Resources and Relgion as sources of legitimacy and power

I must say that I thought "Dune" to be, by far, the best work we have read so far in this class. And it also helps that one of the lead characters, who happens to possess certain mystical powers, shares my name.

The interplay between religion/belief and politics is constant throughout the novel and is highly relevant to our contemporary society. "When religion and politics ride the same cart, when that cart is driven by a living holy man (baraka**), nothing can stand in their path" (508). Indeed, the legitimacy instantly ascribed to someone claiming to possess knowledge of the Supreme or to be directed by Godly powers is an amazingly strong force in politics. I made this point in an earlier post about religion, but leaders who claim to channel God or be speaking for God are much harder to effectively discredit in public to the extent that their followers will believe them. Thus, in countries where politics is strongly linked to religion, every political action is also religiously justified. Likewise, any attack against such a nation is also an attack against one's religious beliefs (I am thinking of countries such as Iran and even the US if one buys into the idea that the Bush administration is being shown the way by God (disclaimer: I don't)). Such an affront gives a population a tremendous reason to fight for its very survival should it feel threatened, and this is at the very forefront of "Clash of Civilization" politics (to borrow Huntington's term).

Also, strongly related to this is the idea of who controls scare resources. "He who can destroy a thing has the real control of it," (446) Muad'Dib recites a couple of times throughout the book. I feel that this is strongly related oil in the current global economy. The world is "addicted" to it and thus searches for it in new lands and fights for its control, similiar to the spices on Arrakis. The assertion of the Fremen in ultimately exercising their control and ownership of the spice against the Guild monopoly and the rest of the empire is similiar to the smaller, oil producing countries forming OPEC. Resources diplomacy is very much alive in "Dune" and forces societies to make harsh decisions accordingly. The culture and custom of the Fremen is based upon the scare resource of water the necessarily harsh decisions made as a result. However, for outsiders, the spices are the resource many cannot see past, as they are scare on other planets. It must be explicitly noted, however, that a society which controls something to the point where it can destroy it cannot be dependent on that thing for survival. I assume that the Fremen would be able to continue without the spice, but I don't remember it explicitly saying this.

Ultimately, it is the Muad'Dib's threat to distroy the spice reserves that gains him real power. Thus, his power is effectively a result of his religious powers and fitting the legend (which gives him legitimacy among his people) and of controlling the spice while not being dependent on it for survival (which gives him power among the Empire).

I thought the book amazing. If I had more time, I would keep expounding, but alas, duty calls.

**Baraka is the title of an amazing movie, by the way, which I highly reccomend. It's really much more of an experience than a movie.