Joruus C'baoth and Hybrid Work
I noticed you didn't have your camera on during the weekly stand-up
Part 1: A Meeting Between Sovereigns
In Heir to the Empire, a Star Wars Legends novel by Timothy Zahn, Grand Admiral Thrawn wants to return the Empire to its former glory after Death Star II was destroyed and Vader and Sidious with it. Early in the book he seeks out a Dark Jedi named Jorus C’baoth, the guardian of Mount Tantiss on the planet of Wayland where he is guarding valuable treasure, stolen art, and other goodies. Thrawn goes to Wayland and is determined not to leave without getting both the cache and C’boath. The problem is he can’t get either without C’baoth’s willing participation. Their interaction does a great job of showing each character’s values and motivations.
Contained in the cache is a powerful technology vital to Thrawn’s plans of destroying the rebellion, but just as if not more important is to recruit C’baoth. You see, Thrawn theorizes that after the Emperor’s demise, the Imperial Fleet was no longer aided by Sidious’ battle meditation and consequently lost its fighting spirit and was routed by a small band of fighters (Zahn does not refer to this ability as battle meditation, but that’s basically what it describes). The Imperial forces had gotten accustomed to this because Sidious insisted on perpetually controlling the fleet.
Thrawn maintained that it would only be used in critical situations, not all the time which inevitably weakens your troops if they come to rely on it. What I found most fascinating in Thrawn’s recruitment of C’Baoth was what it revealed to me about both of these powerful beings, the meaning of sovereignty, and different types of power.
Let’s take a look at their conversation:
C'baoth snorted. "So is this what you want me for, Grand Admiral Thrawn?" he asked scornfully. "To turn your ships into puppets for you?"
"Not at all, Master C'baoth, …My wish is merely to have you enhance the coordination between ships and task forces and then only at critical times and in carefully selected combat situations."
C'baoth threw a look at Pellaeon. "To what end?" he rumbled.
"To the end we've already discussed," Thrawn said. "Power."
"What sort of power?"
For the first time since landing, Thrawn seemed taken aback. "The conquering of worlds, of course. The final defeat of the Rebellion. The reestablishment of the glory that was once the Empire's New Order."
C'baoth shook his head. "You don't understand power, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Conquering worlds you'll never even visit again isn't power. Neither is destroying ships and people and rebellions you haven't looked at face-to-face." He waved his hands in a sweeping gesture around him, his eyes glittering with an eerie fire. "This, Grand Admiral Thrawn, is power. This city-this planet-these people. Every human, Psa-dan, and Myneyrsh who live here are mine. Mine." His gaze drifted to the window again. "I teach them. I command them. I punish them. Their lives, and their deaths, are in my hand."
"Which is precisely what I offer you," Thrawn said. "Millions of lives-billions, if you wish. All those lives to do with as you please." "It isn't the same," C'baoth said, a note of paternal patience in his voice.
"I have no desire to hold distant power over faceless lives."
"You could have just a single city to rule, then," Thrawn persisted. "As large or as small as you wish." "I rule a city now."
The first interesting takeaway was the difference in Thrawn’s and C’boaths motivations.
Maybe Thrawn was projecting a little when he assumed the flavor of C’baoth’s will to power. C’baoth is a priestly if not a seriously deranged, ruler. Unsurprising for a Jedi, he might be compared to a corrupt Puritan preacher who held great power and influence over their flock. The Dark Jedi didn’t want to vanquish enemies on the battlefield. Nor did he much care to control thousands or millions of more lives if they were light years away. Thrawn wouldn’t see much point in this as a conqueror and superb tactician. For him, it’s more about what and less about who.
Is it messed up that I found C’Baoth’s life mission somewhat admirable? Don’t get me wrong, making a small village of people essentially your slaves to dominate is small-minded and detestable, but I don’t know all the details of their lives. Maybe they were content! The admirable part to me is the fact he wants to be responsible for his community - to be the patriarchal leader, teacher, judge, and yes even executioner. He likely knows each of them by name along with their problems, hopes, and dreams. The subtext, of course, is that only a maniacal tyrant would even want this (he is). However detestable we modern folks find this to be there is precedent for it.
You, reader, are an aristocrat and do not need a shepherd, but would you really say deep down that no one you know or have ever encountered shouldn’t have one? But we have therapists you say!
