A Geek History of Time - Episode 265 - Book of Boba Fett as Libertarian Fantasy with Gabriel Gipe Part I

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Okay, so there's there there are two possibilities going on here. One you're bringing up a term that I have never heard before. The other possibility is that this is a term I've heard before but it involves a language that uses pronunciation That's different from Latin it and so you have no idea how to say it properly an intensely 80s post-apocalyptic Schlock film and schlong film, you know, it's been over 20 years, but spoilers Okay, so so the resident Catholic thinking about that, we're going for low earth orbit. There is no rational theory. Blame it on me after.

And you know I will. They mean it is two o'clock in the fucking morning. Where I am. I don't think you can get very much more homosexual panic than that. No, which I don't know if that's better. I mean, you guys are Catholics, you tell me. I'm just kind of excited that like you and producer George will have something to talk about

That basically just means that I can show up and get fed I'm going to go to the bathroom. This is a Geek History of Time. Where we connect nerdery to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock. I'm a world history and English teacher here in Northern California. And last night was our monthly Pathfinder game for my wife and now my son and a group of our friends. And we have a very interesting group. We have a bunch of folks who are parents or parent aged. And then we have two youngsters. We have one, my son, and then another child who is the child of two of the other adult players. And she is playing a halfling gunslinger who who is the biggest murder hobo in our party, and actually really the only murder hobo in our party.

And at one point we were trying to come up with a plan for trying to attack a stronghold. And she said something about, well, we'll just go with the usual. I say we just go with my usual plan, which is gun violence. And somebody else's response was, well, your plan is always gun violence. To which one of the, not one of her parents, but one of the other, one of the other players said, well, no, in her defense. It's not always gun violence. Sometimes it's arson

And I was like, you know that is one of the most defining kind of quotes you can talk about about Tabletop role-playing games and like the Indian Pathfinder in particular like it's not always gun violence. Sometimes it's arson So yeah, that is now getting different in my head for a while. I'm not a sociopath, I'm a psychopath. I'm a psychopath, there's a big difference. Do your research. How about you? Well, I'm Damien Harmony.

I am a US history teacher at the high school level up here in Northern California. And I actually found a new gaming store in Northern California. I strongly recommend people go to 9-8 Comics and Games in West Sacramento. They just opened in November. They seem to be decent folk. They're owned by a quartet of nerds.

They have old Some pathfinder stuff. They have old uh ad and d stuff Um as well as a fair amount of collectible, uh card games Um, and a small collection of miniatures and and things like that getting their feet under them Um, they were over in the arden arcade area and now they're over here. So, nine eight comics and games. So that's what I found this week and my daughter and I checked it out. Yeah, so. And I'm hearing another voice. So, and it's saying, kill the un... No, no, I'm sorry. Kill John Lennon. That's right. That'll impress Jodie Foster. Um, I think I just mixed things up. Yes, you kind of did there

Uh, please everybody, please welcome back to the show. Uh, mr. Gabe geip Thank you. Thank you Uh, how you doing, sir? I'm doing pretty good. Um excited to be back and um last night actually I I had messaged Damien to confirm that we were recording tonight because, uh, it was the drummer in my band's birthday and I met my multiverse variant at, at this birthday party. Um, it was, it was wild. Like this, uh, you know, we had, there was just so much, like we had graduated high school one year apart, which was just like the beginning of the conversation.

Then we found out, you know, that we both had, uh, moms who were Mexican, grew up in Mexico, didn't teach us Spanish. Um, he grew up Mormon. I grew up Jehovah's witness. So we both, you know, annoyed people on the weekend by knocking on their door, asking if they wanted to talk about Jesus. Sure.

And then, you know, I'm the youngest of four siblings. I have three older sisters. He was one of three boys. The youngest was a girl. We both like left our respective religions right around the same time. We both moved to the same area. Like it was wild.

Like the more that we talked, it was just like, you're me. Like, wait a second. Yeah, it was- You have a son named Bobby Watson? Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

So it was, you know, I don't know if anyone's ever seen the movie, The One with Jet Li. Oh yeah. Great, great film, great film, you know? And we did not have the same name, I don't know if anyone's ever seen the movie The One with Jet Li. Oh yeah. Yeah. Great film. Great film. You know, and we did not have the same name, but you know how he's just got to keep, he got to keep killing his variants so that he gets more power.

I was like, are we going to have to, is this like a Highlander situation? Can we just hang out until that time? Right. Yeah. We enjoy each other being cool before go ahead Yeah Or maybe there's some other variant of us that's actually killing all of them and and we can we will notice by our powers Increasing and then we're like wait a second someone's coming after us now. Let's go. Yeah Yeah, if you start developing any any superhuman attributes, you better you better watch out. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah

No, I have no way to transition from that. So last time we got to talk about oh I do really cool Oh good. I have a good transition. So also at this bar Someone who is not part of the birthday party was in the area that we were and kind of heard some of our conversations and jumped in and kind of interjected themselves into the conversation by stating, well, I'm the biggest libertarian. I was going to say, did they start by saying, you know, if you take a right turn at finance, but a left turn at social stuff, that's is. That's the golden mean there,

because I hate the poor, but I love pot. When you separate politics and the economy, you end up with fascism. Wait. I think corporations should get to do what they want, but not the workers. Right. No, you have the right to go work for anybody you want to. Yeah.

Wouldn't you want to bargain a better deal on your own with your own exceptionalism? Yes. Yes. Yeah. That's how it works with the powerful. How about no? Look, last time we got to talk about Andor, which was amazing. And then we also got to talk about the Mandalorian, which was, let's be real,

less amazing. But now we're just going to scrape the bottom of that sarlacc pit. We're just going to just bump into the cervix of the sarlacc. And it's like a sphincter. Yeah.er. Yeah Yeah, um We're gonna talk about how book the book of Boba Fett is libertarian fantasy fulfillment that would have hit better in the early 2000s Okay

Nice that's what we're doing tonight. I didn't know that you actually wrote my epitaph. Yeah Mine is just here lies Damien. I told you I was sick But I like yours better In this essay. Oh, there it is here lies in this essay. I will dot dot dot. Yeah Or in this lifetime, I did, dot dot dot. There you go, there you go. So, all right, so in the broadest brushstrokes that I can, Boba Fett used force to drive out the corrupt Daimyo and other corrupt businesses on Mossespa, forcing the ones who stayed to answer

to the needs of the people and then interfering very little beyond that. Further, Boba Fett also used force to get rid of the crime families in the area, employed local gangs of youths while fighting for land return to an indigenous group. Okay. I'm going to argue that some of that stuff is kind of distributist sounding. Sure, sure. I would even say some of that is giving the land back to the people. Yeah. There's some land acknowledgment shit going on there. There's there's empowering the youth. We're job job creation.

I'm creating a job creator. They're getting rid of. But also he's getting rid of the corporatists who've been in charge in many ways, getting other people to start little mini revolutions, little Maoist. You could say, yeah, yeah. Um, OK. Okay, alright. He is everything that libertarians see themselves as.

Okay. He presents himself as a cool, self-contained, and self-sufficient, semi-benevolent, loyalty-earning, badass feudal lord. Yeah. Yeah. He keeps order. He imposes his I know better morality through the strength of force or at least its threat. And he's the marshal who makes his own rules.

He even tells his top confidant early on, master assassin Fennec Shand, he says, Jabba ruled with fear. I intend to rule with respect. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's also fatter than he was. Yes, yeah.

Well, you know, I mean, age does that like. Yeah, I mean, you eat good in the Sarlacc, you know, you get all. Yeah, good eating. Just. You're the hors d'oeuvres. Yeah. So. Can. Good eatin'. You're the hors d'oeuvres. I had to do some digging into this because it's been a while since I've studied libertarian, I will call it philosophy in the same way that fascism is philosophy. It is a self-contained system with its own internal logic structure, and there are several people who have advanced themes of it within and branching off from it.

There is a guy named Dean Russell who said that, quote, many of us call ourselves liberals, and it is true that the word liberal once described persons who respected the individual and feared the use of mass compulsions. But the leftists have now corrupted that once proud term to identify themselves and their program of more government ownership of property and more controls over persons. As a result, those of us who believe in freedom must explain that when we call ourselves liberals, we mean liberals in the uncorrupted classical sense. At best, this is awkward and subject to misunderstanding.

Here is a suggestion. Let those of us who love liberty trademark and reserve for our own use the good and honorable word libertarian. Man, the anarchists are really upset about that. It's honestly it feels like like somebody going like, you know, blondie invented rap, like that's what it feels like. Wait, did he? Well, and and and here's the thing, the underlying white supremacy of all of this would lead these guys to want to claim

that blondie invented rap. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And also just like, you know, just diving into this quote. Yeah. And the many things that I take on bridge with,

but like liberals are not leftists, right? You know, and there were already a group of people that were using the term libertarian. It's like he thought that he came up with this and was like, but, wait a second. It's did Silicon Valley reinvent the trolley kind of thing? Yeah, he Columbus the term libertarian. Yes.

It's like, I found this word. No one was here There's there's there's a whole group of people Standing literally around the word right you had to kill them to get to it, right? Staring at you like who the fuck are you? Why are you killing us? Yeah, I just gave them a pox filled blanket. It's fine. Yeah, it's OK. Yeah. So by the way, I mean, I love the use of Columbus's name as a verb in that context.

