SERVE the Force

Force-sensitive people can literally “see the future” and plan accordingly. The Jedi often tap into the Force to foresee future events. Yoda spoke of future events being unclear; he could see cryptic generalities which were subject to change.

Though they believe in setting a vision based on peace, justice, and the betterment of the galaxy, the Jedi were not able to predict the weakness of the republic and prevent its downfall by a small set of actors.

Their ability to “see the future” was powerful, but they didn’t anticipate and adjust themselves to an ever-changing galaxy.  (A warning for how challenging this step is.)

Sith Lords also look to the future using their force abilities, but their vision often focuses on their aspirations: personal power, control, and dominance over others.

Palpatine foresaw events much like Yoda but was overly confident in his vision. Astonishingly, he was able to architect the hostile takeover of an entire galaxy with very limited resources.

Yet his overconfidence led to his eventual downfall, as his great power made him unable to see the risks to the organization he created and the people he became involved with.

Draw.

Both sides literally see some of the future, with different purposes and limitations, though not completely, and they still underestimate risks.

The Jedi Order places great importance on training and mentoring. The relationship between mentors and mentees is central to the development of a Jedi, emphasizing growth, wisdom, and the importance of passing on tacit knowledge. Jedi do this by creating schools, removing children from their families (not cool), and training them using ethically questionable methods.

That said, the organization held the development of others as a core value. Their mentorship process consisted of pairing an accomplished Jedi with an apprentice, or Padawan, and through their relationship, each enhanced the skills development of the other. The master passes wisdom to the apprentice, and the apprentice gives fresh insights and perspective to the master.

The longevity of the Jedi Order is attributable, at least in part, to the success of this mentorship program that spanned tens of thousands of years.

In contrast to the Jedi, the Sith often operate on principles of dominance and subjugation. While there are master-apprentice dynamics, it’s fraught with distrust.

The Rule of Two states that there can only be two Sith at a given time; a master and an apprentice. Thus, the apprentice is trained to eventually overthrow the master. The master, being aware of this rule, is constantly wary of their apprentice surpassing them as it means their own violent demise. Still, the Sith mentors invest heavily in a single mentee at a time, despite their full awareness that a mentee will… ‘surpass’ them at some point.

Despite being a moral and philosophical contrast to the Jedi, the Sith adopt the same principle: two is better than one, and together they are stronger than the sum of their parts.

Slight Win – Jedi.

Both the Jedi and the Sith seek to develop the next generation for Force-wielders, but the Jedi are more likely to see their engagement.

This is where the Jedi begin to lose ground in the SERVE model: the Jedi Order is traditionalist and strongly reluctant to change.

This rigidity led to the downfall of the Order, though it lasted millennia and its dissolution required decades of planning from the Sith. In contrast to the Order itself, individual Jedi might reinvent their approach based on their experiences, such as the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, who desired exploration and expansion of philosophies and bent the more rigid rules to suit the situations he was in.

The Sith are more individualistic and reinvent themselves as needed to gain power, adapt to challenges, or achieve their ambitions.

The invention of the “rule of two” was a complete overhaul of the Sith, entrusting the entire history of their order to two individuals. Individual Sith readily adopt new technologies and opportunities but can be very head-down about accomplishing immediate goals. This reinvention and adoption of new tactics led to the eventual rise of the Sith on a galactic scale, where they ruled over an entire galaxy. Even this achievement, however, was very short lived.

The Jedi Order was able to last for millennia before being overthrown by the more quickly-evolving Sith, but the Sith were unable to replicate the longevity of the Jedi Order on rapid re-invention alone. They achieved their near-term objectives but had no long-term strategy in place to maintain their position, putting them in a “the dog caught the car but was not equipped to drive” situation. Their intended solution, ruling through force and fear, ignored the will of the population and their capacity to overcome oppression.

Sith win.

The Jedi Order was unable to reinvent itself without significant outside influence.

The Jedi actively act against the value of relationships; familial relationships are discarded entirely, and romantic entanglements are to be avoided; the only relationships of value are professional relationships. That’s not a great work-life balance.

While the Jedi strive for positive results, they prioritize the means (peaceful, just) over the ends. Results are valued to some extent, but even with stellar results, one can somehow be admitted to a council without being granted the rank of master (looking at you, Mace).

Sith are almost exclusively results-driven, focused on achieving their objectives regardless of the means. Relationships are secondary and can be sacrificed if they interfere with goals, despite the fact that the dark side uses these relationships as sources of negative emotions to enhance the powers of the force wielder. The goal is all that matters, and the goal is always more power.

Draw, since both the Jedi and the Sith seem to bring their work home with them.

Jedi are taught to embody the values of the Order from a young age. This includes peace, serenity, compassion, and non-attachment. They are expected to live by these values and demonstrate them in their actions.

The Jedi do help one another obtain their goals, and their goals tend to be in service to others, not accumulating wealth and power to themselves.

If we are talking about the values of the SERVE model, we can assess the Jedi to literally be in “service” to the galaxy.

The service-side of the Sith is non-existent.

Sith values include ambition, power, and passion, but never for others; these values only apply to the individual.

They believe in harnessing these values to achieve their desires, and they live by these tenets vehemently.

Stone-cold victory for the Jedi on this front.