DUNE MEME

 

 

 

IS EARTH BECOMING A DUNE PLANET?
Allegory, Archetype & Prophecy

By Iona Miller, 10/2008

CULT CLASSIC: In the fight for dwindling resources, we are running out of increasingly scarce oil. Climate change brings on desertification and privatization of water. We are in an OILogarchy, fighting full-spectrum mind control, ubiquitous drugs, religious cults, imperialism, face-dancing spooks, corporate feudalism, elitist families, class war, secret societies, would-be saviors, AI, clones, cyborgs, genetic manipulation and Jihad. Our Earth is becoming more and more like DUNE, the desert planet. Frank Herbert called it decades ago. But where is our mything link, our Dune Messiah?

“A process cannot be understood by stopping it.”
“The real universe is always one step beyond logic.”

Dune - Desert Planet

The prophetic epic DUNE (1965) by Frank Herbert (1920-1986) is one of the most phenomenal science fiction successes of all time. Conceived as an 11th Millennium trilogy, this first literary science fiction novel remains the most popular, most influential and most critically acclaimed novel/series in the genre. Not since Stranger in a Strange Land had a sci fi novel made such an impact. Its spin-offs seem endless. There are sequels and prequels, commentary and amplifications of the Duniverse.

Film versions, unfortunately, failed to capture the richness of character and detail contained in the novels, fed by individual imagination. But Dune still has many fans though they don’t dress up like Fremen and Harkonnens or call themselves Duneiacs.

Interstellar Conspiracy

Dune is a barren planet entirely covered in vast oceanic sand dunes that conceal a hidden treasure -- the Spice Mélange. The great Imperial Houses of the Empire fight religious orders and fierce guerrilla warriors over this single unique commodity that is more precious than anything. Machiavellian plots and subplots twist and turn in fractal reiterations through this unforgiving landscape concealing a monstrous secret and an unbridled demiurgic power.

Dune focuses on the dynamics of power and the mass manipulation of unconscious dynamics, of the mythic dimension. The unique feature of Dune's messianic superhero, Paul Atreides, was his ability to see, shape, and intentionally build the future from the zero point of a cosmic maelstrom. In an almost prescient anticipation of chaos theory and complexity, Dune explores the influential introjection of the unforeseen critical element and its intergalactic butterfly effect.

Amplified Awareness

Tensions in the Duniverse are based on competing visionary dreams amplified by mind-expanding techniques. To the ordinary, the edible "Spice of Life" is energizing, heightens awareness and supercharges the immune system. It means different things to different transhuman factions.

For some, it is mutagenic, for others, transformative, and others transmutational. To the Spacing Guild Navigators, it means the ability to transmogrify and see safe routes for navigation as they fold space and time. The Guild must ensure that the spice and commerce flow throughout this fragile civilization. David Bohm's holographic theory describes such enfolded dimensions of space, but it did not exist in the mid-60s.

For the psiops-trained Reverend Mothers it means life extension by hundreds of years, precognitive trances and genetic memory. For the Fremen, their tribal bond and spiritual sacrament, 'the blood of God' gives them insight, guidance and communal rapport. But for Dune's fated superhero, the Kwisatz Haderach, product of an elite breeding program, it means riding the apocalyptic whirlwind.

But the cinnamon-flavored spice's dark side is that it is highly addictive. Once you take it you cannot and dare not ever stop ingesting it, as withdrawal is fatal. As in alchemy the cure and the poison are one in the same. The more spice you consume, the more you need to consume and the more addicted you become. This is the nature of the Elixir Vitae, the Philosopher's Stone, and “the Water of Life," the nectar of immortality and wisdom, the most precious thing.

A symbol of wealth, it is the most valuable commodity in the Universe, as oil is in our own. Without it, commerce and transport grind to halt. Who can deny Herbert's metaphor that implies we are addicted to oil as our Holy Grail of energy? And that addiction is as fearsome as the primordial sandworms that would eat you alive with their CO2 breath yet have spawned this awesome quintessence.

For the superhero, spice brings a reversal of fate that blinds the normal eyes even as it opens hyperdelic vision and consumes all semblance of humanity. The water of life makes a mythic mystic of the man, initiating him at the cosmic zero point where all timelines and all mass motivations of the Collective Unconscious can be sensed in the ultimate probability cloud. It is a mind-blowing experience. They say that, "He who controls the spice controls the universe." But the fact is spice controls everything and everybody in the Duniverse.

Dune Buggies

Every good sci fi novel needs a creature feature - something so alien and unknowable it's beyond previous conception. Herbert came up with his after writing an article on on the shifting dunes of the Oregon Coast. Classic sci fi's perennial favorites are mammoth insects, spiders, reptiles or snakes. Anything that creeps or is chthonic represents the primordial unconscious, raw instinct.

Like the phallus, the demiurgic worms of Dune are the Maker. Grow even a lowly earthworm big enough and it becomes an object of veneration. Lucas stole the idea (and many others) in “Star Wars” for Jabba the Hut. He appropriated many other dramatic elements of Dune, as well, tweaking them just enough to suit his tale while keeping the psychological hooks strong.

In Dune's case, the venerated animal/god is a gargantuan phallic worm with psychedelic sperm that erupts in quasi-orgasmic sandblows. Its mouth is a yawning pit of razor-sharp cris blades. Only the bravest can ride such a dragon-like beast. It is death to others who can't escape its deadly maw quick enough when stealing its treasures.

