Mon Mothma and the End of Postmodernism

Like many of you, I’m a Star Wars fan, and in the new series of Andor, the character of Mon Mothma has grown on me. In fact, her speech in the Senate in episode 9 is a high point in the Star Wars franchise, up there with “rebellions are built on hope” from Rogue One.

Mon’s speech is so powerful and quotable because it is so applicable to our contemporary age.

It is hard not watch the discussion and propaganda about the Ghorman massacre and think about the devastation of Gaza right now (Yes, I know the Israel-Gaza conflict is morally complicated, Hamas are no saints and are still holding many hostages, but Israel is violating the laws of armed conflict in its military actions). Also, think of the actions of Russia, China, Venezuela, Cuba, and in some ways even the Trump Administration and the propaganda that attempts to justify it.

What I’m astounded by is Mon’s grief at the loss of “objective reality” and the “death of truth.”

If this is a cultural moment about where people stand in relation to reality and truth, then we have just witnessed a major mental shift in Western culture!!!

Mon’s speech was not a riposte against the Empire and the Emperor; it was an attack on postmodern epistemology, with its claims that truth is inherently pluralistic, plastic, and pragmatic.

Here’s the thing.

In postmodernism (POMO for short), there is no “the truth,” only “your truth” and “my truth.” Hence phrases like “That’s true for you but not for me” or “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” etc.

In POMO ways of thinking, nobody has a God’s eye-view of reality, no one has a privileged position of knowledge. There is no epistemological Switzerland. Every claim to truth is a claim to power. Therefore, treat truth with suspicion!

In POMO perspective, everyone has their own truth and their own reality. Accordingly, everyone must be free to be true to their own truth, and should be free to live in the construction of their own realities.

For those who buy into POMO ideology, there is no single reality, only an endless array of subjectivities that must be protected and affirmed.

In the POMO orbit, claims to truth are by nature exclusive, and exclusion of any sort is a moral horror in the POMO worldview.

And yet Mon Mothma’s speech turns all that on its head and for good reason!

If truth is a convenient fiction, then there are no objective grounds to criticize dictators and despots. If we can all build our truth, so too can emperors and empires.

As George Orwell pointed out, the aim of totalitarians is not necessarily to be believed in what they say; rather, it is to create an environment where nobody knows what to believe!

In a post-truth age, it is possible for governments to say: There is no famine in Ukraine. There are no AIDS cases in Romania. There are no American soldiers in Baghdad. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. There is no such thing as biological sex. The Hunter Biden laptop story is a Russian hoax. What happened in the Ghorman plaza was sedition not a massacre.

They can dismiss all criticism as the “fog of war,” “typical left-wing/right-wing media bias,” “we have intelligence that suggests otherwise,” or use AI-generated deep-fakes to manufacture a falsified view of what happened.

It’s the Devil who questioned God’s words in the Garden of Eden, who twists Scripture for his own ends, and even animated Pilate to question the whole idea of truth.

I understand the reason for treating all claims to truth with a little suspicion, but the postmodern denial of objective truth, about biology, about war, about history, is serpentine.

If there is no truth, then we are deprived of the primary weapon to confront evil, resist dictators, stand up to despots, and to even answer the devil himself.

Rebellions are built on hope … and truth!