No this is not a “you need religion” post, I’m just saying maybe some people or communities would benefit from the good version of C’baoth. If you think I’m nuts that’s fine, please let me know in the comments. I also think that C’baoth has a point when he says, “What’s the point in getting unlimited power - we have unlimited power at home”. Smaller, like-minded communities in the real physical world are better for humanity. Mega-states are great for monopolists, and highly ambitious, power-hungry individuals but are much worse for the average person. But no, there are currently no openings for this type of pastor in our world and no C’baoths to fill it.
The second interesting takeaway was how two sovereigns dealt with each other. The idea of sovereignty or being sovereign is intriguing to me. Who is sovereign and what that entails are interesting thought experiments. Thrawn is sovereign. He is the leader of his organization as warlord. Since Vader and Palpatine are dead no one can tell him when to come into the office or to “please keep your camera on during Zoom calls”.
Sovereignty might be assumed given their positions atop their respective org charts. Thrawn commands a fleet while C’baoth commands the Force and a village. But what’s more interesting are the practical factors:
Neither person can get what they want from the other through compulsion (at least at this point) since Thrawn’s Ysalamiri blocks the force from being used against him and C’baoth’s Jedi powers are not useful if he refuses to cooperate
Both are highly capable of violence, even though Thrawn’s is more on a macro scale with the ability to command fleets and C’baoths more on a micro scale with his force powers and wisdom
From this we can gather that of the many qualities that can grant sovereignty it certainly helps if you are indispensable. Thrawn couldn’t force C’baoth to do what he wanted. He had to give him something of great value in exchange. If C’baoth flat-out refused any offer that might have been a different story, but clearly he was more useful alive than dead.
This can help in an analysis of leaders and nation-states. A king or a president in name, might not be sovereign if someone else can dictate the terms to them. On the flip side, a person with invaluable skills, who is irreplaceable at their company or community can be a lot more independent than someone without that.
Part 2. Joruus C’baoth Wants Your Ass in the Office
My last point, and this is a little out of left field, is how this relates to the real-life issue of hybrid work in corporations. Before 2020 remote work was rare. Everyone worked in an office and it was kind of strange if you worked remotely. It seemed anti-social. After the COVID stay-at-home orders we were told to take our laptops home for a week or so and then everything would go back to normal. The rest is history and hybrid and remote setups are now the norm. After the whole debacle of corporations fluctuating on their COVID policies, I decided I didn’t want to be caught in the middle and pursued a fully remote position.
The discourse on this topic is so moronic to me though because there’s no honesty around it. There are plenty of good arguments for and against being fully in the office, hybrid, and remote, but if we were to peel back the layers of bullshit from them this is what they would say:
“____ office model works great for me and therefore everyone else should do it my way”.
I didn’t lease this expensive office location in a downtown skyscraper with brand-new furniture just so you could all sit at home and watch Netflix during work
I’m the CEO of XYZtechcompany.AI with 1,000 employees who I pay good money so that I can control the working hours of their lives. I don’t feel relevant or important when I can’t see my corporate serfs clicking away in their cubicles.
It’s this last point I would like to expand upon. Technology has made working from anywhere a lot easier and that’s a good thing, but we should question whether or not human beings have evolved as rapidly as technology. I’m not sure we’ve progressed beyond needing to see other human beings to feel fulfillment. This might be fine for some, but the more we trend away from human interaction being an essential ingredient of work and life in general the worse off we are.
The CEO understands this intuitively, but wouldn’t put it in these terms. They’ll say it’s about the culture and that people work better in the office, etc. They have a point, but they won’t admit that they don’t really feel like a CEO when everyone under their employ sits behind a monitor far away. Especially when it comes to larger companies, it’s hard to say there’s a one-size-fits-all policy. The young go-getter “self-starter” will probably benefit more from a fully in-office policy than the mother of three. The difference is the CEO has control over the policy and they don’t.
And this is where C’baoth comes in. If he were a corporate CEO, we all know what his policy would be. He would be content to keep his headcount around 100 or so employees, but they’d all be in the office Monday-Friday. He wants to be in the same physical space as his employees and doesn’t see them as line items on a spreadsheet. That attitude wouldn’t make him as much money as other companies but that’s okay with him because he is shaping lives and leading people that he knows personally. He’s also a maniacal clone of a Jedi so he probably wouldn’t hesitate to fry you with force lightning at the quarterly earnings meeting.