Lessons from Paul Atreides: Fear Charismatic Politicians
Reflections from my favourite book series
Recently brought back to the consciousness of the public by two excellent films, Dune is a 1965 Sci-Fi epic written by Frank Herbert; it is the first of six books.
Dune is set 20,000 years in the future and is based in a universe dominated by the Imperium— a galactic empire that spans 10,000 planets and is controled by a single Emperor.
The book follows the main character Paul Atreides, heir to the Dukedom of the House Atreides and a member of the ruling class, on his journey from his home planet of Caladan to the planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. It is centred around the conflict between his house and their enemies in the Imperium.
The Dune universe is run by a drug called the ‘spice melange’. The spice enables faster than light travel. It also has the key effect of lengthening life and increasing mental ability. The entire economy of the Imperium is dependant on spice, without which the empire would collapse.
The only place in the known universe that has the spice melange is Arrakis. This makes the planet the key focus of the empire and the choice of its ruler an extremely important one.
Herbert was a visionary; his work inspired many other sci-fi classics, such as Star Wars. He was intensely interested in ecology and environmentalism but also was a staunch libertarian—for those unaware, libertarianism is an ideology explicitly anti-government. Libertarians are highly cynical of government and politicians. This is the backdrop against which Dune must be viewed. This isn't so obvious in the first book but becomes clearer in later additions.
[Spoiler Warning if you haven’t watched both the Dune Movies]
Dune is a deconstruction of a hero’s journey. It places the reader with a highly charismatic main character who is slightly lost in his fate to become the Duke of this great house. However, after the betrayal of his family by the Emperor and the Atreides enemy House Harkonnen he is forced to use prophecy to enact his revenge on his enemies— Paul is actually related to many of the people he seeks revenge on, the story is highly focused on the few elite.
Paul however quickly becomes trapped by prophecy and leads a jihad against the known universe killing 61,000,000,000 people.
Herbert was very intentional in how he wrote Paul’s anti-hero’s journey. He presents the Atreides as a family of well-meaning heroes who unleash chaos on the people they want to save. This is because Herbert wrote Dune as a cautionary tale about the influence of charismatic leaders.
“I wrote the Dune series because I had this idea that charismatic leaders ought to come with a warning label on their forehead: "May be dangerous to your health." One of the most dangerous presidents we had in this century was John Kennedy because people said "Yes Sir Mr. Charismatic Leader what do we do next?" and we wound up in Vietnam. And I think probably the most valuable president of this century was Richard Nixon. Because he taught us to distrust government and he did it by example.”
— Frank Herbert
A major plot line of Dune focuses on the Bene Gesserit— a clan of witches (key to note is they do not actually have magical powers, they were just highly trained) whose objective is to control the Imperium in the shadows. They have over thousands of years been using genetic breeding programs to produce the "Kwisatz Haderach"— a prophesised figure that has prescience.
Paul is meant to be one of the many experiments with the potential of being the Kwisatz Haderach. On arrival in Arrakis, he is told that the Bene Gesserit had planted prophecies amongst the local people (known as the Freman) in case a Bene Gesserit ever needed to manipulate the population for their survival.
The plot of Dune leads Paul to use the prophecies placed amongst the Fremen to enact his revenge on those who wronged his family. Whilst we as viewers are presented with the idea that Paul is an unwilling victim to fate, dragged along to commit jihad. This view fails to contend with the fact that Paul manipulates the Freman to help him step into the role of the Duke and the Kwisatz Haderach. He is then dragged by the tide of the those prophecies into a jihad that kills billions, yet shows no remorse for his actions.
He however, was not required to manipulate the Freman, he made the choice to leverage the power in front of him to seek revenge. We as a reader know that the divinity with which the Freman see Paul is actually fake. And only a result of the prophecy planted by the Bene Gesserit.
Paul is not a hero, his actions are motivated by self-preservation and vengeance against those who have wronged him. Readers will find themselves rooting for him because he is presented as the more virtuous option in the story— a common theme with the Atredies is they treat their men well. Yet Paul is still a member of a brutal ruling class, he is almost alien to our conception of morality and is more than willing to use and abuse anyone on his path to power.
Some contend that Frank misunderstands his own story because Paul is shown visions of helping humanity survive into a future age. Therefore his actions are for the common good of humanity. Yet every dictator would argue the same about their motives for seizing control.
“Here lies a toppled god.
His fall was not a small one.
We did but build his pedestal,
A narrow and a tall one.”
— Frank Herbert
Why does this ultimately matter?
Dune was a story written in the 1960s by a long-dead author, yet as is common with all literature, the story it is trying to tell us has strong echoes.
We live in a period of instability; politicians have a tendency to exploit this with antics and charisma. One only has to look at the United States with Barack Obama and Donald Trump—no matter your politics, you can't deny that he, to many, is charismatic, or to the United Kingdom with Tony Blair, Boris Johnson, and Nigel Farage.
They are politicians with strong cults of personality, aided by their charisma, that allows them to do no wrong in the eyes of their supporters— see for example Obama’s many bombing campaigns. That is extremely dangerous. No matter how much you agree with a person's politics, to be trapped by their personality blinds you to their actions.
This, of course, is an entirely human response, often largely subconscious. From at least my own experience, I think it is key to remember that becoming a politician is not an accidental act; to seek election, to rise amongst the ranks, to go for the top jobs—it takes a very particular person with a cutthroat attitude and a slightly psychotic personality to get there.
To then perform essentially hero worship upon them is highly questionable, as they are likely to disappoint you whilst the wool is over your eyes.
This is not to say that every politician is a wolf in sheep's clothing. I have met many absolutely lovely MPs from every side of the political divide. Most of them are just people who wanted to serve their local community and thought they were the right person for the job. But I would certainly not trust them any more than necessary. And that is the lesson I think Herbert was trying to teach his readers.
“Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.”
― Frank Herbert