Yes. Oh, yes. Yeah, I discovered that myself, actually. But it feels like in the movie, the big hit where he's got the Trace Buster Buster, you know, like I Columbus Columbusing Yeah, you can't triple-stamp a double stamp you can't I mean, it's like if Ben Shapiro accidentally found his wife's clit like, you know, he'd claim all the credit for it He'd be like, oh, yeah. Oh, I found this man in a little canoe. And he touched it just the right way. He would find it and just immediately move on.

He'd be like, what's that? Not important. Right, right. My tongue doesn't care about your feelings. I want to fuck your feelings. Okay, so Boba Fett, now I kind of want to create a villain who is just an obnoxious twit. And just have him be the BBEG for no good reason. Like have all these high level lieutenants who are just following him for no good reason.

Yeah, his dragons are all way, actually way more powerful and competent than he is. But they all they all think he's the smartest guy in the room. Right. So you get to him at the end. You have no hit points. You have no spell slots. You got nothing. And he's just that's how he wins.

Right. But like but then you beat him because all you do is you just go up to him and bloody his nose and he runs away crying. You know? Yeah. Yeah. So. He just stands there looking for college kids to debate because he can't actually debate, you know, adults. He's sitting there with a sign that he took from the other guy who's like two keeps over saying, you know, debate me, you know? Yeah.

Oh, oh, so you're resorting to violence. That's all you need. Change my mind. It's like, yes, we, so you're resorting to violence. That's all you have in my mind It's like yes, we're drowning you now. This is this is an entire game and mill you based on the idea of Extrajudicial justice right? So yes, we are killing you now. Oh so much for the tolerant left, you know Yeah, have you guys have you guys done an episode where we were able to you know break break down? Steven Crowder and Ben Shapiro into some sort of you know pop culture characters and and make the relevant connections We have not done that but we kind of need to now don't yeah

I think so I think so bitch. I mean we did the houses back when Turfs weren'tFing so hard, we did the houses for different superheroes. Oh boy, that's gonna suck. Thanks for that. It's really gonna be painful, but you kind of have to do it now, yeah. All right, so Boba Fett is reacting

to the New Republic's inability to dispense and protect justice in the frontiers of Star Wars on Tatooine by imposing his own. Tatoin has a history of slavery, it has a history of gangsterism, it has a history of lawlessness that is then made orderly by brutality and never really by any governmental force worth a damn. The only governmental force that there is a corrupt. And Boba Fett is just now knocking that over and setting himself up. And he is looking at what the new republic doesn't take care of and he is taking care

of it. Again, this is libertarian wish fulfillment. I am bringing chaos out of chaos and I'm bringing it into order. I through my strength and my virility am imposing my own order for the good of everyone else. And if everyone else acted the same way, well, it's a good thing I've got my armor and I'm the strongest. But like he is looking at the failures of a government of the new Republic at the time that this is done, because this is after the Empire has fallen. Yeah. And he is imposing his own justice on Star Wars or on the frontiers and in many ways the people are very grateful for this, right? Because he's the only one that can, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah. So one question I've got though. Sure. In the book of Boba Fett. Uh-huh. I don't remember

any kind of an explicit call-out to The inability or unwillingness of the New Republic to do those things on Tatooine That that there are several. Okay, so there there are several governmental figures in Tatooine Who are corrupt is all shit. The mayor of Mossaspa. And there's the Hutt Consortium or the Hutt Cabal. And there is a small thing about we're out here on the frontiers and no one cares about us. It's not said by him, but it's said by characters in the towns and stuff like that. And you don't see New Republic folk coming out there.

Although you do see them in Mandalorian, right? But they're police cops. Yeah. What I was going to say there was you see the Rangers essentially for the New Republic, you know, trying to to do that, but being hampered by, you you know disinterest and just there's so much shit we've got to deal with this this is not high enough on the priority list well not only that they are literally they're literally just handing out speeding tickets right yeah I mean they're chasing Nando around a few times. That's about it. Yeah. Yeah And I find it interesting that

We we kind of we kind of hear that but historically within the universe As you say Tatooine has been the way it is before the Empire into the old Republic. And so what I think is interesting about that is the environment in which Boba Fett is able to fulfill this wish fulfillment role is one that has never actually been under the auspices of a federal government? Right. Yeah. I mean it is the Wild West. I mean this okay So yeah, if we look at Mandalorian as a wandering Western as we should

Boba Fett is a martial Western To the Bounties on the town. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so Western. Mm hmm. To the bounties on the town. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So government doesn't get out here. We have to make our own. We take care of our own. We have our own brand of justice. You don't understand. Oh, here's a guy who hung out with the natives. You know, right.

Okay. So that brings me to Murray Rothbard. He is one of the founders of the Cato Institute. So Joe and he's the codifier of the phrase taxation is theft. And he actually later would break with Charles Koch and the rest of the Cato Institute in order to found the Mises Institute. So just think of the guy who breaks from Charles Koch

and he believed. Well, okay. Um, so I try not to like the guy, but okay. He could be breaking from, from Koch because like, okay, no, you're, you're bug nuts, but the other possibility, and I think this is more likely is he, he broke with, with Koch because Koch was not bug nuts enough. Is he broke with with coke because coke was not bug nuts enough. It's more that he was in search of Coke was too much of a pragmatist on some levels for him. He was much more into theory

And so honestly, I've got some respect for that though because at least that's consistent and you can you can can point to it and be like, this is where you're stupid. You're not going to lie as much. This is what you suck. Yeah. So an interesting side note about our friend Murray. So the peace and freedom party, I don't know how familiar you are with them. They are one of the six parties on the California ballot. They came into existence in the 1960s, specifically to run Bobby Seals campaign,

Black Panther founding member. I think it was in there, there was a Murray sect of libertarians that tried to take over the Peace and Freedom Party and make it a libertarian like bastion. And they lost out, you know, obviously the socialist still control the peace and freedom party. But I just think that that's an interesting. Yeah.

The attempt itself, it was intriguing. Like why, like why would you say? Yes. When they're there, like there already was a libertarian party when they tried to do that. Was there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So I think that's interesting. I think that's interesting. I think that's interesting. I think that's interesting. Yes, when they're there like they're already was a libertarian party when they tried to do that Yeah, yeah Okay, well because and here's here's where horseshoe theorists Come um is is that you know very often, you know libertarians are for peace and freedom. Mm-hmm, right? Okay, yeah, I guess. But at the expense of justice. Well, there's that. Or tending to marginalized communities,

and again, justice. Right, yeah. Compassion, human kindness. Yeah, yeah. Empathy. Yeah. No, they're Lindberg libertarians. They're Lindbergtarians. Yeah, yeah. They're Limburg libertarians. Yeah.

They're Limburg-tarians. Just slightly fewer Roman salutes. Right. Just slightly fewer. And one fewer French family. There you go.

Anyway, so Murray Rothbard, he believed that libertarians should adopt any moral tactic available to them to bring about liberty. So not power, but liberty, and that's what he says. And so Boba Fett, seen in this lens, is a moral authoritarian. And if you look at how he collects his tribute, you could see Rothbard's influence on how he conducts his business as Daimio. So he comes in, doesn't ask for tribute, walks around, lets people know I'm in charge. Here's my helmet since you asked for it, and it comes back with gold.

Okay. Yeah. Ferdinand LaSalle, Okay. Yeah. Ferdinand LaSalle, originally Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb LaSalle, a mid-1800s Prussian German philosopher, agitator, and jurist, changed his name to distance himself from his Jewish roots. He was critical of libertarianism because he thought that libertarianism would lead to a night watchman state, a minarchy. And I think this is the wish fulfillment of Book of Boba Fett. Lassalle died before Germany became a country. He was a huge fan of Hegel and his concept of sublation, where epistemology and ontology would allow meanings to gather force and meaning as they roll along. If you just think of ideas like Plato with different colors you just roll the ball over them you could still see the different colors but good luck separating them back out. And so LaSalle was a devoted

socialist very early on and he was involved in the 1848 revolutions. As a result he served time in Prussia for enticing people to fight against Prussia. And technically he was inciting resistance against public officials. So there's some stuff we're pulling on here. Anyway, he didn't get to, as part of the aftermath of his sentence. Marx criticized him saying he was like basically Diet Hegel. These are my words, of course, not Mark's. Through LaSalle's life, the two exchange correspondences, actually, he and Marx did.

But Marx basically turned to Engels and just ran him down. Now, here's where we have to reckon a little bit with Marx, because the way that Marx ran him down was he called him the Jewish N-word. So it turns out Jewish philosophers, or philosophers of Jewish background background could still be hella racist and shitty. Yep.

So this is why you shouldn't have heroes. But he retired from this agitation, okay, LaSalle did, until 1862 when he saw a constitutional crisis in Prussia and then he started giving speeches analyzing the crises that came about due to Wilhelm I's kingship. La Salle stated that constitutional matters are simply reduced to questions of power, which okay. This pisses off the liberals who wanted the rule of law, not an acknowledgement that power was the ultimate goal of both sides. And then he gave the speech a lot

of times to piss them off even more. So there are things about him that I find attractive. And then he printed a pamphlet that essentially assigned moral primacy in society to the working class over the bourgeoisie. And because he did this, he was seen as dangerous enough by the Prussian government officials to have him arrested and tried for, quote, endangering the public peace. Now in this trial, after 1862, he defends himself. He gets four months in jail. And when he gets out, Sal agitates for a working-class party. The last few years of his life, he spends agitating really hard for this, arguing that

the working class has nothing to gain from the Liberal Party. Okay. Okay. Dudes got chops. He declared that he was in a state of war with the Liberal Party and with newspapers and he went on a speaking tour that even saw him line up briefly with Otto von Bismarck himself because he and Bismarck both hated liberals so hard. Wow.

