There are people who have done legitimate scholarly work on the impact of Star Wars in our society. I offer the following up as further, though anecdotal, evidence that Star Wars is perhaps bigger than we might like to think.

First, a comprehensive analysis of who was doing what in the period of time spanning the first and second trilogies:

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope

And here is an article on the “Clone Wars” written 27 years ago:

Considering Star Wars, 27 years ago

The important thing here isn’t the fan fervor, though that’s interesting – it’s the 25 years separating these two works. Very rarely does our society maintain its focus and interest in anything for 25 years, let alone science fiction (or “speculative fiction” as some prefer). Star Trek is the only other major SF franchise that boasts the same sort of prominence in our society.

I don’t really know why I think this is a big deal, but I do. I would bet that largish portions of our society are more well-versed in the philosophies and characters of the Star Wars canon then the Bible or the Torah or American history or whatever. Star Wars is one of the few things that most of our society shares in common any more. What this will result in, I don’t know.