Chapterhouse: Dune (Dune, #6)

by Frank Herbert

“Wave the pretty cape. They’ll charge it and be confused when there’s no matador behind the thing. That dulls the electorate just as it dulls the bull. Fewer people use their vote intelligently next time.” “And that’s why we do it!” We do it! Does she listen to herself? “Then you rail against the apathetic electorate. Make them feel guilty. Keep them dull. Feed them. Amuse them. Don’t overdo it!” “Oh, no! Never overdo it.” “Let them know hunger awaits them if they don’t fall into line. Give them a look at the boredom imposed on boat rockers.” Thank you, Mother Superior. It’s an appropriate image. “Don’t you let the bull get an occasional matador?” “Of course. Thump! Got that one! Then you wait for the laughter to subside.”

THis is very much I feel about that LA Clippers owner.

“Histories focus on confrontations. Some truth in that but it hides more persistent things that go on in spite of upheavals.” “Persistent things?” “What history touches the woman in the rice paddy driving her water buffalo ahead of her plow while her husband is off somewhere, most likely a conscript, carrying a weapon?” “Why is that persistent and more important than ...” “Her babies at home need food. Man’s away on this perennial madness? Someone has to do the plowing. She’s a true image of human persistence.” “You sound so bitter ... I find that odd.” “Considering my military history?” “That, yes, the Bene Gesserit emphasis on ... on their Bashar and elite troops and ...” “You think they’re just more self-important people going on about their self-important violence? They’ll ride right over the woman with her plow?” “Why not?” “Because very little escapes them. The violent ones ride past the plowing woman and seldom see they have touched basic reality. A Bene Gesserit would never miss such a thing.”