xhonzi said:
Hmmm.....
How long would it take for these attitudes to develop, do you think? Or do you think there were never 10,000 Jedi?
Just going on impressions, its hard to imagine the galaxy-spanning monastic order from the PT, who were involved in everything and known and respected by everyone, including being a semi-official part of the galactic government, could in 19 years become not only eliminated, but discounted.
If the Jedi were accused, disgraced, and outlawed (as in the PT) there might very well be strong anti-Jedi sentiment, but I don't think apathy (calling it 'hokey') would be evident so soon. Han was about 10 years old when the Clone Wars happened and Jedi superwarriors WON that war. If the Jedi had ever been that significant, my guess would be it would take a generation or two before that kind of talk was common.
I think what seems likely is that Jedi were not major players on the galactic stage in the decades before the OT. Perhaps even in the NPT Jedi are Quixotic relics of a better golden-age. Knight errants doing good, but not single-handedly shaking the stars. "Idealistic crusaders," not the galaxy's police-force.
Perhaps a couple Jedi served as the President of the Galaxy's bodyguard, and tales of them would circulate the Outer Rim of how Jedi arrive and fight for justice, making Jedi legendary, special, and rare.
The closest analogy I can think of would be the modernization of Japan in the late 1800s, where the Samurai rapidly became very unpopular, but that was part of a major cultural and technological transformation. I don't know how well that would echo in "Star Wars" style space opera.