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Rey and Finn: Responses to political and economic oppression
In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
-Anatole France
I have written before about how Finn’s decency was an act of subversion against the militaristic totalitarianism he grew up under. There’s another character in TFA who is also kind and selfless in an unjust system, and that’s Rey. The difference is the kind of oppression these two characters lived under, which are diametrically opposed but just as corrosive in their different ways.
Finn was a slave soldier of a totalitarian dictatorship, while Rey was an exploited worker under a capitalist who could rob and swindle people in the absence of law and order. To put it in a simplified way, Finn lived in a system with no freedoms while Rey lived in a system of unchecked freedoms. And while freedom without any restriction might sound like a wonderful thing, in practice it tends to mean that people with power and capital get to restrict the freedoms of people without such advantages.
The only reason I don’t call Rey a slave is because, as Finn pointed out and she doesn’t deny, she was always “free” to leave. Of course, not everyone has Rey’s skills (these being another form of capital) and for them the freedom to leave was meaningless when they had no better alternatives. It’s also worth pointing out that the reason Rey wasn’t leaving and wanted to go back was her amnesia and trauma, which parallels the way many mentally ill people are trapped in exploitative situations due to their illness.
One way to see the contrast between these two systems of oppression is the tragicomical scene where Finn stumbles into Niima Outpost straight out of the desert, begging for water. Horrific as Finn’s former circumstances were, as little kindness as he had been taught to expect from the world, it didn’t occur to him that he couldn’t get a glass of water when he was parched. The First Order had no reason to dehydrate or starve their soldiers, after all, unless the deprivation served some useful purpose such as punishment or making an example. It says something that the inhabitants of Niima did not offer the most basic resources that even an escapee from a fascist armed force took for granted.
(And no, the lack of assistance to Finn was not because Niima Outpost was located in a desert. Many desert cultures in our world developed customs of hospitality to strangers in part because their surroundings were so harsh. There is nothing about being in a desert environment that by itself makes people standoffish to strangers and unwilling to offer aid.)
And how did Rey react to this dog-eat-dog disorder where no one did a kindness for anyone else and it was everyone for themselves? She went out of her way to fight for and save a droid she didn’t even know. She gave up what was an actual feast in her hunger, and spent what was to her precious time away from Jakku where her loved ones might come looking for her. Like Finn, she acted directly against the logic of her surroundings: Finn disobeyed orders in a situation where defiance meant swift punishment, while Rey refused to go along with a brutally exploitative capitalism where only profit and survival counted for anything.
This difference shows in what I see as the definitive moments early on in the movie when these two characters show who they were. For Finn it was when he refused to shoot unarmed prisoners when ordered to do so, and for Rey it was when she refused to sell out BB-8 for her own survival and comfort.
These choices had real consequences for both characters. For Finn it meant immediate danger; for Rey it meant not just hunger pangs but also the lack of a much-needed store of food when she could never be sure when she would get her next meal, and how much of it.
Of course both political and economic oppression, when pushed, converge into violence against the weak. Although the trade for BB-8 was presented to Rey as a transaction, that supposed deal (which was already incredibly unfair–I mean, food in exchange for a fully functional military-grade astrometrics droid?) escalated to robbery once Unkar Plutt decided “no” was not an option. The same lack of governance and order that allowed him to rip the scavengers off and keep them in a soft form of indentured servitude also allowed him to rob these desperately poor people with impunity. In this way, markets without government or rules overlap with totalitarianism in deprieving the vulnerable of their choices and exposing them to violence.
(There are still significant differences, of course. For one thing Rey did not seem overly worried about retaliation, and later wanted to return to Jakku–and probably Niima Outpost, since that was where her family would know where to find her–once BB-8 was safe. This is in contrast to Finn, who knew his life was forfeit if the First Order caught up with him. Of course, Rey could be so confident because Unkar Plutt can’t bring to bear much more force than a few goons she can dispatch easily. For people without her fighting skills, or for those faced with a more dangerous opponent, the situation could be very different.)