Yeah. Of course, Bismarck did it because he's a reactionary. But here's the thing. Here's the thing that I find funny is that history always rhymes. How many times have you, Gabe, I'm going to point to you being the most left of us three, how many times have you been criticizing liberals and being like, oh, this fucking liberals, this fucking liberals that, and then somebody else is like, yeah, yeah. And then you're like, we're not doing this. Right.

Yeah. There was a couple of years ago, there was this great shirt that popped up online that was like, I left college without becoming a liberal. And I was like a Marxist and a Republican reach for it at the same time. Is it love? No. It's going to be hate fucking. Right. It's going to be the Republican being a white power bottom. So like we agree on this one point, but we are not right. So, you know, it's like we're it's that whole we are not the same thing. Yes

Yep. Yeah, so you hate Joe Biden because you think he's a communist. I hate Joe Biden because I am a communist We're not the same So LaSalle died in a fucking duel. Oh And You gotta go that's an interesting way to solve a question of honor. Oh, and it was a duel with a guy that his girlfriend decided to marry because her father hated LaSalle. Wow. Died giving her father what he wanted. That sucks. We can all be so lucky, right?

So though, okay, I have to ask because I'm this kind of nerd. This is 18 what? 65, 66 I want to say. It's shortly after he does the pamphlet and does the... Okay. So it's... It's before 1870, right? Okay. It's before Germany becomes a country

Okay, and but it but I assume Based on that that it's that it's pistols not like small swords or yeah. Yeah, okay Um, I forgot to look into how long he lived after the shot. But yeah Yeah, my best explanation for the Sal to be honest is that he was a localist He did not see a worldwide anything that was needed He saw German and Prussian socialism as being enough Mm-hmm, and maybe he was kind of a proto Fabian in that, you know, because the Fabians were like let's just get on municipal boards And then we'll slowly move toward socialism like maybe he was kind of a proto of that, but I think he was taken in enough with nationalism

as many people in Central Europe were in the 1800s. And I think he was taken enough with that and still was able to apply socialist ideology to it, but he was a localist. Make his corner good and that is enough. And there's room in my world for people that have like, I remember being a temp at a bank and I would have to sit in on all their stupid fucking meetings and they would share with me like their mission statement. And I was like, my mission statement is that I'm stealing your Manila folders on your break.

I'm here for supplies. I want Post-its and a paycheck. I don't give a shit. But they had us in this one meeting. So they gathered the entire, and it was the government reporting department, by the way. So if you ever deposit more than $10,000, you gotta fill out paperwork. That paperwork came to us. And we would highlight and we'd call the bank

and we'd check with the bankers and all kinds of shit and we'd track things down. And it's to keep people from RICO stuff and it's keeping people from- Yeah, prevent money laundering, that kind of thing. So I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have. I think it's a good thing to have. But they would have these meetings

where they would pull all of us in. And that meant like you were literally pulling a department of 12 people. That's 12 man hours for that hour of a meeting. Yeah. And one of the meetings was, and this will tie back to them, one of the meetings was the head of the department told us this story about the bishop was walking by, and it was really hard for me to not ask if he was walking diagonally, but the bishop was walking by and they were building a cathedral, and he asked one worker, what are you doing? And the worker said, oh, I'm laying the mortar, and then I'm laying the bricks. And she goes, the bishop goes to the other guy and says, what are you doing? And

he says, oh, I've got this good job and I'm paying for my kids and we're fed and now we've got a better house. And she goes to the, the bishop goes to the third guy and says, what are you doing? And he says, I'm building a cathedral. And she stood there like a wet fart in a church, like expecting us to be like, oh, I wanna be that guy.

And I, even then, I was a temp, lowest man on the totem pole, easily replaceable, couldn't keep my fucking mouth shut. And I said, don't you need people who are focused on the actual building of the thing? And isn't that enough? And don't you want people who recognize that they need to feed their families so they're going to keep coming to work? And it's good to have people with vision. But do you really need visionaries at every level?

Yeah, I do. Yeah. So yeah, thank you. Like like from from the depths of every every version of me that was in a temp job at any point in my life and had to sit through that shit Because they always do that Thank you. Yeah, like So I earned my 9.25 an hour that day which the temp agency was getting 13 an hour

Well, yeah, I mean, yeah but anyway, so like that that that same vibe is what I see with when I look at how the Sal looked at worldwide revolution He was looking at the brick and the mortar Sure, okay, that's all he needed. You know, and it's like, okay, I I get that You know you can stand on the bricks that he built or you could use one of those bricks to smash a stormtrooper in The head as Marva showed us You know

And to make a Maoist point off of that. I think that You know Mao wasn't the first to kind of develop this understanding But I think he wrote extensively on it in his pamphlet which is called on contradiction is is understanding that at any given moment a addiction is, is understanding that at any given moment, a specific conflict might supersede the vision that you have. Right. Like in, in the context that when he wrote it, it was, we are battling Japanese imperialism, right?

That is our primary conflict. So our art on our road to build towards a socialist revolution, we are gonna have to work. Yeah, exactly, we have to work with all sorts of unsavory folks that might not be, you know, aligning with our vision, but we have this. Right, exactly, we have this task at hand that we need to deal with first, and then we can figure out all those other things afterwards.

Right, because we need to protect China from Japan. Right. And it's not that he's a nationalist, it's that Japan was an imperialist influence. Exactly. Yeah. Or influence, invader. And he's like, we got to drive them out first.

And then we can talk. Yeah. Right. So John Fabro, I think he used a different model for Fett in philosophy than LaSalle, but I also think he fell over the LaSallean model because the thing that LaSalle was criticizing became the goal. Fett became a reluctant and aspirational crime boss. Okay.

Favreau said, quote, you think about Don Corleone, there's a tremendous amount of restraint because he knows that to be sustainable, there has to be peace. You don't do well unless there's some political balance because if you keep going to the mattresses, nobody's earning. If you think back to Vito Corleone, he rejected the drug trade and resisted calls to do murder. He had principles. Now this is me saying, this is not Favreau. Favreau stopped with thinking about Don Corleone. Stability and safety were much more important

to the elder crime boss at that point in his life. And then Favreau says, you think about what things are off limits. Don Corleone wasn't just doing everything to line his pockets as he got later into his career. He says, quote, you look at De Niro in the flashbacks in The Godfather Part II as he's walking down the streets. He's seen as somebody who's actually creating someone the people respect because of the way he conducts himself. There's a lot of different ways to run an empire.

There's the Sonny Corleone way. There's the Michael Corleone way. And then there's the the sunny Corleone way, there's the Michael Corleone way, and then there's the Vito Corleone way. So I think that Favreau falls over this idea of minarchy without realizing what he's doing. Very similar to, you might remember when we did the Petrarcho Meomachia episode about Thor, the author of that three-part series, and Gabe, feel free to rewind back to that one episode. It's a lot of fun. It's the time that Thor turned into a frog.

I remembered the comic well. Yeah, okay, so that comic was not based on the Homerian epic poem that was the battle between the mice and the frogs, even though it's exactly like it. Yeah. Beat for beat.

That author had never read it. He had never... So there's something called the Petrarcho Meomachia. The Trojan War, but told as mice and frogs in one day instead of 10 years. The gods actually get involved. There's all kinds of fun. The names are delicious, it's great. And it's literally the Trojan War, but mice and frogs.

It's a 300 something line poem, epic poem, whereas the Iliad is, I think, 9,500 lines. Yeah, I was gonna say it's something like 10,000. Yeah. So it's meant to be a bit of a take down. A lot of people actually ascribe it to Virgil, you know, taking the piss out of his own story kind of thing, or just like, you know, playing with form. But the author who wrote that three part series of Thor in Central Park as a frog had never heard of it. He was writing from the perspective of somebody who had seen a bunch

of mice getting exterminated and driven into the marshes out of Central Park. And he's like, Oh, I wonder what that's going to do. So you get this like accidental, like, you know how everything accidentally turns into crabs eventually? Yeah. It's the same kind of thing. You get this accidental thing. And I think John Favreau, I don't think he ever read up on a minarchy or anything like that there, but he accidentally happens upon it. So maybe not Columbus thing but You know sandwich islanding

No, oh Damn it Millie a sing Millie a sing John Milius. Yeah Okay, Milius fell over backwards into making Conan a brilliant movie. Yeah. So he fell over backwards into this concept. Despite himself. Despite himself, yes.

But if you look at the fact that people in charge exist only as an enforcer of basic non-aggression principles By providing citizens. The NAP? Yeah. of basic non-aggression principles by providing citizens with military, the police, and courts. All of these are found in the body of Boba Fett. His dimuoship is all of those things. Fett then protects everyone mutually from aggression, theft, breach of contract, and fraud. And then he allows them to live freely without much in the way of taxation or tribute beyond what's necessary to keep him patrolling streets and thus keep everybody making money.

