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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   27917 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 26, 2022

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My impression of Luke is that his background was middle class, rich enough to go for jaunts on speeders and to own droids. Being a farmer doesn't necessarily make you poor. Though the economics of Tattooine seem a little bizarre given that Shmi had her own cozy two bed terrace despite being a literal chattel slave.

rich enough to go for jaunts on speeders and to own droids.

Is a farmer rich if he owns a tractor? It would depend where on Earth you are siting the movie; a farmer in a Third World country probably is, but for a farmer in the developed world it's just normal machinery that is needed for doing the work.

Droids are everything from fancy units to basic machines, and used for labour. I don't know if they're at all regarded as "people" even though some of them are sentient, there seems to be no problem with owning, buying and selling them (then again, flesh-and-blood people can be owned, bought and sold). "Going for a jaunt on a speeder" seems to be the equivalent of "driving the truck into town to go to the movies/pub/hang out with my buddies".

Luke is a farm kid on a backwater planet, whatever his position in the local class hierarchy is, in wider terms of the Empire (certainly places like Coruscant) he's a shit-kicker.

Its really hard to tell class from old movies...

Housing and shelter didn't used to be such scarce resources, it used to be something groundhogs could provide for themselves.

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