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Who could have predicted that he would turn the hero myth of Paul Atreides upside down in the space of the first two novels in the Dune series, and show a dark path that humanity might find itself on if it followed a charismatic leader? This is a significant message, an urgent social warning that governments and leaders lie.
Frank liked this
All rebellions are ordinary and an ultimate bore. They are copied out of the same pattern, one much like another. The driving force is adrenalin addiction and the desire to gain personal power. All rebels are closet aristocrats. That’s why I can convert them so easily.
“The art of government requires that you never give up the initiative to radical elements,”
“Isn’t that what radicals are trying to do? Aren’t they trying to shake things up so they can grab control?” “That’s what they think they’re doing. Actually, they’re creating new extremists, new radicals and they are continuing the old process.”
There has never been a truly selfless rebel, just hypocrites—conscious hypocrites or unconscious hypocrites, it’s all the same.”
I assure you from a God’s Olympian perch that government is a shared myth. When the myth dies, the government dies.”
Let it be noted that our breeding program achieved the Kwisatz Haderach one generation early. In becoming Muad’Dib, the leader of the Fremen, Paul Atreides escaped from our control. There is no doubt that he was a male with the powers of a Reverend Mother and other powers for which humankind still is paying a heavy price.
Frank liked this
“Why should I want to loose a religion upon my people? Religions wreck from within—Empires and individuals alike! It’s all the same.”
I distrust the extremes. Scratch a conservative and you find someone who prefers the past over any future. Scratch a liberal and find a closet aristocrat. It’s true! Liberal governments always develop into aristocracies. The bureaucracies betray the true intent of people who form such governments. Right from the first, the little people who formed the governments which promised to equalize the social burdens found themselves suddenly in the hands of bureaucratic aristocracies.
The problem of leadership is inevitably: Who will play God?
when you think you know something, that is a most perfect barrier against learning?”
Police always observe that criminals prosper. It takes a pretty dull policeman to miss the fact that the position of authority is the most prosperous criminal position available.”
Prisons are needed only to provide the illusion that courts and police are effective. They’re a kind of job insurance.”
“Never attempt to reason with people who know they are right!” “But when you know they are wrong . . .”
“Reason is valuable,” he said, “only when it performs against the wordless physical background of the universe.”
Governments can be useful to the governed only so long as inherent tendencies toward tyranny are restrained. Monarchies have some good features beyond their star qualities. They can reduce the size and parasitic nature of the management bureaucracy. They can make speedy decisions when necessary. They fit an ancient human demand for a parental (tribal/feudal) hierarchy where every person knows his place.
History is a constant race between invention and catastrophe. Education helps but it’s never enough. You also must run.”