And he's dutiful and he's gruff and everyone listens to him because he's just so tough. And that accidental rhyme, but that is the minarchy. That is the the night watching state that LaSalle was critical of, but I think Farrow fell in love with without even realizing without even realizing it. What I what I yeah, listening to that, what I find interesting is what that winds up. You know, you talk about everything in terms of the crabs in the end. Okay, I mean, I understand the the Philosophical underpinnings, the logical arguments behind this idea of men are key are very different. But what that looks like to me is feudalism. But what that looks like to me is feudalism. It is.

Because all of those functions are being fulfilled by one individual who's enforcing all of it at the point of a sword or the barrel of a gun. And you pay the tithe. So yeah, I mean, this is what it always comes always comes for me what it always comes down to anytime I wind up, you know Forgetting myself and getting sucked into a debate with it with a libertarian What I was want to look at him is like you're a goddamn feudalist like you you don't you don't understand This is that wish fulfillment Feudalism all this is is fucking feudalism. Yeah

Like but with like less rights for poor people right yeah more freedom to not have water yeah yeah and well you know there's no serfdom involved in this feudalism doesn't require serfdom asshole right Right. Right. It's like, well, it's not slavery. It's it's it's, you know, work labor, voluntary, right? Yeah. Like, okay. It's like, yeah, that's that's great. They'll make people you've incarcerated into firefighters. Yeah. For the greater good. You have an incarceral state. You literally are getting paid per the body. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And it always gets me that at the same time that unlike this is feudalism guys, these same guys, because they're 90% dudes, they almost always have some know some kind of you know Spartan thing going on Like you know they idolize Sparta right like you understand Sparta was I Don't even know how to describe Sparta because like on the one hand they were a slave owning state That terrorized 85% of their own population into into subservience

But at the same time when you turned 30 the government gave you an estate Mm-hmm like you you didn't you Spartans were not like entrepreneurs They were fucking socialist, but the only ones who could get the the the share of ownership of the means of production were members of their group. They were authoritarian. I don't know. Maybe that's yeah.

Well, you know, like there's a word for that. Yeah. They're national socialists. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say authoritarian socialists. I feel like the libertarian socialists who would usually use authoritarian socialists to describe like Stalin, right?

Would probably have an issue with that. But, and I'm sure that you're probably going to touch on Anne Rand, so I don't wanna step on your toes. But I feel like there's a comparison that needs to be made with this. Bring your background if I don't in it? I only ask if we touch on an Rand we touch on an Rand forcefully with knuckles Please

Not here to kick shame So So here's the thing though, LaSalle didn't like the liberal state and FET is everything that LaSalle didn't like about the liberal state. That's hysterical. He is critical of a minarchy. He said that's the problem with a liberal state. And I think that that quote up top that I gave you by, oh shit, what's his name? Dean Russell, where he said,

we used to be liberals and now they've corrupted that. Let's claim it back. Here's what liberals really are. We're libertarians. This is that. The town of Mas Espa is a capitalist permitting form of local socialist authoritarianism, but without the charm of giving everyone the most liberty possible. It's leaving everyone alone to be fucked. Boba Fett, it really is. It's that parent who never set down rules. The cool parent.

Right. But the cool parent that that like takes your allowance. Like it's just. Well the cool parent that is cool right up until you you know push the wrong button and then you're grounded for like a month. Oh yeah yeah. And they take your allowance like you said you know. But also who sells your Xbox for meth.

Like there's just like, yeah. So it breaks up your party with a rain core, you know, like, you know, I mean, dude. Or the cool parent who gets mad that you left the dishes in the sink without rinsing them and takes a baseball bat to your TV in front of your friends. Yeah, that kind of cool parent. Right. Yeah. FET seeks to replace the leadership cast, but still keeps the socialist a baseball bat to your TV in front of your friends. That kind of cool parent, right? Yeah. Fett seeks to replace the leadership cast, but still keeps the socialist authoritarianism at the local level. And in order to be the force that guarantees everyone's liberty as

long as they all pay him tribute. So again, like you said, feudalism with socialist trappings, And like you said, feudalism with socialist trappings, but it's the authoritarianism that he really bites into. He's a very visible hand instead of the invisible hand. The invisible hand, yeah. His law is the law and that keeps everyone safe. This kind of state is largely inevitable to libertarians because libertarians claim that anarchy is too flimsy and too futile ultimately.

So this is just the natural state of things. Under anarchy, laws can be bought. Under FET, the law can be respected. And it's respected because it's the one that he imposes on everyone else because he's the most right by virtue of his might. There's your feudalism, right? And I desperately want to make this as clear as I can. He is libertarian wish fulfillment that they don't want to admit to. They want to be in charge of their

feudal state. They want a zombie apocalypse because they think they're going to run hilltop. of their feudal state. They want a zombie apocalypse because they think they're going to run hilltop. Absolutely. And again, oh, we all get along here. We all garden. We all share stuff because we choose to. And I will fuck someone up if they threaten my space. It's like that kind of thing. The Night Watchmen state that LaSalle was so critical of is precisely what Beauva Fett finds the most comfort in. His daimyo ship is a moral justification of the state because he's there to secure and defend people's individual rights by keeping the peace violently. In many ways it's an expression of what Rothbard loved. Boba Fett turned Mossespa into his own

private feudal state with each person supplying their own police force, each person supplying their own army, each person supplying their own law, or else purchasing the services from capitalist vendors, namely Boba Fett. Hence the tribute. Rothbard has no problem with amassing wealth because it allows those with more capital, Boba Fett, but also the various business owners to have greater coercive force at their disposal. You remember where he straight up tells the water vendor,

lower your prices. There's no discussion, there's no democracy, there's no city council, there's no, hey, the new policy is all prices on on these kinds of goods You know, we're gonna put a price ceiling on them. Nothing like that. Just straight up You're gonna lower your prices I'm gonna pay you the difference right now for you and you're gonna take it because otherwise the next step is you see me in my armor

It gets that kind of shit Yeah, so if you look at the series it starts oh, actually, why don't we get into your Ayn Rand thing there? Because I was going to get into the series. Oh, no, I just bringing up people who were critical of social programs and government intervention, but then took advantage of them as soon as they needed. I can't remember what it was that Ed said that made me think of that. But yes, yeah. As soon as they needed I can't remember what it was that Ed said that made me think of that but yes

Yes, yeah So the series starts with Boba Fett pulling himself out of the depths of the sarlacc by his own weapons and grit We might call those bootstraps It's almost literally except except he actually except he actually pulled it off so right well It is physically possible right it's not just Yeah, yeah it off. So it is physically possible. Right. It's not just perpetual motion. Yeah. And then when he's vulnerable and alone and exposed to the elements, he gets robbed by Star Wars desert scavengers who leave him for dead. It is a harsh world, right? And then the next group who find him are the Tusken Raiders. They are strong, they're unyielding in their lifestyle, they have power, so they rescue

him. See, people with power can do good things. This is just like Jesus was talking about with the Good Samaritan. I can hate you. Oh, much. Am I wrong? The Good Samaritan had the power to just walk away. But did he use it that way? No. No, instead, he kidnapped Shmi

Skywalker and her among the children. Yes. So now he's living with this strong and unyielding group. And rescue might be a generous term, but due to his martial prowess, Boba Fett gains the respect of the people who rescued captured him and his life is grim it fucking sucks and it's brutal and it's authentic and it's honest and

through his exceptionalism he yeah there is so much there is so much aboriginal aboriginal culture fetishization going on. Uh huh. Like, I. So much. Well, and what kills me is that like he himself is Maori. Yeah. And he infuses that character with some Maori, uh, displays. Yeah. It feels very objectifying to all of that. Yeah. I did.

Did John Fabro also not realize, or realize or he never saw dances with wolves and just like accidentally made an exact replica of that. I think, I think that's a, that's a subconscious. Yeah. Yeah. That's a subconscious thing. And I think for anybody raised in white American culture of a certain age it is really hard not to fall into that that trap that because that's because that's that's that that is the less negative set of stereotypes that we all got infused, that our brains got filled with. They're not inhuman menace, they're noble savage.

Right, right. Yeah. See, see how woke we are giving them personalities. Let me get my Kentie cloth on and take a knee. Yeah. You know, what I find interesting though, from this libertarian point of view is if you look at the at the society of

Any any aboriginal almost any aboriginal group? I shouldn't paint with that brother brush But if you look at the example of you know, the culture that we see amongst the Tuscan Raiders Hair their their culture that we see amongst the Tuscan Raiders, they're tribal socialists. Like individuals don't have, other than your gaffy stick within the tribe, you don't have property. Everything belongs to the tribe. That's like anti-libertarian.

That's collectivist. So our libertarian hero gets rescued by a bunch of collectivists. But see, there's still a tribe choosing to respect each other's privacy in that they've never seen each other's flesh. There are deep rituals around those kinds of things, and the brutality of their existence is centered. The gaffey stick is your personal property, like you said. The gaffey stick is a cudgel, it is a truncheon. It is a weapon to beat people with. And so to impose your will, the threat of violence is there.