This theme echoes stealing the treasure of the dragon. When the dragon wakes it ravages everything in its path. Those who steal the energetic treasure, the essence of immortality, are horribly punished. What a superb metaphor of the hypersexualized nature of addictive relationship. The real “maker hooks” are psychological: either you ride the beast or it rides you.

Altered Heads of States

When first released, Dune reflected the zeitgeist of its time and its still does. We still live in the persistent delusion that we control our fate but naturally we cannot compete with the raw force of infinity. But if you face that naked awareness, let it strip you and do not resist, you remain. Yet, our existence is always profoundly uncertain.

We struggle to walk a tightrope between security and adaptability. The safe course leads to stagnation. Our consciousness exists at the edge of chaos - criticality. Chaos is a deterministic non-linear process that can cause sudden shifts among a multitude of dynamic states without warning.

Tremendous upheaval and enormous consequences can emerge from seemingly trivial events. In systems, including nature and socio-political systems, criticality can lead to spontaneous self-organization. Chaos Theory calls this the creative edge. But critical states can also be catastrophic or seemingly miraculous when unexpected patterns emerge. Herbert's superhero was just such a dynamic element who lived at the nexus of all flux and paradox after his enlightenment.

Paul Atreides was a Strange Attractor of interstellar civilization, a catalyst. When the sensitivity of groups to one another's actions increase, sudden changes may occur as cascades. Scandals, betrayals and miscalculations can lead to unpredictable global changes punctuated by intense climatic, economic or political instability, including war.

Self-organizing criticality is common in politics. Trends toward greater interdependence disrupt some portion of this interdependence. Dynamic tension between competing tendencies produces generic fractal (self-similar) time series and spatial patterns. Their dynamic behavior neither dampens nor explodes. Instead, they always move towards the edge of chaos, a region where small and seemingly insignificant events can propagate and cause major cumulative changes.

Recurrent themes turn into paradox. By exposing the reader to hyperconscious imagery, in his masterpiece Herbert performs the Promethean task of bringing light to mankind - he seeks to awaken us through a journey to a parallel universe. Just as the spice awakens dormant parts and potentials in the mind, Herbert sought to awaken his reader. In that sense he initiates the very process he describes without any drugs but his spellbinding skill. Symbols are the spiritual currency of consciousness. Dune exposes the pros and cons of charismatic leadership and messianic hunger.

Writing in 1963, Herbert showed his own prescience extrapolating a world at that time 40-50 years in the future. Is Earth paralleling Dune in any ways that should raise an alarm? In the end, we have to awaken ourselves. Can we courageously and consciously enter the unknown? To do so, we have to focus on infinity as a probability cloud not a single vision. We must take a risk to shake off rigidity.

With more archetypes than “Star Wars” and more Shakespearean intrigue and complex genealogy than The Da Vinci Code, and grander scope than Laurence of Arabia, Dune resonates with nearly anyone taking the time to read through its many nuanced volumes. Herbert's messianic work also drew from universal truths of Eastern religions. The accumulated wisdom of the past injects authenticity and philosophical depth into the story. Herbert evokes challenging scenes of love, confrontation, revenge and tragedy by immersing us in his subliminal multisensory imagery.

He also gives more than a passing nod to many of the devices of the world's greatest literature and writers, drawing from the richest characterizations and themes from Greek tragedy onward. The drama is somewhere between the stories of Alexander, Oedipus and the quest for the Holy Grail. It also echoes ancient shamanic traditions from Fraser's Golden Bough, Beowulf and the global architectronics of Hesse's Glass Bead Game or The Magister Ludi.

Saint Paul and the Dragon

Dune was an evolution as much as an unashamed homage. Herbert intentionally recycled many of the best authors and literary themes from Shakespeare to Dostoyevsky to T.E. Laurence to Asimov. Gilgamesh, The Illiad and Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, King Lear, The Quran, and Lord of the Rings are among his inspirations.

Herbert explores many key themes in Dune:

* The dangers and flaws of charismatic leaders, covert action, slavish followers and the pitfalls of bureaucracy and government.
* Holistic, holographic, ecological and Systems Theory. He stressed our need to think holistically, systematically and long term.
* The relationship between religion, politics and power; sociobiology, teaching, thinking and learning.
* Human survival and evolution: the Fremen, the Sardaukar, and the Dosadi are molded by their terrible living conditions into dangerous super-races.
* Extraordinary human potential and transhumanism: Mentats, the Bene Gesserit and the Bene Tleilaxu are different visions of human possibilities.
* The nature of sanity and madness. Herbert referenced Thomas Szasz and Anti-psychiatry.
* Effects and consequences of consciousness altering chemicals, such as Spice.
* Semiotics and semantics: myths, symbols and signs, shape how we think as described in Korzybski's General Semantics and Jung’s depth psychology.

Dune reveals the raw guts of fanaticism and opportunism. It also outlines an ecology of consciousness, an experiential map for transcending the human, and describes how the worm turns. Now that we on Earth have collectively acknowledged deep crisis, ecology has become a crusade likely to intensify, drawing power players.

Dune illustrates a holistic, complex reality beyond the mechanistic worldview that deifies technology, especially artificial intelligence. It demonstrates how everything is cosmically connected. Our consciousness is bound to the fabric of reality. We create it and it creates us. We express our primal fear of uncertainty by trying to control the future. Yet enlightened paranoia may be the only rational response to today's complex world.