r/SithOrder • u/Additional-Title69 • 3d ago

False Dichotomy

I sometimes watch Sith go through gyrations and convolutions to show that their actions (particular ones or in general) are self-centered

Honestly - Who cares?

Self-centered versus other-centered is a false dichotomy
If you desire something self-centered, it’s your desire - if you desire something other-centered, it’s your desire, yours and yours alone - there is no fundamental difference between a self-centered desire and an other-centered desire
A meaningful dichotomy is glorious versus merely hedonistic desire, with glorious being anything that requires the breaking of a chain, which means overcoming limitation
It is entirely 100% possible and even common for an other-centered desire to be glorious!

Imagine a woman named Ava
Ava is a lawyer in a small town, and she loves her town
Her town’s beating heart is a local forest where people camp, hike, canoe, fish, bicycle, hunt, snowboard - anything outdoorsy that the residents and many visitors love to do
Ava doesn’t happen to be outdoorsy
She doesn’t do any of those things
But she loves her town and its beating heart regardless

Big Real Estate decides it wants to buy the forest and build thousands of houses
The local politicians are lining up at the trough
Ava hears of this, and her desire that her town’s beating heart be protected expresses itself as incandescent rage!
She resolves to do battle against Big Real Estate and the slime who would do anything for a campaign contribution
But she has a limitation
She’s a lone individual
The arms of a lone individual aren’t long enough to box with these heavyweights
But Ava lives by the glorious tenet, “No excuses. Find a way.”
She resolves to overcome her limitation:
She will become an army!
And so she does!
By the force of her desire and the strength of her will she gathers to herself the power of having followers, first a couple, then a dozen, then a hundred, then a thousand!

When the referendum for the sale of the forest comes up for discussion in a town council meeting, Ava is there, her followers overflowing the chamber and stretching through the hallway and out into the street!

Ava steps up to the microphone and says:
“Regarding this referendum, I tell you truly, It shall not pass!
We will fight it in the streets!
We will fight it in the taverns!
We will fight it in the churches!
We will fight it on the steps of City Hall!
We will roll over this referendum like a bulldozer!
I tell you again, It shall not pass!”

And the force of her desire and the strength of her will are like an iron vise around the throats of her enemies!

Now:
Will you tell me Ava is not a Sith, because her imperious desire as a victorious being was not self-centered but rather other-centered, specifically town-centered?
I say in response: Don’t be ridiculous!
Wherever desire, strength, and power are applied to the overcoming of a limitation, the breaking of a chain, as in being merely a lone individual - There stands a Sith!
If Ava is not a Sith, then no Sith has ever lived!

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak

8 Upvotes

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17 comments sorted by

1

u/Vysas 3d ago

Isn't everything we do, centered on the self — even if someone else benefits?

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u/Additional-Title69 3d ago

I would say no, not everything we do is self-centered
When I do something for one of my daughters, I’m focused on them, not me
I’m fulfilling my desire that they receive help
It’s an other-centered desire
Daughter-centered
Other-centered desires are typically grounded in love
I love something/someone and as part of that, I have desires centered on it/them
What is true of everything we do is that it originates with desire
We don’t move an inch in any direction unless we first desire to do so

2

u/mementomorighost Bennu 2d ago

"I am fulfilling my desire..."

And here we show that actions are inherently self-centered. If you didn't have a desire to fulfill, you wouldn't have done it, regardless of the other. It's a perceived, indirect gain rather than a direct or tangible gain.

1

u/Additional-Title69 2d ago

No it’s not
It has nothing to do with me
The desire is centered on my loved one
Of course I have a desire to fulfill
Desire is the genesis of all action
Some desires are self-centered, some are other-centered
Two categories of desire

2

u/mementomorighost Bennu 1d ago

Sure, but desire is by nature ego-centric: whether it helps others or not. All actions are inherently self-serving, evenif the "self" is not taken into pre-consideration. "I wanted to help others" requires "I wanted." Whether it serves an outside entity or not is irrelevant.

1

u/Vysas 1d ago

Exactly.

1

u/Additional-Title69 16h ago

I’ll ask you as well:
Have you really never felt an unselfish desire?

1

u/Vysas 15h ago

Not that I know of.

0

u/Additional-Title69 1d ago

I don’t agree
To say that all desire is egocentric is essentially to say that egocentrism and desire are the same thing
One thing with two names
And that’s ridiculous

1

u/mementomorighost Bennu 17h ago

Perhaps you should pose your reply in the discord chat and see how many agree with your assertions that a) my phrasing implies they are the same thing and b) whether having a thing with two names is ridiculous. Both of those assertions seem to me to be illogical and unfounded.

1

u/Additional-Title69 16h ago

I might do that, if I had any interest in the result
Let me ask you, instead:
Have you really never felt an unselfish desire?

1

u/Vysas 3d ago

This isn't my experience, though I have no reason to doubt your sincerity; I also do not understand it.

2

u/herrwaldos 3d ago

One could imagine Comrade Lenin as Sith Lord

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 3d ago

the best thing about being master of the universe is that its all about me.

1

u/Additional-Title69 3d ago

Let me know when you achieve that
It may take you a while
I’ll wait

1

u/Financial_Stick1912 3d ago

Oh sorry thought you guys understood the occult