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C O L L E C T I O N S |
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DUNE CHRONICLES
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| Bene Gesserit Sayings |
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These are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must
promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is
the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a
good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious
talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the
ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness . . . From the Instruction Manual: Missionaria Protectiva Children of Dune
Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic
forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as
the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively
in the interests of the ruling class -- whether that class be hereditary
royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.
If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you
believe something is right or wrong, true of flase, you believe the
assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are
often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced.
Those who would repeat the past must control
the teaching of history.
Rules build up fortifications behind which small minds
create satrapies. A perilous state of affairs in the best
of times, disastrous during crises.
We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.
Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point
of your life. The object can be stated this way: Live the
best life you can. Life is a game whose rules you learn if
you leap into it and play it to the hilt. Otherwise, you
are caught off balance, continually surprised by the
shifting play. Non-players often whine and complain that
luck always passes them by. They refuse to see that they
can create some of their own luck.
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts
but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people
have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition
to which they are quickly addicted.
Religion (emulation of adults by the child) encysts past
mythologies: guesses, hidden assumptions of trust in the
universe, pronouncements made in search of personal power,
all mingled with shreds of enlightenment. And always an
unspoken commandment: Thou shalt not question! We break
that commandment daily in the harnessing of human
imagination to our deepest creativity.
Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit.
This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of
history have based their job security.
We do not teach history; we recreate the experience. We
follow the chain of consequences -- the tracks of the beast
in its forest. Look behind our words and you see the broad
sweep of social behavior that no historian has ever touched.
They say Mother Superior can disregard nothing -- a meaningless
aphorism until you grasp its other significance: I am the
servant of all my Sisters. They watch their servant with
critical eyes. I cannot spend too much time on generalities nor
on trivia. Mother Superior must display insightful action else a
sense of disquiet penetrates to the farthest corners of our
order.
All states are abstractions.
Some never participate. Life happens to them. They get by on
little more than dumb persistence and resist with anger or
violence. all things that might life them out of resentment-filled
illusions of security.
Do not depend only on theory if your life is at stake.
Major flaws in government arise from a fear of making radical
internal changes even though a need is clearly seen.
A major concept guides the Missionaria Protectiva: Purposeful
instruction of the masses. This is firmly seated in our
belief that the aim of argument should be to change the nature
of truth. In such matters, we prefer the use of power rather
than force.
The best art imitates life in a compelling way. If it imitates a
dream, it must be a dream of life. Otherwise, there is no place
where we can connect. Our plugs don't fit.
Humans are born with a susceptibility to that most persistent
and debilitating disease of intellect: self-deception. The best
of all possible worlds and the worst get their dramatic coloration
from it. As nearly as we can determine, there is no natural
immunity. Constant alertness is required.
Give me the judgment of balanced minds in preference to laws every
time. Codes and manuals create patterned behavior. All patterned
behavior tends to go unquestioned, gathering destructive
momentum.
No sweeteners will cloak some forms of bitterness. If it tastes
bitter, spit it out. That's what our earliest ancestors did.
Enter no conflict against fanatics unless you can defuse
them. Oppose a religion with another religion only if your
proofs (miracles) are irrefutable or if you can mesh in a
way that the fanatics accept you as god-inspired. This has
long been the barrier to science assuming a mantle of divine
revelation. Science is so obviously man-made. Fanatics know
where you stand, but more important, must recognize who
whispers in your ear.
We walk a delicate line, perpetuating Atreides (Siona) genes
in our population because that hides us from prescience.
We carry the Kwisatz Haderach in that bag! Willfulness
created Muad'dib. Prophets make predictions come true! Will
we ever again dare ignore our Tao sense and cater to a
culture that hates the chance and begs for prophecy?
We witness a passing phrase of eternity. Important things
happen but some people never notice. Accidents intervene. You
are not present at episodes. You depend on reports. And
people shutter their minds. What good are reports? History in
a news account? Preselected at an editorial conference,
digested and excreted by prejudice? Accounts you need seldom
come from those who make history. Diaries, memoirs and
autobiographies are subjective forms of special pleading.
Archives are crammed with such suspect stuff
Spend energies on those who make you strong. Energy spent on
weaklings drags you to doom. (HM rule) Bene Gesserit
Commentary: Who judges?
Religion must be accepted as a source of energy. It can be
directed for our purposes, but only within limits that
experience reveals. He is the secret meaning of Free Will.
One household god is this thing we carry forward generation
after generation: our message for humankind if it matures.
The closest thing we have to a household goddess is a failed
Reverend Mother -- Chenoeh there in her niche.
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek
discipline and find your liberty.
Making workable choices occurs in a crucible of informative
mistakes. Thus Intelligence accepts fallibility. And when
absolute (infallible) choices are not known, Intelligence
takes chance with limited data in an arena where mistakes
are not only possible but also necessary.
Do not be quick to reveal judgment. Hidden judgment often is
more potent. It can guide reactions whose effects are felt
only when too late to divert them.
When you think to take determination of your fate into your
own hands, that is the moment you can be crushed. Be
cautious. Allow for surprises. When we create, there are
always other forces at work.
There's no secret to balance. You just have to feel the
waves.
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