junder no illustions that seeking to see the best in people who frighten us is without risk. But what I’m calling on you to do is live riskily and with boldness. If we all chose the Bubble-Wrapped existence of stripping our enemies of their humanity, the world we’d live in would be a horror show of violence and upheaval. Like democracy, empathy is hard. The rewards, however, are worth it.

p. 61

Chapter 3: The Dark Loves Your Good Intentions

Fear, power, self-righteousness, and even good intentions can corrupt and misguide the best of us. And when they do, you lose something along the way that more often than not you can’t get back. Maybe it’s your liberties, your privacy, a loved one… or a hand. Reminder: lightsabers are dangerous; use with caution.

p. 75-76

Fear can give us momentum and shake us out of our complacency. If approached with some sense of humility and curiosity, fear can yield something beautiful in our lives: hope.

p. 87

Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader because his fears and inability to live with uncertainty took up an unreasonable amount of real estate in his mind. Letting go or living with it were not options as far as he was concerned. We must all take the lesson of his fall seriously, because it meant not only his own lifetime of suffering, but also the subjugation of everyone around him.

p. 92

Chapter 4: What Rebellions Are Built On

Hope really is like the sun. It warms us, it guides us, and it helps to fill our worlds with color. But the sun can also become lost behind clouds and shrouded in impossible darkness, with no clear end in sight to that gray haze. If you don’t know that the sun is in fact there, or believe that it will eventually emerge from those clouds, you really will struggle to make it to that next warm day.

p. 100

Fear is an effective ally of the powerful, and political movements throughout history have had to reckon with this reality when challenging the government, law enforcement, or whatever powers that be.

p. 114

The Last Jedi‘s chief villain, Supreme Leader Snoke said to aspiring Jedi and Resistance fighter Rey, “Darkness rises and light to meet it.” Of course, Snoke hoped to snuff that light out, but he demonstrated an understanding there about how each of our galaxies works. change is guaranteed. The choice we have is how to face change and challenge darkness.

p. 122

Chapter 5: Redemption or a Reckoning

Even the best of us can relate [to Vader’s despair that redemption is impossible]. When you look around the world, do you see a culture of personal growth, forgiveness, and redemption on the rise? Or do you see one of vengeance, vindictiveness, and retribution taking hold of our discourse and behavior?

p. 129

Take that mask off. You don’t need it,” Han says to his son.

“What do you think you’ll see if I do?”

“The face of my son,” says Han, without hesitation. You might think you know who you are. But no one knows you like Dad.

p,. 141

To be human is to do harm to others. As a specie3s, we’re beautifully designed wrecking balls with passionate hearts and wild minds. We mess things up daily despite our best intentions. In light of this, whether your a firm atheist or a Muslim, Christian, or Jew, the establishment of organized belief systems that hinge on redemption being achievable seems like one of the more rational things mankind has ever done.

p. 144

Chapter 6: Powerful Light, Powerful Dark

Love and compassion are good things. Saint Thomas Aquinas defined love as “willing the good of the other,” or to basically assume the best of people… It can be a thing that takes effort. You have to defy other emotions competing for control of your mind and actions, such as fear or anger.

p. 183

Chapter 7: Twin Suns and the Open Door

That human beings are rational by nature is a quaint idea. The truth is, we’re simply gifted with the capacity for reason. We do things that make no sense all the time.

p. 210

Natural talent exists. Privilege does as well. But there’s also a wealth of evidence that shows that your thoughts and attitude can elevate or dampen both talent and potential. Our ability to grow over time and realize potential is closely connected to our perception of what’s possible.

p. 216

I hope you’ve enjoyed this review of How the Force Can Fix the World by Stephen Kent. I highly recommend this book for any lovers of Star Wars looking to improve the world with the power of the Force.

Happy reading!