Force-curious but not Jedi?

By springing surprise after surprise on its fanatical audience, Star Wars: The Last Jedi has triggered an avalanche of differing reactions. I for one was neither passionately against or in favor of it. My personal interest in anything related to Star Wars has been lukewarm for years. I liked it enough while I was at the theater, but I didn't have the urge to go again. I'm less disturbed by its own plot twists than I am about the seemingly slim possibilities that it left for the next movie. What will the heroes do now to save themselves and defeat their foes? What mysteries remain unsolved? Perhaps the third Star Wars movie of recent years will be subtitled "The Search for Lando".

The movie managed to stun me with a few jaw-dropping scenes, though. All of these were playing with one revolutionary concept: the Jedi voluntarily becoming extinct. I need to hastily add that the dialogue pointedly clarifies, however, that the hypothetical extinction would apply to the Jedi "religion" alone. The Force itself could never become extinct. As a result, individuals who have Force awareness and/or abilities would still be around, too. Without Jedi scholarship or apprenticeship to guide them, their belief status would be Force-curious but not Jedi. They'd be non-Jedi or "Nons" for short.

A Star Wars universe of Nons offers plenty of fuel for speculation. Rather than benefit from the findings (and mistakes!) of their predecessors, each generation of them would fumble anew at understanding elementary topics and performing novice feats. They might opt to pick and choose from a hundred contradictory understandings of the Force. With their meager knowledge, they'd try to judge for themselves whether particular actions were "light-side" or "dark-side". Their ignorance of the dangers would inevitably result in a few—maybe more than a few—using the Force for selfish aims and eventually having a destructive effect on everything around them. In addition, some of them would be motivated by their loyalty to the specific groups they identify with to use the Force purely to advance the glory of their group instead of the common (galactic) good.

Their contact with the Force would be outside of time-tested paths. They wouldn't be weighed down by the irritating restrictions of petty Jedi taboos. They'd be free of the drudgery of antiquated teachings and heavy-handed institutions or councils or elders. On religion surveys they'd check the box for "no affiliation". If asked for more details, they'd say that they're spiritual but not religious. If pestered what they're spiritual about, they'd say that they can sorta sense an invisible Force of benevolence when they reach out with their feelings. And they can lift rocks or janitorial tools through telekinesis.

I suppose that this is well-aimed at the current cultural context. My guess is that many would be open to seriously considering that informal laid-back Nons going back to the basics of transcendence would be an improvement from haughty, intrusive, inflexible, child-indoctrinating Jedi who oversee big budgets and vast initiatives in a mega-Temple. Organizations, religious or otherwise, are loathed for how they can be abused to empower terrible leaders and control the members.

That's not all. In some, this attitude also operates at a deeper philosophical level. They loathe committing fully to definite statements of their own beliefs. In the spiritual realm, and almost everywhere else, it's thought to be more acceptable for everyone to be on their separate individualized journeys. Clear and verifiable thinking is devalued. Or, worse, it's purposely shunned to ensure that no opinion can ever be viewed as more accurate than another. That's why it's optional to confidently ground one's abstract beliefs in concrete actions, facts, duties, etc.

I doubt I'm spoiling the movie by revealing that, in the end, it didn't overturn one of Star Wars' core parts. It only proposes and discussed the shocking concept of a complete handover from Jedi to Nons. Nevertheless, it shows the pluses and minuses that stand out to me when I listen to the mushy words of the spiritual but not religious. If they're always able to think whatever they wish about "spirituality", then the odds are excellent that they're merely imagining a fluid external "cause" that they fill with their wholly subjective experiences. By its nature this phantom cause couldn't have an innate form or shape to take into account. But if they object to this impolite characterization and insist that their spooky spirit is as real as the Force is within the Star Wars fictional universe, then why does It exist by vaguer rules than every other real thing? Unlike those other real things, why can't they or anyone speak as conclusively about It in ways that are compatible with neutral confirmation...or disproof?