When Luke Skywalker first met Obi-Wan Kenobi in the deserts of Tatooine in Star Wars, he had no idea how little he knew. From that moment on, his education on the Force and how to wield a lightsaber began. Kenobi would go on to utter the now-classic line, "This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age." However, as it turns out, that line was pretty hypocritical.
During the reign of the Galactic Republic, the peace was maintained by the Jedi Order. Thousands of Jedi roamed the galaxy, conducting honest negotiations as well as their fair share of aggressive negotiations. The goal for the Order was always peace but violence was acceptable when it became necessary. To defend themselves, the weapon carried by the Jedi was the lightsaber, something that was as important to the Order as the Force itself.
Those words spoken by Obi-Wan Kenobi echoed the feelings of the Jedi Order as a whole. Few, if any, Jedi carried a blaster during the age of the Republic, viewing it as an undignified weapon that was beneath them. In reality, though, the Jedi's feelings about blasters were a prime example of the kind of arrogance that brought their entire order crumbling down.
Not carrying a blaster and relying on a lightsaber was a way of elevating themselves above their opponents, as well as the rest of the galaxy. It was emblematic of the kind of arrogance Palpatine was able to take advantage of to implement his grandiose plan, drawing the Jedi into a war they could never win. Even worse, it was incredibly hypocritical of the Jedi to be so dismissive of blasters.
On the battlefield during the Clone Wars, the Jedi were flanked by hundreds of thousands of Clone Troopers who used blasters. And unlike Stormtroopers, Clones could actually hit a target. The reality is that men with blasters saved the lives of the Jedi every day during the Clone Wars. As shown in the Geonosis scene in Attack of the Clones, the Jedi would have been overrun by the Separatist battle droids without the Clones and their uncivilized weapons.
But it was especially hypocritical of Obi-Wan to denigrate blasters. Obi-Wan had two major nemeses during the Clone Wars, Maul and General Grievous. He would finally kill Maul in the deserts of Tatooine many years after the war, but during the conflict, Kenobi faced Grievous in multiple lightsaber duels, and was never able to defeat him.
Then just moments before Order 66 was issued, Obi-Wan faced down General Grievous on the planet of Utapau. The Jedi Master had lost his lightsaber and was definitely at a disadvantage. As Grievous came in for the kill, Obi-Wan got his hands on a blaster and shot the general to death. He then got to his feet, tossed the blaster to the side and called it uncivilized.
After years of failing to kill Grievous with a lightsaber, Obi-Wan finally defeated him with a blaster and still couldn't show the weapon any respect. Fortunately for Star Wars Rebels' Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, they let such pointless misgivings go and they put blasters to good use against the Empire. Maybe if the Jedi had used every weapon at their disposal, then Palpatine wouldn't have gotten the upper hand so easily.