Csak angolul.

This is a text I originally published as a story-series on Instagram, but would like to give you this way as well.

“My Dear Followers,

I wish to share something personal with you. Yes, we still remain on the ground of Arrakis and the Dune Universe, but now I do not want to get into any kind of ‘fanboy’ thing… it is hard to start, but I feel now that all of my surfaces this small but devoted community of mine here, on Instagram is the one where I can put this. I would like to talk about the war in Ukraine, so if you would be so kind to follow my thoughts, I would appreciate it very much, if you are already fed up with this topic, that I can understand, then today’s stories are not for you.

So, where to begin. Yesterday evening with my wife we were watching a vlog session where the speakers were talking about the situation and their own responsibilities in connection with it, as all three of them has a larger community on Instagram and besides their main interests are not in connection with it but felt the need to say something about the war for their followers, only even that they are frightened as well and try to do their best. This ‘set my mind in motion’ and felt the need also to give something for you that is me and I can tell without acting like an expert and give false impressions.

So I be what I am: a scholar of popular culture and humanities who loves to read, think and tell other people about the results. Last week on my course on the representation of power and politics in popular culture we had almost a whole session on Dune, and naturally some aspects of it could be easily connected to the present war in Ukraine. I am really grateful for my dear international students for bringing in all of their thoughts and opinions about it. Let’s start with an obvious but important statement: Dune is (either only the first novel or all the six written by Herbert) is a Warning. With a capital W. A Warning about the nature of power, wealth and zealotry.

The political environment of Dune is a Mexican standoff: all the powers govern a vital part of the whole Universe whereas if any of them would oppose the others would make the whole system collapse. We have the Emperor, head of the structure, the Great Houses in a manner of quasi-feudalism in the Landsraad, the Spacing Guild governing interstellar travel, the CHOAM regulating Spice trade, the planet Arrakis and its ruling House ensuring Spice production (the most important substance) and the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the key religious organization in the Galaxy. It may seem that it is power in balance, but in reality it only ensures the collapse and imbalance of power.

But what does all of it has with the war in Ukraine? In one word: everything. Our hero on Arrakis is Paul Atreides with a prophetic vision about a holy war (originally: Jihad) that would be started by him. As he tries to avoid this fate as in a Greek tragedy he runs towards it. After the extermination of his family by their arch enemy, the Harkonnen family he goes to exile to the indeginious tribe of the Fremen on Arrakis, just to become Muad’dib, the prophet of the Fremen and unleash the war on the Harkonnen and the whole Imperium, swiping away the Emperor and billions of lives.

He is regarded as the Messiah, the Lisan al-Gaib, the Mahdi by the Fremen based on the Missionaria Protectiva, an artificially planted religious belief of the Bene Gesserit, to ensure the security of their members anywhere in the Galaxy. Lady Jessica, the mother of Paul is a Bene Gesserit sister, ultiamtely becoming part of the religious zealot movement of the Fremen and helping Paul in his Jihad. So, supposedly false information becomes a drive for a brutal and unnecessary war.

Spice Melange may be the parallel to oil and gas in our (and back in the ’60s, during Herbert’s time) age, but the Missionaria Protectiva serves like disinformation. But as this term is rather new, we may say it is like propaganda, that creates zealotry and fanaticism that only leads to bloodshed or even genocide. When I first heard that Chechen soldiers, known as Kadyrovites are present in Ukraine who are regarded as nationalists and religious fanatics at an instant I have seen both the Sardaukar and the Fedaykin (the Fremen elite warriors of Muad’dib) with my eyes.

Both the Sardaukar and the Fedaykin are only the instruments of brutality and should not be regarded as morally good or bad, ‘only’ fanatics. It is important to see that in the end the story of Dune is a vendetta, but involving the whole universe, starting in a small scale (including two Houses, one planet and the intervention of the Emperor’s army), from being local to burst out to everywhere. And if I mention that the Atreides and the Harkonnens are cousins of each other this picture becomes even more frightening, as Russians and Ukranians are also regarded to be closely related to each other.

Both on my courses and in my social media feeds I always try to educate people about the world and its wider context. So, if you could get to this point in this story-feed I hope you see why I wrote that Dune is a Warning. A timeless lesson for all humanity that should be read and understood by all who are willing to think and are in connection with power, anywhere in their lives. Now I only can hope that the ‘dispute’ of two Great Houses will not lead to the unleashing of the Fedaykin to the Known Universe.

Thank you for your time.

Best,
Doktor Metal a.k.a. the Metal Mythologist”