And so their interaction with the rest of the world is a violent interaction. They kidnap people and they force them to work for them. So while they themselves do have communal property, they are also deeply authoritarian and very hierarchical in that there's one person who's the fucking leader. And then that's true. Others carry it out. That's true. Yeah. And the thing is, this is, you know, the series is a series of flashbacks, right? So then after he flashes back to being You know left out in the fucking Sun as a ginger. I'm just like okay. I died um

but But I've heard and I'm being can handle that. Yeah, I I can't imagine but um Well human beings who aren't soulless vampires can. Okay, nitpick, nitpick, nitpick. So then you flash forward to the present day and in the ultimate libertarian move he doesn't even put on his own armor before going and hearing the respects of others, he has droids help him. Which is fine. I'm okay with that, except that this image of self-sufficiency, libertarianism of like

the gruff, you have manservants helping you get dressed. And again, I'm okay with accommodations and I'm okay with people who have disabilities getting the help that they need. But let's, I mean, he is pretending, he is cosplaying an able-bodied person so that people give him money. And then he doesn't even trust them to pay him tribute, right? That sounds exhausting. So you have them over to your house to give you tribute and you're like, I don't fucking trust these people. The mayor of the actual town or actually the actual town

leader is not paying tribute to FET. He pays tribute to FET by proxy. So that's more work for FET to do. What were you going to say? Well, the whole thing with the man servants what I immediately twig to in that moment of the show was That's a call back again to feudalism. Yes, and a knight being armed by his pages and his squires, right?

Totally. It's really your wealth, not your machismo. Yeah. Except that we're going to tie them together. Yeah, you're a big enough badass that you have people do that for you. That's part of your rank. That's a proof of your importance and your prestige. But the reality is you can't put that shit on yourself. Yeah, well, yeah.

Just the very thing that makes you self-sufficient in battle. Yeah. You need a staff. Yeah. It's like... What I didn't... And maybe you caught this while watching the show again, but, like, I've only seen the series once all the way through,

and what I don't think they did an adequate job explaining, because as people who have been Star Wars fans forever, Boba Fett as a character weighs heavy in the lexicon, right? And his transformation from the Boba Fett that we all grew up with and that existed not only in the movies, but in the EU, through the Boba Fett that we all grew up with and that existed not only in the movies but in the EU. The Boba Fett that exists in the book of Boba Fett, their their you know kind of explanation for this evolution is his time spent with the Tuskens and I don't think that it really does it an adequate job to to

separate him from the character he was. And I think that that is a really... And a lot of people have had this complaint. I'm not the first one that's making it. They kind of, from a lot of folks' perspectives, took a character that was pretty beloved in Star Wars and made it something totally different. And it was a very bizarre choice to turn him into this specific version, you know? Cause it, it, it comes out of left field.

It's like, so all of a sudden he's, he's kind of this, uh, you know, it goes from like the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy to being this kind of, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, So all of a sudden he's kind of this, you know, he goes from like the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy to being this like semi feudal warlord type shift. So there's in, okay, so in the movies,

if you really look at Boba Fett, he walks around and says three things. Right. And he's an escort service for a block of carbonite. And then he gets hit by a blind guy and falls to his death. That's his arc. Now, then the EU comes out because he had badass armor. And he was clearly feared by Han Solo and by Lando and

by everybody on Bespin and half the people on that skiff. He was clearly feared by them and respected by Vader. He actually talks back to Vader, right? And then in the EU, they did Tales of the Bounty Hunter first. Yep. Right? And in Tales of the- Great book. Yeah. But in Tales of the Bounty Hunter, they fast forward him to 15 years later. He's hunting Han Solo again. And it's specifically to pay for new knees. Like, he's a broken ass man, which I loved because it's like 15 years later, this hard living and stuff like that

But I think they were pulling on that thread specifically to make this character but the thing is then there was tales from job as palace and in tales from job is palace Boba Fett sitting there and And Leia gets thrown into his quarters as a reward for him and Fett is a deeply honorable man That's where you first see the name Jaster Creel pop up. That's where you first see Concord Dawn pop up. That's where you see him flashing back to a time where he was not just a bounty hunter, but he was a man of honor.

And the way he talks with Leia, he's very deeply moralistic about how Spice is illegal. And that's the problem with what Han Solo did. There's none of this shit about like the Jedi killed my daddy because that hadn't happened yet. So that's all you see of him and then as the EU expands, he shows up in a few things here and there and then you see the first and second movie of the prequel trilogy and that's where you see, oh, you saw your dad get killed right in front of you.

And you're this annoying little kid. Then we don't know what happened from then until then. And then in the books, you start to see him do way more badass stuff. He steals an entire fucking Super Star Destroyer on his own in a trilogy of books. That part is like, okay, you went a little far. And he's still kind of like, you know, self-contained and gruff and like, you know, somebody says, I shouldn't have trusted you. He's like, well, that was your choice. And it's like, that's the guy who's dying in front of you right now. And that's your comfort,

you know, and that's where he's at. And then after the prequel trilogy ends, then they opened the doors big time on a lot of the EU characters, because George Lucas wasn't going to write the sequels, he decided. Because at that point, they married off Luke Skywalker, which was one of the big no-no's. And Boba Fett ends up, and then they had written prequel books and so they get into Mandalorian

culture and stuff like that. And so now you've got like this much older Boba Fett when it's the legacy of the Jedi series and this is where Jason turns evil. Jason is Ben. But in the books it was that. And Boba Fett has a granddaughter who Jason kills and tortures to death. And so he helps Han Solo. And I think they hunt down Jodo Kast at one point. And, you know, there's a lot of shit that happens. And Boba Fett is at once humanized, but also made, again, the

unassailable badass. But now he's the grumpy old man, Red Fox, unassailable badass. And what they're drawing on for this series is largely, I need new knees, Boba Fett, but then unassailable badass Boba Fett too. And again, yeah, go on. It was interesting because they bring him back in the Mandalorian season two, right? And everyone loses their shit. Yeah, because that was the perfect manifestation

of what everyone wanted to see Boba Fett do. Oh yeah, shit, yeah. And then when they left with that cliffhanger or the, you know, post credit scene, look at Boba Fett coming soon. I was just like, this is going to be fucking amazing. You know, that I was like, yeah, I was so hyped. I, Oh my God. Yeah. See, I was worried as soon as I saw him sit down. I was like, oh No, it's the knees. Yeah Because it was one of those like oh he's taking over a thing and we're gonna see how he holds power or

consolidates power Shit like yeah again Boba Fett is in in most people's imagination Boba Fett is this Badass who frankly didn't earn it. But he's this absolute, he is second only to Vader in Marshall prowess. That kind of, that's what he's supposed to represent. And it's only the luck of Han Solo that defeats him. The literal blind luck of Han Solo that defeats him, right? And so it's just this this like he is an absolute character. It's kind of like, um, It reminds me of that book grendel that came out in the 70s. Um, Describe explaining the monster that uh, yeah What's his face? Um, bellows bill will fought. Yeah, um, and it gets into the internal monologue of the character and so it's like a sympathetic look at grendel. And that informed the portrayal of him in the not very good animation, but I love the

voice work because he's suffering because that tympanic membrane is on the outside of his head and it's driving him crazy and Crispin Glover plays him and he does a really good job. But that becomes the Grendel that we all see instead of the one that's in the Beowulf story of like this unassailable monster that only one guy could beat. Like if Han Solo was trying to beat Boba Fett, he stood no chance. It's just blind luck, right? And therefore you can still be absolute when that happens. And instead we see the behind the scenes Boba Fett, and again, we saw him in the cartoon as a kid too,

and that weakened him for a lot of people. So that when we saw him show back up wearing the black, using a gaffy stick, oh my fucking God. Yeah. Like wow, okay, this is cool. Now let's never see him again. And instead we saw him for six episodes. Yeah. Like, wow. Okay. This is cool. Now let's never see him again. And instead we saw him for six episodes. Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I was and the idea of it being a crime lord, I wanted to see the struggle to take and hold that position.

I was disappointed by the series that we got because he changed from a character who was driven by a very strict code of honor into being this, I don't want to say soft, but he started shifting toward like, you know, a more G on the end of his alignment kind of kind of character Mm-hmm, and that's and that's not That's not what that character Represented within the universe Yeah, no And you know, we have

We have Luke Skywalker to be a good guy, right? We we have we have din Jaren to be the really reluctant good guy, right? You know, we don't we don't have Han Solo to be the reformed now good guy, right? Yeah, you know a Character like Boa Fett is interesting in this universe because he is not morally his, his, his moral compass isn't a moral compass. It's a compass of ethics, which is a very different thing. You know, and he, yeah, he, he got, he got turned into a, a, a knight on a, on a, on a fiery rancor, you know and Well, he became a town marshal. Yeah, he became the law

He became the thing that you literally hired him to go around Yeah, right. He went from bounty hunters We don't need their scum to on tattooing you must project strength if you are to be respected as Daimyo. Yeah and you know if they if they like the moment I heard them say Daimyo in the series like it was the first time we hear that word within the context of Star Wars I hear that word I effectively minored in East Asian history like you say Daimyo to me I have a whole head full of things I associate with that. And my ears perked up and I went, oh, okay. How is this gonna work?

And then he turned, like you say, he turned into the town sheriff. And then he- The Andy Griffith. Yeah. Yeah. Like Andy Griffith with a perpetual scowl. Right. Like Andy Griffith with a perpetual scowl. He then spares two Gamorrean guards, or they're not guards, they're two Gamorreans who refuse

to surrender after he killed Bib Fortuna. And then they become his bodyguards. And then Fennec Shand advises him and says you should be carried on a litter to project strength. So again, we've got projecting strength as a goal. And the whole thing is about respect and strength and what it means. And he says, quote, I wasn't carried on a litter. I walk on my own two feet. And he then says, I'm just here to introduce myself and assure you that your business will

continue to thrive under my watchful eye." He says this while he's wearing armor and he's hanging with a master assassin. And the Jennifer Beals Twi'lek says, and you are always welcome as it is yours now, and he says, Java ruled of fear, I intend to rule with respect. Feels like trappings. And again, it's the very thing that LaSalle was criticizing. So he is birthed out of this critique of a problem that LaSalle had a problem with. He's not the goal.

