How did the Jedi council not know about the Sith?

I can't get over this particular scene, it really gets to me.
Chancellor: "Master Yoda, do you think it will really come to war?" (Now, who could be imagined to promote such a thing??)
Yoda: "The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is." (What about focussing on seeing the present, sitting right in front of him?)

And Padme: "I think Count Dooku is behind it."
A non-Jedi needs to tell them what's going on, and after they are told, they still don't believe it.

Their blindness couln't be illustrated more clearly than in this scene. And Palpatine, he really must have enjoyed meetings with the Jedi Council. Must have been a lot of fun for him.

 

Alpha-Red posted:

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I think the prophecy just said the chosen one would bring balance to the Force. Didn't say anything about destroying the Sith or anything.

[hr]
Obi Wan: You were the Chosen one! It was said you would destroy the Sith not join them! Bring balance to the Force not leave it in darkness!

 

The Jedi Council didn't know about the Sith because the Sith had used their powers to blind the Jedi Order. Sidious didn't want the Jedi to know about his identity until he had absolute power and there was nothing they could do to stop it; Sidious manipulated the Force to keep the Jedi in the dark.

 

As Dooku said to Obi-Wan, "The dark side of the force has clouded their judgement." Clouded the Jedi council he means, so they don't know what's going on in the senate until it's too late.

 

They could of known from the Jedi Archieve.

Good Stuff

 

"The Dark Side clouds everything."

"Hard to see, the Dark Side is."

 

This is a long-winded answer. But I believe it gets to the heart of the matter.

The Jedi of the PT were like cosmic beancounters - they over-concerned themselves with wanting everything to match up and continually looked to the future for guidance and/or fretted about it how it would ultimately manifest itself. This was self-defeating. Yoda later tells Luke that the future is "always in motion" and he should not pre-occupy himself with things that aren't certain. Even in The Phantom Meance, before Yoda had declared that "the shroud of the Dark Side [had] fallen", he told Anakin that his future was clouded. Ironically, Yoda used it as initial justification that Anakin shouldn't be trained - contrary to his own advice to Luke about not making decisions based on unfixed outcomes.

It was this rigidity and blatant illogic that so frustrated Qui Gon and put him at odds with the Council. Because of their slavish adherence to trying to "police" the relative and unpredictable nature of the cosmos itself (or, in the Borg Queen's words, to "bring order to chaos"), the Jedi had blinded themselves to greater truths. But Qui Gon hadn't. He actively embraced not just the dynamic qualities of the cosmos but all that it entailed - namely, that feelings, which are equally dynamic and volatlie, are important. Feelings, if kept in check but not ignored, give us an intuitive, adaptive way of dealing with day-to-day occurences, and more importantly, allow us to live more colourful and enriching lives. The Jedi Council seemed to be coming round to this way of thinking in Revenge of the Sith (Obi Wan tells Anakin to "use his feelings" and Yoda then later uses that same phrase on Obi Wan). Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. Or perhaps it was merely another example of the Council's unrecognised hypocrisy.

As a consequence of their complete desire for an orderly universe, the Jedi Council became obsessed with attenuating and smoothing out the rough patches. Thus, to the Jedi Council, feelings were not necessarily to be stamped out, but they were to be treated with extreme caution. The Dark Side was always ready to snatch up those pesky emotions and the persons that gave into them. Rules and codes were devised and all Jedi were expected to obey them for the good of themselves, the Order and the galaxy. These codes, expressly forbidding intimate relationships and showing a disregard for base emotions, were good codes - but their enforcement was strict and unchanging. Thus, like weeds in a flower bed, dogma sprang up and slowly chocked the Counci's good intentions. Padawan's had to fall in line with the Council's values, and to ensure the highest levels of conformity, Force-sensitives were recruited young - very young. Once the Order had been destroyed, Yoda and Obi Wan chose to give Luke and Leia away. It was a choice born out of necessity more than anything else. But it was still a choice. And it was a good one. Although Luke dangerously skirted the Dark Side, he ultimately saw it for what it was and it ceased to have any power over him. Luke was an expansive gamble - but it paid off. With high risks come high rewards. Luke was a high risk but he found and brought about the highest reward.

So, what does all of that have to do with the Jedi being able to sense - or not sense - the Sith? Palpatine is the greatest Dark Side user in the entire saga; just what the heck is he doing under the Jedi's noses all the while? Why can hardly anyone sense anything at all? Quite simply, the Dark Side is alien to the Jedi. It's something they think they know all about, but by strongly coding against it, they've numbed their senses to it. How is a body meant to fight infection if it doesn't know WHAT that infection is? One can only acquire the appropriate antibodies if one's immune system is familiar with that particular strain. Palpatine is a new strain. The Jedi have no antibodies to fight him with. They're only hope is their brute force method - use the Force to look into the future and hope it comes up with something. Unfortunately, Palpatin

 

Brilliant analysis.