The Case for the Empire

If you're a nerdly sort, such as myself, then you know there's a lot of hullabaloo about the 30th anniversay of Star Wars right now. In honor of this, I present you with this (relatively old) article asking the question, was the Empire really all that evil?

STAR WARS RETURNS today with its fifth installment, "Attack of the Clones." There will be talk of the Force and the Dark Side and the epic morality of George Lucas's series. But the truth is that from the beginning, Lucas confused the good guys with the bad. The deep lesson of Star Wars is that the Empire is good.

It's a difficult leap to make--embracing Darth Vader and the Emperor over the plucky and attractive Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia--but a careful examination of the facts, sorted apart from Lucas's off-the-shelf moral cues, makes a quite convincing case.

It's an interesting article. Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

(Hat tip to Slublog)