But libertarians take that critique, and they're like, that's the goal. That's what we want Right. Oh my god. I'm so hot for that. Yeah The thing is that that that said that that dialogue. Yeah, you just that you just quoted If if the directing choices had been a little bit different That could have been him delivering a real meaningful threat.

Yeah. Like with those same words that could have been like, no, no, I am now in charge. Right. And as long as you do what I say, nobody's going to have any problems. Right. But even that, that takes away from Bob Boba Fett Boba Fett is a mobile threat Yeah, okay a mobile self-contained threat and this is Boba Fett's putting down roots Like I have expected him to sit in a chair and let them pour credits over him as he leaned back Yeah Understand yeah, yeah But and of course right after that they're immediately attacked by assassins. And Fett,

again, shows his martial prowess against them, and his allies are able to show their loyalty to him. And then there's a flashback, and it shows more of the same, right? He saves the son of the Tuscan chief and the only human to become the respected member of the tribe, speaking of Dances with Wolves. If Boba Fett wasn't played by a man of Maori ancestry, it would be a one-to-one of Dances with Wolves. I literally have that written in there. And again, this is all libertarian wish fulfillment. Like, it is, you know?

And through my martial badassery, I became a respected member of a small tribe of people led by a non-democratic leader, and I gained their respect, and I came second only to them. Like it's what they would write if they had their own zines. And as the local feudal lord, and again, he's a localist, he doesn't care about anything outside of Mos Espa. It's for him to mete out justice to those who tried to kill him. So these guys tried to kill him, he captures them,

puts them in, you know, keeps them in prison. And in the second episode, it turns out that the mayor, the actual government official, has tried to remove him. You see, government is the problem. It is not the solution. He shows up to the mayor's office and it is immediately met. He is immediately met with a functionary and bureaucratic nonsense, what do you call it, flinger for lack of a better term.

He then of course takes matters into his own hands and Fett uses his armor and his badass presence to barge into the mayor's office. And the excuse they give is, we did not see your litter arrive. See, I'm such a badass. I'm such a, everybody's my equal. I'm going to walk on the same level as them. I don't use a litter and now I'm gonna have to show you why you should respect me even though I didn't use a letter

So it's more about the trappings of excess and and he's just a simple man trying to make his way in the galaxy Like his daddy was Mm-hmm Yeah with his head attached with with Keeping his cranium, you know, in place. Head and shoulders above Django. Yeah. So. Well, head anyway.

Yeah. Yeah. What I, what I, you know, you use that line, you know, a simple man trying to make my way in the galaxy. And that is, that is one of his lines at one point But what I think is interesting is That's not He he describes himself that way And I think he sees himself that way which which ties back into your idea of this being you know wish fulfillment for you know

libertarians But but the character who is somebody just trying to make their way in the galaxy is again, I'm going to point to Din Djarin. What Fett is trying to do is he is aspiring to something. He's trying to make his place in the galaxy. Yes, there you go. There's a distinct difference there. Yeah.

Well, I mean, he stole the line from his dad because his dad's the one that says that line first in Attack of the Clones. Yeah, that's true. He then says to the mayor, you should remember you serve as long as the daimyo of Tatooine deem it so. And he also says, and you know, they have a bit of a back and forth. And then he also says, I they have a bit of a back and forth, and then he also says, I am not a fool, and those who thought otherwise no longer draw breath.

This is the, I mean, this is the money shot for libertarians. Like it's the ultimate in libertarian, I get by on my own steam fantasy fulfillment, right? Yeah. And goes back to Garza's FWIP, Jennifer Beals. He goes back to her casino and resort. He's afforded all sorts of comforts and respect because after all, he's the dimel.

And while he's there, he gets confronted by the twins, the Hutts, who do arrive on a litter, which is sagging underneath its own weight with drums and attendance. You see what libertarians have to deal with just to set up their own place. And that's what this whole fucking show is. It looks super badass.

He stands against two of them and they produce a deed to Jabba's territory. So they've got bureaucracy and paper rights, but he's got the right of might. He's a settler. He's a squatter. He killed the guy who just, you know, and he even says, I don't care what your tablet says, this is Mossespa and I'm daimeo here. And it's him backing it up with the force of arms, with the threat of violence. And like most property disputes, this leads to Boba Fett saying, if you want

it, you'll have to kill me for it. Which is great because that's how he got it. He killed the other guy for it. And again, the authority that he has is based entirely on his martial prowess and his courage, right? He doesn't bend his knee. He holds his ground and they leave and he stays. And, and the acceptable violence being one that defends property rights, right? That is property that he sees by violence. Yeah. He's, he respects everyone who lives there, right? He's, he's ruling with, you know, being, being this somewhat, uh, benevolent.

Yeah. Individual. But if someone threatens his property, then he has all of, all of this, being this somewhat benevolent individual, but if someone threatens his property, then he has all of this, you know, all the rights and weaponry at his disposal to defend that, yeah. And I think people would argue that so did Bib Fortuna. He just failed at it.

Yep. So the system works. See, the system that governs least is the system that works best. Because look at all of the government that's happening on Mos Espa. Look at all the people in power who have official this and official that. They're all corrupt assholes. Boba Fett is at least honest. Yeah. I mean, it was, it is a reminder of, you know, when Trump ran in 2016 and, and

he was able to get up on the stage with the other Republican candidates and was able to pull that curtain of like, I've, I have donated money to all of you. And when I call you do what I say. Right. I know, I know the right? These people aren't honest I'm being honest about it right so you can trust me even though I'm a piece of shit that is Utilized and exploited the system you can trust me because I've told you that I've done that right Yeah, yeah only I can fix it. I alone can fix it. He said yeah, yeah

That wasn't the sign. Lenny Riefenstahl. If there was, if ghosts exist, oh my God, that's like just all the ectoplasm just leaking out of her fountain head. Yeah. Yeah. There it is. There you go. There you go. Not mad about that one at all. No, no, You should be because of the image that that puts in your head is Lenny Riefenstahl. Yeah, I- And Ayn Rand scissoring to come. Like, that's- See, see, and now- When you say it. I didn't have that in my head. I didn't have that in my head.

And you know L. Ron Hubbard is holding the 8mm camera. You know. Oh yeah. Making a religion out of it. Speaking of assholes. So then we go back to the flashback with him and the indigenous people of Tatooine. He's always learning how to fight better and more skilled while they're hunting for food. And then we turn full on Western because they defend themselves against a train that's shooting at them for fun.

You don't get much more libertarian fantasy than that kind of chaotic frontier life. That's Frederick Jackson Turner. Like that. Yeah. Unless of course it's a biker gang, but don't worry because that's exactly what they run into next. A Nikto Swoop gang. They're bullying humans. But don't worry because that's exactly what they run into next a Nick does whoo gang They're bullying humans They're bullying white humans in a cantina cammy and fixer interestingly enough

And and for folks that don't know cammy and fixer are two of Luke's friends that he grew up with Who were cut out of the original movie? So he saw, Luke saw through, this is like the pictures that you might see of Luke Skywalker wearing the bucket floppy hat and goggles, he was looking up at a space battle. It was the Death Star, or it was the Star Destroyer fighting against the Tan of Four.

And he sees it and he runs and he goes and tells Cammie and Fixer who call him Wormie, and he tells them what sees and like Wormie. You're just making stuff up. He's like, okay Well, and he's at Toshi station, I believe to talk to them about it and power converters, of course Which I always took as being a stripper. Um, but you know, whatever. Um, but he talks to Cammie and Fixer and then they tell him where to find Biggs, because this is before Biggs takes off and leaves, which would explain the relationship that he had

with a guy with a mustache who blows up over the Death Star, and you see Luke really sad, and you're like, why? What? Like these scenes were cut out for continuity sake, and because George Lucas's wife at the time knew what the hell she was doing. But now for nerds like me, Cammie and Fixer show up and they're the white people getting bullied by the bikers.

And the bikers are using cruelty to bully the folks in the cantina. So when Boba Fett shows up with his shadow splashed against the wall and he walks in and asks for a drink, unafraid, he gets right to the violence and beats the shit out of every Nikto in the place. He buses up the place, which is apparently fine because, you know, he has the right, because he has the might. And he breaks one of the gaff he sticks, and then he stops, grabs a drink, and then he leaves claiming all of their swoops for his adopted tribe, right? He steals all their swoops.

Now, the mechanized people have a more, or I'm sorry, not mechanized, the indigenous people have a more mechanized transport system than their Banthas, and then he of course teaches them as they continue to teach him gaffi jitsu. So, and then when the time comes, he teaches them. So he's teaching them technology.

