Obi-Wan tells Anakin that “Only the Sith deal in absolutes”, and uses that as his identification that Anakin had actually turned to the Dark Side.
But it would seem the statement itself “Only the Sith deal in absolutes” would be an absolute statement itself, and that his rash actions based on this single statement is just as ‘Sith-like’ as Anakin’s statement of “Either you’re with me or against me” (paraphrased, I forget the exact statement.)
Is this not a very clear indicator that the Dark Side is present in all who use the force, and reinforces Palpatine’s assertion that the Jedi are simply blind to the powers of the dark Side instead embracing their full potential?
Out-of-universe, this is a pot of message situation – Lucas wanted to connect the Sith to statements that President Bush had made that Lucas presumably regarded as insufficiently nuanced. It’s a real clunker of a line, given that it’s truly the Jedi who view the world in Manichean “Light side / Dark side” terms. But that’s hardly the only clunker in the movie.
“Anakin, you’re breaking my heart” comes to mind…
Nevertheless, I think the line can be interpreted to make a little sense…Obi-Wan merely expressed himself a little clumsily (can you blame him, giving the circumstances?). One can imagine the following, more elegant exchange:
Anakin: In the circumstances surrounding loyalty, fealty and overall alignment of purpose and action, one is either of entirely one mind with the person so referred to by the practice of the perpendicular pronoun, or one must be said to be in a state colloquially referred to as being “at odds”. Any state of matters which can be said to be as falling within these two extremes is so insufficiently asseverative as to be fundamentally and wholly indistinguishable from opposition.
Obi-Wan: Individuals or persons not counting themselves among the number of those who refer to themselves as “the Sith”, would be hard-pressed to make a statement as utterly categorical, and not admitting, upon mature reflection, of views which, at the end of the day, would have to be said to be more balanced (in an, of course, non-epistemological fashion) and, frankly, more sophisticated.