DUFFIELD HALL—On Tuesday morning, the leads of many project teams received an email inviting members to watch a movie with and coffee chat alumni now working for Ooblamon’s Blade, a New York City-based defense company. Ooblamon’s Blade has faced recent controversy surrounding its contracts with the DoD and ICE, with critics condemning its role in conflicts abroad as well as surveillance domestically.
Some particularly savvy Star Wars fans have pointed out that Ooblamon’s Blade is the name of the lightsaber that Darth Vader used to expand the Empire throughout the popular film series. However, founder Teeter Peel says he chose the name to “represent the strength and power of the saber as a tool, and totally not as an ironic metaphor for how its products are used to enforce fascism globally.”
After the screening of the movie, CTO Sankar Shyam ‘30 took the stage to share words of wisdom with his engineering underclassmen. “Why did Putin invade Ukraine? Ukraine’s weapons are like X-Wings, and Putin knows they pose no harm to his Death Star. The only way to defend our gloriful country is to win the race to have the biggest, strongest, Imperial Fleet-iest weapons.”
Although reactions to the event were mixed, Ceille Aute ’27 stated that he “thought the event showed a nuanced and compelling argument for why tools of authoritarianism are crucial to defending our beautiful country,” before donning a black mask and striding off.