He's teaching them civilization, quote unquote, civilized violence, mechanized violence, more powerful violence. And when the time comes, he's taught them to work in a coordinated assault and they're deadly and they're dangerous. And it's a multi-pronged attack that involves a similar move to how Luke took out a Nikto on Jabba's sail barge in episode six, right? The guy leans out and you just pull him right off. The spoils of course include all the Pike Gang's weapons

and Boba Fett gets to interrogate them all and ask them questions and he says, or the Pike Gang member says, we thought you were uncivilized raiders, we were trying to protect our route. And then Boba Fett speaks on behalf of all of the indigenous people that he's made better by his presence through his martial prowess

These sands are no longer free for you to pass these people lay Ancestral claim to the Dune Sea if you are to pass a toll is to be free to be paid The reason he can enforce this is By the enforcement of force. And that is where power comes from. So I mean, at this point, he's speaking for these people. He's advocating for them to get better. This is how he's going to help them bridge the gap into the civilized world.

He's Tom Cruise. It's the last samurai. Like, yeah, I called this part's the last samurai. Right, yes. Yeah. I called this part Dances with Banthas, actually. Right. Yeah. He's a great warrior from the outside,

and he challenges the way that Tusken Raiders have lived their lives with positive outcomes, right? He improves their lives. So of course, it's time for the peyote lizard and the dress like us ceremony to make our weaponry ceremony. Right, all of that happens. And then you fast forward to him being Daimo, and the whole time that he's Daimo, Fett seems to be doing his best to be left the hell alone, which is what every libertarian really just wants. I just want to be powerful enough to be left alone.

I don't want no census tanker coming here. I just want to be powerful enough to be left alone. I don't want no census tanker coming here. Mossespa is kept up by a network of alliances of different crime syndicates, which means he can never really be left alone as Daimyo. Right. Yeah. And he's not stupid. So it's like, you knew that when you killed this guy, you know?

So of course he's not able to be left alone. This is a town. He just wants to take his back to tank bath for a really long time. Right? Yeah. It is hacienda. I mean, it does give off very much Spanish villa in Mexico vibes, right? Oh yeah.

He even has like the droid equivalent to Chihuahuas. In many ways, he reminded me of Zorro. I was going to say that. Yeah. The fox is dead. Yeah. Yeah. So I didn't know that Zorro meant fox. And I had a family member named their dog Zorro. And somebody pointed it out to them of how silly it was to name a dog another animal's name. And I'm like, there was an animal named Zorro? Was this a cartoon that I missed? And they're like, no, Zorro means fox. I'm like, oh. And then it hit me because- The mask.

Yeah. Well, and he was an Australian shepherd. So yeah. And then they had friends who had another dog that loved to play with Zoro and his name was Oso. And I was like, well, that means bear. That one I know. And so it was bear and fox playing with each other and they're both dogs. And then I was like, oh, Copper would be happy. So anyway, he's not able to to be left to hell alone because this is a town marshal western after all. So then Boba Fett has to confront a group of young bikers or scooter kids or I believe

they're called mods. Were they really called them the show? They were. They're modifying themselves. And that's right. That's right Yeah, they didn't have like the cool like Ben Sherman shirts though, you know, yeah. Yeah Actually, Ed talks about this in his Craven moorhead. No, what's the guy's name? Richard Fitzwell. No more cock. Yes

Michael Cock. Yes, Michael. Yes He just wanted him to say more cock I mean I could have said what part did Othello use on on Iago to slap him in the face Or cock or cock, you know That one doesn't bother me so much Go kind of So so yeah, he's hanging with the mods right

And he asks them where'd you get that water? We stole it. That's a crime motherfucker. You are But again, they're pulling on that aspect from the book This is a thing that Disney loves to do and I think it's great that they do it because now most people don't have to Read Twilight or Planet of Twilight But he said that's a crime and they said it's a crime what he charges and he says well then farm your own water again, um Like pull yourself up by your bootstraps. How libertarian can you get? Right. And then they and then they say whatever libertarian doesn't want to hear look old man. And then he says my name is Boba Fett. And and that chef's kiss, like that is the moment that's peak libertarian fantasy.

These damn kids and their damn scooters. And then he says, watch your tongue, I'm the daimyo of this district and I will bring order. They could have had Clint Eastwood play this character. They totally could have. It Eastwood play this character. Right. They totally could have. Yeah. It would have been, it would have been totally perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So super grumpy old man going on, right. And then, and then he realized the real problem that these kids have,

of course, is that they need jobs. Right. Right. Unemployed punks. Just hanging out on the corner, you know, it's like just to cause a nothing but trouble It's like give him something to do Paying gouged by a guy who's sitting on all the water not that like this shit's tough We're living in a desert. Nobody's put any money into hydroponics. No, it's vagrancy vagrancy

Yeah, and again, he's gonna solve it out of his own noblesse oblige, right? He tells them, then you will work for me. Which to me sounds like indentured servitude because they didn't ask for a job. They didn't ask for rates or anything like that. He then buys their debt by paying the watermonger 500 instead of 1300. And then he tells the watermonger to cut his prices if he wants to keep working in Mosezba. Just like, like all of this is through the force of will and the force of, of, of the threat of violence. That's it. Like, again, it's, it's the feudal fantasy of the libertarian.

And then we go to our- But it's, sorry, it's interesting because the market manipulation, right, is antithetical to the libertarian fantasy, right? They very much want the market to be able to- The real market. Yeah, so him coming in is maybe not the fantasy, but the reality of

libertarianism right is that they they want it to be an open market But what really happens is that someone with strength is gonna come in and tell you what the fucking do Yeah, it's a libertarian. Yeah. Yeah, you know, what libertarians or what rightists always want to say about anarchism is, you know, well, in an anarchist system, only the strong are going to survive. It automatically is going to devolve into rule by the strong. right and and you know the thing is they're assuming that's inevitable and all of their Fantasies of how they want to run the world work on that principle in the end, right? It's like they use that to criticize anarchism

But that's like secretly what gets them hot. Yeah secretly what gets them hot. Yeah. Yeah. Anarchism is really flimsy and anybody can buy authority and it's like you're literally only threat you you remove the currency and you're threatening it. Yeah. Yeah. That is not better. That just sets you up in charge. And that's again therein lies the fantasy. So yeah, he does that. And then we go back to flashbacks, right? And he's back with his Tuscan Raiders and he's riding his Banthas slowly into Mos Eisley. And I think it is Mos Eisley because it's not Mos Espa

because he's talking to the Pike Syndicate about Mos Espa. And he talks as again, I don't know who, he learned sign language with them, but I didn't see anything where he's like, I'm gonna go and make things better for you. Do I have your permission to negotiate on your behalf or anything like that? He just fucking does it.

Does it. He knows better than these native peoples. And of course, so he's now a representative of the Tuscan raiders. And while he's doing this, the Pikes and the Nikto swoop gang have slaughtered his adopted tribe. So he's brought ruin to these people by changing the, and I'm not saying that they didn't need a change.

They absolutely did. Being shot at by people on a train sounds fucking terrible. I'm glad that train got burnt down. But... Mm. Actions have consequences. They do. Right.

Elections have consequences. So then he awakes from this reverie, this terrible dream, by Black Christanton, the really big wookie. Mm-hmm. And he has to defend himself in his boxer shorts, in his own home. He's being assaulted in his own home, in his underwear, in his most vulnerable, and he has to defend himself, and as a badass, that's no wait. He gets a gang of scooter mods to come in and defend him, and two Gamorrean guards and Fennec Shand,

they all save him, because he's self-sufficient. He knows how to, you know, diversify. Yeah, yeah, he's delegated, you know? And really what this does play to though is the the the loyalty that his integrity has bought him. Mm-hmm So that's that's what's really happening there So it's okay to have other people help you if they owe you because you gave them jobs Yeah, cuz not because there's no sense of community. No, no, no, no, no, it's all it's all personal What if you'll do it is what it is is feudal bonds of?

No, that's really yeah, I'll tell you guilty I Immediately went to the Japanese term Giri, but yeah, it's it's which is similar Yeah, it's failty. It's it's I have I have saved you I have given you station and in return you will give me service Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, and literally every person that I enlisted was somebody he gave a job to Mm-hmm every single one and in fact there was somebody he had conflict with at first and then gave a job to Like each and every one of them right right, yeah, so Then he gives over his back to tank to the Gamorrean who got injured defending him. Um, after all it takes a village

and Then that's that's no bless oblige. That's, again, it's beautiful. That is exactly what that is. So then he's irritated and not eating. Fennec Shand reminds him that he's the head of a family, whether he likes it or not. So there's your Corleone thing. And then the Hutts come to apologize to him. Again, on their on their their letter. Thank you. They're a letter I was gonna say their

dais but that's not right. Because it was Java on the dais on the dais on the dais. And but yeah, they're on their litter. They come to him and they say, we're leaving Tatooine because another syndicate has moved in. So there's all these machinations happening and he's just a simple man trying to heal. And then they leave by gifting him a rancor and the wookie that they just sent to kill him. Right?

Yeah. Of course, if you're a badass libertarian, what do you do? You set free anybody who's been enslaved by you, even if like, especially the one who just tried to kill you because look at how much power you have. And he says to him, quote, no hard feelings. It's just business. That just makes your libertarian cock hard. And then he pets the rancor and lets it imprint on him because everybody just wants a good dog.

Of course. So then he goes to the mayor's office or he contacts the mayor's office and they say that the mayor won't be available for 20 days. This is just unacceptable. If you are a government official, you should be at the beck and call of the richest, I mean of any citizen in the area. So then he and Fennec Shand set out that day with his scooter mod gang and he shows up armed at the mayor's office to tell them that he's there to see the mayor.

