This must be the most famous saying from the Star Wars series. What did George Lucas mean by the Force?
Hero and Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi introduced Luke Skywalker and most of us to the Force for the first time in Star Wars: A New Hope – “It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.” Curiously, and depending on your point of view, it could be synonymous with the word God.
Why am I interested in this word force?
George Lucas insinuates that this is something latent and ubiquitous, but it is not easy to harvest or to use. It is only available to those who have special powers and are trained to recognise and use it, either in a positive and constructive way, or in an evil and destructive way. Even though the Force appears to be something passive, it can be harnessed and its energy converted into an active one.
This intrigues me, as we seem incapable of conceiving power or energy in a totally neutral, indifferent and passive way, and because of this we have inadequate or weak words to describe this meaning.
Dictionary definitions of force generally provide meanings insinuating some active involvement, somewhat synonymous to the word Power. The most neutral definition seems to be when the word is used in science.
Dictionary.com describes this as “an influence on a body or system, producing or tending to produce a change in movement or in shape or other effects“.
The Cambridge dictionary describes this as “a measure of the influence that changes movement” and provides this example “the force of gravity”.
The nearest synonyms to the word I wish to express are impetus, impulse, momentum, potential and Adam Smith´s invisible hand.
Unlike George Lucas I seek a word for something that cannot be harnessed and converted into an active force. The force I seek really has no power but it does have impetus. However, if I use the words force or power I cannot prevent myself thinking of something active. I envisage an entity pushing and doing.
The concept I wish to express is closest to the term inevitability, which is described in the Cambridge dictionary as meaning “the fact of being certain to happen and unable to be avoided or prevented“. Inevitability´s weaker cousin is a tendency.
Why am I spending so much time on this definition?
Two fundamental forces that I may be referring to in other areas of my musings are natural selection which drives evolution, and the invisible hand of economics. When I do so I will most likely use the term inevitability or tendency and not force.
I needed a page that would clarify what what I mean by that. Fundamentally this concept is wholly passive. It has no active elements.