"Dune" and Weber: The Messianic/Charismatic leader vs. power hungry professional political

I thought that a bit was Weber was a nice change from some fiction. I'm glad the majority of the course is fiction, but it's nice to have the more theoretical philosophical works. (I guess that explains why I'm not a lit major...).

A couple of Weber's points seem especially notable with concern to Dune.

When discussing the charismatic leader, Weber states,
"People do not submit to them because of any customs or statues, but because they believe in them. Such a leader does indeed live for his cause. ...The devotion of his followers...is directed toward his person and his qualities. ...Leadership has manifested itself in all parts of the globe and throughout history in the shape of two dominant figures of the past: the magician and prophet on the one hand, and the chosen warlord, gang leader, and condottiere on the other" (35).
Paul exemplifies the charismatic leader. Through no choice of his own, he has been destined by actions and special breeding long before his time that set into action the chain of events leading to his birth and his presence on Arrakis. Thus, he becomes a political by "virtue of his 'calling'" (Weber35), a calling which envelops him until Paul is the Muad'Dib and lives the prophecy. Paul's has resources that he has at his disposal, namely the Arrakan spice, which Weber says is what determines the fate of such a charismatic leader (35). Paul also fits the "magician and prophet" category from the above quote. Paul's charisma and ties to the prophecy primarily are what give him legitimacy.

Comparing Paul as a charismatic figure of the "magician prophet" variety to the more professional politician types Weber describes highlights some interesting questions with regard to Dune. Paul ultimately triumphs over the more professional politicals in Dune. The Baron is the epitome of a ruler corrupted by his own quest for power. "For although, or rather because, power is an unavoidable tool of all politics, and the striving for power, therefore, is one of its driving forces, there is no more destructive distortion of political energy than when the parvenu swaggers around, boasting of his power, conceitedly reveling in its reflected glory--or indeed any worship of power for its own sake" (Weber 78). This certainly seems to be the case with the Baron, who plots moves based solely on how much the outcome will augment his power as a ruler and acts in all ways as someone living "from" politics. Since Paul's system ultimately triumphs over the Baron, we must ask--is this triumph a matter of resources? Is it a matter of leadership? Is it merely the fulfillment of prophecy? Or is it, as Weber suggests, that systems which idealize the "power politician" result in the end product of such political activities "[failing] to do justice to its original purpose" of serving their cause (78)?

Taken in tandem (Weber and Dune), Dune seems to be an endorsement of the charismatic leader (assuming adequate resources) over the power politician ingrained in the structure of nation states. Leadership and living for a cause supersedes all else, and in that sense Dune offers us a rather optimistic viewpoint in which the morally righteous emerges victorious.