Um, and he does this, of course, with the threat of gun violence. And he ends up finding out that the mayor's mayor major Domo has fled. Um, which apparently all Twilex are either like psychotic criminals, as we saw from Mandalorian, or they're all obsequious second in charges. Yeah. Or, or pleasure charges. Yeah. Or pleasure girls. Yeah, androgynous, sexy, you know, fit. Right. And I don't need to detail the whole episode,

but suffice to say this episode leans heavily on the unwillingness of local government to do anything that's useful or respectful of a man as powerful as Boba Fett. The crime bosses, frankly, did more and Fett was enriched as a result of this, right? So the huts literally come to him and give him stuff and then leave and give him more means to power and then leave and they acknowledge his power. The government won't do that, man, because power granted is power you can take away.

So, I mean, really, you gotta take your own power when you're dealing with these bureaucrats, man. God-given rights. Exactly. Government's not gonna protect your life, liberty, and property. You're supposed to protect it from them, man. And yeah, I did a mountain of coke, but I mean, honestly,

I'm at this bar because I chose to be, not just because it's down the street from the law school that my dad's paying for. So. You know, that whole Coke-fueled monologue there is a really, really great primer on how libertarians turn into soft set types What's a soft set type sovereign citizen? Oh, right, right? Dig into that for me, please. Well, okay, so Here's this whole wing nut bullshit wingnut bullshit, I hesitate to call it a movement, but I guess that is kind of what it is, of people who, it's a conspiracy theory basically, and they essentially take this

stance that the Articles of Confederation were never properly done away with. And the Constitution is somehow part of a globalist conspiracy to take ownership of individuals. And it's all built around this gobbledygook set of ideas of like, uh, uh, Admiralty law being the only legitimate law and, uh, they'll, they'll say shit like, well, you know, um, I, I am, uh, I don't have a legal name. You can call me this, but that's not my legal, you know, I don't, I don't recognize the authority of the government to give me a name, right? You know, it's nice and you know videos usually wind up in of these people many of them

You know where they're filming themselves, you know wind up circulating on the internet and most of them end with them being tased Yeah Fractrated Forced officers are just like dude. I'm giving you a goddamn speeding ticket. Do you have to turn it into this? Right. It's one of those times where you're like, I don't know who to root for. It's like, like, I just hope for injuries. Like, yeah, like I'm not pro cop, but oh my God.

You know, sometimes the trash takes itself out. You know, it's like, yeah. You know, the funny thing is where I first met Sovereign citizen folk and and where they seemed to cluster the most was people who were Independent contractors for that same bank when I ended up temping in a different department Wait, they were working as contractors for a bank independent contractors, right? Well, but they had a three month contract. And yeah, they were project managers. They were just project managers on contract.

So that meant they didn't get benefits. That meant they didn't have seniority. That meant straight running, you know, because that's for cucks. And you know, it was my job to database all the asset tags. That was literally all I did. Oh, God. Soul sucking work. But.

I'm so sorry. The ones who would talk to me, who would corner me in the break room to talk to me about sovereign citizenship, so I was barely 22, they were these guys. And they were, and a lot of them were former veterans. Well, I mean, I guess they're always veterans But there are veterans of Vietnam War

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that makes those things. Yeah, it really does because like again when you are sure it's it's where I have like I used to have like sympathy for the original Tea party folk because they didn't like that Bush was giving bailouts to banks that had fucked us all But then they immediately got overtaken by the the ridiculous tea party folk, right? Yeah, well they got co-opted by the Koch brothers. Right. Yeah opted, you know, yeah But I I have sympathy for Vietnam vets Who have been shown that their government is a lying sack of shit and is not legitimate in the way that it treats them.

And then they go and do this shit and you're like, it's like watching a character in a TV series or a movie who has been so badly abused that they become an abuser. And like they themselves are monsters. Yeah. But you see how they got there and you're like, you're wrong, but I feel bad for you. Like, Yeah. It's that, you know, it's very much that. So, by the way, the mayor fled to hang out with the pikes.

So even the government is sidling up to the most powerful criminals that they can find. And I think actually I'm going to leave it on that little bit of a cliffhanger as far as this. And in the next episode, we'll get into all the things that we see. And again, it's a lot of the same stuff, but I just really want to drill in on some of these important badassery moments and look at their philosophical underpinnings Mm-hmm. They're all disappointing

so Uh, so that being said, um is is let's skip the gleaning and get right to the reading Is there anything that anybody is wanting to recommend this week as far as reading materials? That was a good time. I actually, just because you brought up the Vietnam veterans, think that this is a great book that I'm recommending, Bring the War Home by Kathleen Ballew.

And it is a trace of the white power movement and paramilitary movement in the United States, specifically post Vietnam. And kind of draws the connection between Vietnam veterans coming back, seeing that the government that they were, sent supposedly over to Vietnam to defend or to defend the ideology of has left them high and dry. And it is the shift as the author kind of explains from vigilante white supremacy

to revolutionary white supremacy. Whereas pre, you know, before this kind of shift happens, you have white supremacists kind of carrying out the unspoken authority of the United States government to subjugate and oppress and exploit people of color. But this shift afterwards is what leads to the white power movement being at odds with the United States government and leads to things like Ruby Ridge and the, and the Oklahoma city bombing, uh, Timothy McVeigh, the, you know, Michigan militia, et cetera. It's a fantastic, exactly fantastic book. Highly recommend. Okay. Cool. Ed, how about you? Um, since, since we've, we've been touching on, on the,

the interrelationship between these libertarian ideas and how they turn into feudalism and all of this idea of macho warrior badassery, I think a really good, I don't know if corollary is the right word, but the story of the 47 Ronin of Akko is A historical it is an actual historical event That got turned into kind of a folk legend in Japan and there's a really great Interpretation or translation of the sources by John Allen titled 47 Ronin,

the classic tale of samurai loyalty, bravery, and retribution. And it really illuminates the way that these ideas of power being paramount and this particular concept of loyalty being a thing. And so, and it's just, it's a remarkable story in that it does not sound like something that could have really happened, but it did. So yeah, very highly recommended. Okay. I'm going to recommend a couple books here. And they're all basically the books upon or from which Disney was drawing to create this

Boba Fett. The first one being the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy by KW Jeter Jeter it was three books back in the before times before the great schism but these three books are not very good but the characterizations of Boba Fett are interesting because they have him very much at the center of the story but he's largely an unobtainable person and he's he is his armor and there's some internal monologue there but like seeing how he interacts with people so that's that's the first one there's some interactions with him in Bosque they're really interesting because it's post them having their little tetea-tet or feta-fet.

It ends with him stealing a fucking start a story. It's stupid. But there are several characters that are brought in to do that. The next one I'm going to recommend is the short story of, I forget the short story's name but it's in Tales from Jabba's Palace and it's the one where Leia gets tossed into his quarters. So it's an anthology series. I think it's Kevin J. Anderson who wrote most of them or at least who edited it. So that's Tales from Jabba's Palace. The other one is Tales from... Moss Isley?

No. It is... I can almost see it was. What was it? It was Mausisley? No. Um it is I I can almost see it too. Um oh it's Tales of the Bounty Hunters. So it's it's that one. Um honestly the story about four Lamans and the story about AG

are way better but the one about Boba Fett is the I got bad knees Boba. Um is the I've Got Bad Knees Boba. And so I strongly recommend that. And then the last one I'm gonna recommend is in the Legacy of the Force series, it's an octology. And I think it's actually one of the best written series in the Star Wars EU as far as the books go. This is again, all of this is pre Disney buying them out.

So they would have the word legends across them now. There are three that were written by Karen Travis. Travis with two S's. Those three center much more on Boba Fett and Mandalorian culture than the others. And I think that you will understand the characterization from these three sources and how they get pushed into the Timora Morrison portrayal of Him in this series, so it's a fair bit of reading

But I strongly recommend all these three if you want to understand what your source material was Is that so Okay, where can people find y'all This is the time where you get to plug things. So we'll end with Gabe plugging himself, no pun intended. But Ed, where do you want folks to find you, if at all? Well, I don't really need to be found. I'm lurking in hyperspace. But we collectively can be found on our website at www.geekhistorytime.com.

You are listening to us, so you have found us either on our website or on the Apple Podcast app, Amazon Podcasts, Stitcher or Spotify. And anywhere that you found us, wherever it is, please take the time to subscribe and give us the five star review that you know Damien has earned by subjecting himself to doing all of this research about libertarianism. And where can you be found, sir? Well, you can find me on June 7th and July 5th at the Comedy Spot in Sacramento, downtown Sacramento, 9 p.m. slinging puns with capital punishments.

$12 gets you in. Come for the 9 o'clock show. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to spin that wheel. You pun, you battle, you win. So Gabe, where can folks find you? You can find the band that I'm currently playing in on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever you listen to music. The band's name is Get The Wall. We also have an Instagram page that we post to pretty frequently, which is Get Underscore The Underscore Wall. And you can reach out to us over Gmail, which has a very unfortunate email get the wall sack We're from Sacramento and then you know after I made that I was like this definitely sounds like get the ball sack But that's fine. Yeah, if you're interested in booking us for anything Very cool. Well cool. Gabe. Thanks for subjecting yourself to this. There's more to come and I apologize in advance

For a geek history of time. I'm Damian Harmony and I apologize in advance. For A Geek History of Time, I'm Damian Harmony. And I'm Ed Blalock and until next time, keep rolling 20s.