Spoiler Alert! This post discusses Andor on Disney+.

A Glimpse of Hope

I have recently been enjoying Andor on Disney+. The show follows the adventures of Cassian Andor as he is swept up in the founding of The Rebellion against The Galactic Empire. I say swept up because he is unsure of what he will do next. In the language of the attention philosopher James Williams, while Andor may have plenty of literal starlight, he lacks attentional “starlight” to guide him in the right direction.

Thankfully for Andor and the show’s viewers a stranger arrives and presents him with a moment of what James Williams calls “Daylight”. Andor is presented with a clear vision by which he can set his inner compass. Right after seeing this “Daylight” however he is thrown back into the darkness of insecurity and must navigate what comes next alongside his fellow rebels.

The Rise of the Empire

While Andor and his new companions work out their plan of attack, their youngest team member, Karis Nemik, shares aloud the manifesto he has been writing:

“We've grown reliant on Imperial tech, and we've made ourselves vulnerable. There's a growing list of things we've known and forgotten, things they've pushed us to forget. Things like freedom...”

This depiction of the empire as slowly controlling the population of the galaxy through the use of technology that offers benefits, but at the cost of giving up freedoms, sounds eerily familiar to the arguments James Williams makes about technology companies today. Williams points out that “...the citizen, ... is the product” (48) and “...the clear and urgent threat that this unprecedented system of intelligent, industrialized persuasion poses to our freedom of attention.” (37)

That freedom of attention is also the primary concert of Nemik:

“So much going wrong, so much to say, and all of it happening so quickly. The pace of repression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the Imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident. But they have a fight on their hands, don't they?”

When asked what he believes Andor replies, “I know what I'm against. Everything else will have to wait.” He knows what he is avoiding, running from, but is not yet sure where he is running to. Perhaps it is as James Williams describes it: he has “not been primed, either by nature or habit, to notice, much less struggle against, these new persuasive forces that so deeply shape our attention, our actions, and our lives.” (29)

A Rebellion is Born

Several episodes later Andor is given the manifesto to take with him. Initially he refuses. He doesn’t want it. He doesn’t want to see clearly that going at it alone - not caring - is no longer an option. He doesn’t want to accept the responsibility he suspects comes with the honor of holding on to the manifesto. But he eventually does take the manifesto. A guiding light that Andor can carry with him as he travels. A guiding light that will become the “Daylight” for the rest of the galaxy as they step out from the darkness of The Empire.

James Williams’ Stand Out of Our Light clearly serves as a sort of manifesto on the attention economy surrounding us today. His goal is to re-prime us, prepare us for what is happening, and ready us for the rebellion that is to come. The book provides us with a new set of guiding stars and a new way of reasoning by which to see the world around us, if we could just shine our “spotlight” on it long enough to see it. Just maybe we too would be able to rebel against those that hold our attention captive.

Thank you for your attention.

Shine Your spotlight Here

Notes and Citations

This essay was written as part of course work for Calvin University’s Master’s in Media and Strategic Communications (MMSC) program.
A transcript of Andor Season 1 Episode 5 can be found here.
You can read Stand Out of Our Light by James Williams here by clicking on “Full book PDF”.