Though originally Finn and Rey started with simple refusals to go along, they both had to escalate to more overt defiance because of the pushback their actions got. Finn’s refusal to kill led to the threat of discipline and his choice to escape with Poe; Rey’s refusal of Unkar Plutt’s offer led to his attempt to kidnap BB-8 and her choice to fight back. After these acts of defiance, Finn’s and Rey’s paths converged on helping the Resistance and carrying on Poe’s mission.
Both characters were, however, limited in what they were willing to do because of their personal traumas, which were rooted in the different ways they had been hurt by their upbringing. Finn was very reasonably terrified of the First Order’s willingness and ability to annihilate whatever stood in its way, while Rey feared being abandoned and forgotten all her life. It’s true that her original trauma came from being left on Jakku, but it says something about her isolation at Niima Outpost that no one helped a child who was hurting and alone. Her surroundings were as hostile to a girl starving in body and soul as they were to a man desperate for a sip of water. Both violence and alienation left deep marks on our two leads’ spirits.
As I will discuss in a later essay, the core story of The Force Awakens is the story of how Rey and Finn helped each other heal so they could fight back against the forces that had hurt them. Their acts of courage and decency, though personal at the start, were ultimately acts of resistance that would bring down the political and economic orders that had tried and failed to crush them.
And though the tyrannical First Order is the more visible and immediate enemy, it’s important to remember from Rey’s story how unjust and damaging unchecked markets can be. The fight is not only about bringing down fascism but what comes after: unless the Resistance and their allies can establish communities based not only on political and economic freedom but also mutual aid and justice, they may find themselves fighting the same fight again much as their legendary heroes are.
(This essay was originally posted to Tumblr on January 26, 2017.)
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Rogan: Yeah, that's the one! I figured you must have seen it by now, but you never know!
Mori: It's like the converse of "how many ways can you polish up a turd": "how can you analyze a vaccuum?"
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so glad I uploaded this icon
I mean, jeez, I've seen a couple really awful people on the Internet whose opinions and politics I find absolutely intolerable, but who I also find physically attractive. And I even kinda caught myself going, "maybe he isn't so bad," and I was like, "What, no, that's stupid, he's a WHITE NATIONALIST, he sees me as a deviant bringing down the white race. Admire the scenery, from a safe distance!"
(Though the FO stuff is er. Relevant to cultstuff. I am really perplexed as to Hux's popularity. I mean, I know why, but why.)
--Rogan
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Just figured you'd be pleased to know your blog posts are inspiring him in arguments about economics.
--Mori
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One of the things that drive me crazy about economics discussions is the way people think free-market economic assumptions are universal. Like you know the game where one person splits an amount of money and the other person decides whether to accept it or not? If the second person refuses neither person gets anything. It's been used often in behavioral economics to show that people pursue fairness even at the expense of profit, for instance standard economics say you "should" accept even if I say I get $9.99 out of $10 and you get $.01, since that's still 1 cent more than you would get if you refused. Of course people often respond by insisting on some kind of fairness.
Well not only that, but it's been shown that even insisting on a half-half split or close to it is very culturally contingent behavior. Depending on the culture I might say, "You keep the whole 10 dollars!" and you might say, "Oh no, I could never!" And I totally understand that response too, because wealth display/generosity is a big part of many cultures and I might want to show how rich and generous I am while you might not want to be in debt to me, and also show that you can afford to say no to $10. If only more people living in hegemonic cultures could see that their worldview is not shared by everyone.
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Oh, it's called What Money Can't Buy and it's about the moral limits of markets.
And yeah, that shit is complicated! Money is super psychologically loaded! Some folks, they can make giving you a million bucks the scummiest feeling on Earth. There're hooks. And this book, it's kinda discussing the limits of market psychology.
--Mori
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My general policy is anything that inspires that level of conversation is worth reading.
--Mori
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You make good points. Did Last jedi impact your interpretations on this subject?
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I think TLJ tried to carry on this kind of social commentary, except in a really hammy and heavy-handed way that got people to dislike the messenger (Rose). It's hard to get much of anything out of Canto Bight other than I guess arms smuggling and war profiteering are wrong... but so is getting angry enough to smash up a town? I mean it's okay until Rose does it, but the moment Finn agrees with her that's hateful? Something something. It was pretty confusing.
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It's not the war profiteers who are going to fix the smashed townI'd be curious to hear more of your thoughts about Rose?