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Commitment. Or, why Nemik and Yoda agree on trying

First of all

In this post I will be talking about the first season finale of Andor, the best Star Wars.
It deserves to be watched unspoiled, and even if you are not a Star Wars fan, you will probably enjoy it a lot.
It starts off a bit slow, but that is actually a good thing in my opinion.
Seriously, watch the show before reading from people talking about it's halfway point ending.

Do or do not, there is no try

This is one of the most widely known quotes from the entirety of Star Wars, and unlike the whole father thing, it is usually quoted correctly.
It is also very commonly misunderstood and made fun of, even within canonical Star Wars media.
Many people, myself included, thought it meant that if you are unsure if you can do something, you should not even try.
That a failed attempt is as bad, or even worse, than not trying at all.
In the scene, Luke is met with an issue he is not sure he can solve.
The forces against him seem overwhelming and he is saying he will try.
Telling him to not try seems counterproductive in this whole situation.
But let us look at a similar situation from a different perspective, in the same universe but said by someone who is not a magic warrior monk who speaks in riddles:

Remember this. Try.

Nemik is the best character in Star Wars. I want a Nemik spinoff that is just him and his book club.
But that does not matter much. What matters is this:
Nemik leaves his Manifesto to Cassian Andor. He understands that Andor is going to become incredibly important to the future of the rebellion against the empire, even when Andor himself has not understood that yet. In the last episode of the first season of Andor, we get to hear a chunk of the manifesto, which I will put here in its entirety, because I think these are words that cannot be read too often:

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try.

I have read, and listened to, these few sentences many times, and even while I am writing this, I cannot read them without tearing up at least a bit.
Yes, it is a quote in a fictional manifesto in a fictional universe owned by Disney of all companies.
But it is also speaking to the audience.
It is speaking to us all, that even when the struggle seems impossible, there is hope.
Failed attempts at resistance still push the line further towards eventual victory.

Take the climate movement for example:
Just because one person or group cannot prevent the climate catastrophe does not mean that protesting for change does not do anything.
Forest squats have already pushed back mining operations so far that a good amount of coal that was to be burned will stay under the ground long enough to become financially not worth being mined.
This will not be the end of it, but it is a huge success, despite the fact that the squats ended up being evicted eventually.
Tons of CO2 will never make it into the atmosphere because of this. Remember this. Try.

Oppression is the mask of fear

Let's get a bit sidetracked for a moment, because I really want to talk about it with the whole political situation right now.
Two episodes before the season finale, Andor himself provides a quote that could be from Nemik's manifesto: Power does not panic.

Look around you and everything that is awful right now.
We see the extreme right turn every little thing into a culture war.
We see them invoking false nostalgia for a time that never really was.
Why are they doing that?
Because they see that they are losing. That is panic.
Yes, it seems like they are gaining power and supporters, but that is not accurate.
Even with them winning, or getting second place, in multiple state elections in Germany this year.

Just look at media from 20, or even just 10 years ago. Did it "age well"? Probably not.
You will probably stumble over casual racism, homophobia and transphobia all the time, even in left leaning media.
These kinds of sentiments used to be everywhere, not that long ago.
Now, society has progressed to a place where they are only held by the extreme right.
People who are scared because of this flock to the right, but the sentiment actually got less popular.
Those moving to the right radicalize themselves because they are afraid of having to change.
They are becoming more violent because they are in panic.
The line keeps moving towards progress. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle.
They want you to despair.
They want you to think we have lost.
We have not.
We will not.
Remember this. Try.

The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural.
No matter how much right wing pseudo psychologists will tell it to you, egoism is not natural.
Fascism and tyranny are not the natural state of things that keep happening on their own over and over.
They are built with enormous effort. They are brittle. They will not be the end of things, even if they get reinstated.
As long as people keep fighting them, they will not persist.
Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction.

So should I try or should I do?

Yes.
When Nemik says try, he is talking to a regular every day worker, who is looking at an infinitely more powerful system put in place to keep him down.
When Yoda says do, he is is talking to a magic warrior monk with a light saber who can move space ships with his mind.

While often groundbreaking in their storytelling, the Star Wars movies fall into the trap of telling a "great men" story.
They show impossibly strong individuals who blow up genocidal space stations and do not spend enough time on the ginormous organisations of common people who made it possible for them to do so. It falls to the expanded universe to show us all of the much more relatable people who are just as important to good winning out in the end as the heroes everybody knows.

The common person will not succeed at overthrowing a fascist system on their own. They cannot. What is important is that enough of them band together to try that they will do.
Telling them that they just need to be in the right mindset to win is not helpful. Nemik needs to move them to believe that even if they might lose as individuals, the cause will win in the end.
Yoda, on the other hand, is talking to someone who is very much capable to pull off what he is setting out to do. Luke saying he'll try is an indicator that he is not in the right mind-space. Approaching situations that one can solve by saying you will try is already accepting that one might not end up doing it.
Saying "do or do not" is Yoda's way of saying "You have to commit to this if you want to have a chance at succeeding."

Commitment is incredibly important in every part of life.
If you are not committed in your relationships, they will fail.
If you do not commit at work, it is impossible to plan projects.
If managers do not commit to deadlines, knowing there are potential situations where they are not met, potential customers will look elsewhere.

Nemik's audience is one that does not want to commit because they think victory is impossible.
Yoda's audience is one that does not want to commit because it is more comfortable not to.

Failure is okay. It might still move things in the right direction in the big picture.
Failing to commit in the first place is not.