Military technology lessons from "Star Wars" In this excerpt from the essay collection "Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict," the author looks at patterns of virtuous simplicity and evil complexity in a galaxy far, far away, and how this relates to today's battlefield. In 1977 "Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope" introduced lightsabers to the world in a quietly poignant scene. Half an hour into the film, we see an old hermit named Ben Kenobi pass along an antique family heirloom to an orphan boy named Luke. Old Ben describes the weapon in downright poetic language. He wistfully explains that the obsolete artifact is "an elegant weapon, for a more civilized age," clearly implying that particular age came to an end a long time ago.
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