I have re-read Dune lately for the umpteenth time. Each time I do I catch more and more of what (I think) Herbert was trying to do. In my opinion he was showing the inevitable. Humans as a species cannot move forward without moving backwards every so often. He portrays this through his protangonist Paul Atriedes’ ability to see all possible futures (prescient vision). Paul constantly sees holy war (I’d use the more common term, but you know….I fear my governement). He sees the people of Dune, the Fremen, waving the flag of his House and engulfing the known universe in war. From what I have read of Dune and what I have read of (synopsis) the other Dune books he fails for the most part. And after reading this story and researching I see that Herbert never wanted him to stop it. Herbert’s ultimate point (once again in my opinion) was that the best thing for humanity was war and hardship. Something, anything, to force the human race out of its self deafeating slumber of eventual extinction and get moving forward again.
I bring this up because of something Weesa and I were talking about. We had recorded the Histroy Channel’s special on the Dark Ages and we were watching it before Heroes came on last night. I cannot remember the exact wording but she basically asked me why I thought humanity is destined to repeat it’s history. My first answer was of course because we have not learned from it. After saying that was not the case, the memory of the Dune book popped into my head. I said to her that it was a ‘genetic itch’ that humanity has that creates a need to refresh the gene pool every so often. It seems to happen when we became to complacent. It is an interesting idea if you think about it.