Re-reading Dune:
Mar. 20th, 2003 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyYou know, as Lord of the Rings is to lovers of language, Dune is to people who are interested in politics. It should be required reading for every politician.
When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement becomes headlong — faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late.
Every revolution carries the seeds for its own destruction.
In politics, the tripod is the most unstable of all structures.
Politics and philosophy.
What do you despise? By this are you truly known.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step ahead of logic.
Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox. How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite.
Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well.
This quote speaks to me of Willow:
It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement becomes headlong — faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late.
Every revolution carries the seeds for its own destruction.
In politics, the tripod is the most unstable of all structures.
Politics and philosophy.
What do you despise? By this are you truly known.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step ahead of logic.
Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox. How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite.
Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well.
This quote speaks to me of Willow:
It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-03-20 08:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-03-20 10:07 pm (UTC)But I haven't read the books in ages, which is why I'm rereading them now. To see if I still like them.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-03-22 05:49 am (UTC)"So what do we do? Surround him with enemies all the time?"
"If we have to."
Re:
Date: 2003-03-22 07:56 am (UTC)*looks around*
I know I have a copy somewhere...
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-08 06:30 am (UTC)A few dictators could have paid heed to that...
I love the fear litany. I got a wee bit freaked out by thunderstorms this weekend, and caught myself beginning. I started laughing at myself and forgot about being scared.
And I agree on the quote... maybe something Giles' taught her in England?
Re:
Date: 2003-04-08 02:04 pm (UTC)