Of all the problems with this conflation of Buddhism with the light/dark side, I didn't even consider the fact that it conflates love with abuse and fascism. Cripes.
Agreed, the Jedi Order deliberately isolated its members and gained total control over their lives. In this context you might also enjoy redrikki's meta on The Jedi as a cult.
The balance of the Force aspect is something that endlessly cheeses me off, too. Evidently in the OT era it wasn't supposed to be a balance between Light and Dark, but rather the existence of the Dark Side was itself an imbalance in the Force. Which makes a hell lot more sense given the (very Christian) cosmology. Now with your cosmology the Light and Dark are actually co-equal and an acceptable balance could actually be between those two, but balance with what has presented to us as pure evil and destruction? Nope nope nope.
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Agreed, the Jedi Order deliberately isolated its members and gained total control over their lives. In this context you might also enjoy
The balance of the Force aspect is something that endlessly cheeses me off, too. Evidently in the OT era it wasn't supposed to be a balance between Light and Dark, but rather the existence of the Dark Side was itself an imbalance in the Force. Which makes a hell lot more sense given the (very Christian) cosmology. Now with your cosmology the Light and Dark are actually co-equal and an acceptable balance could actually be between those two, but balance with what has presented to us as pure evil and destruction? Nope nope nope.