While it is a self portrait, this is really about how “colonialism” – that attempt to control a peoplehood through whatever means appears to be legitimate but in fact is a violation of human rights, does not disappear simply because we see ourselves as a more ‘enlightened’ contemporary civilization.
The power of co-ercion can be through humiliation, mockery and deliberate side-lining and often by and academic commentators (intelligensia) when they are faced with world views that challenge their own.
The “Star Wars” handcuffs points to this ‘benign’ colonialism as being part of the future human condition – unless we’re somehow given a new heart – as well as the present and past.