Thought for the day
Posted: April 2, 2008 | Author: Doug | Filed under: Dune, Philosophy | 2 Comments »This comes from God Emperor of Dune:
Think of it as plastic memory, this force within you which trends you and your fellows toward tribal forms. This plastic memory seeks to return to its ancient shape, the tribal society. It is all around you — the feudatory, the diocese, the corporation, the platoon, the sports club, the dance troupes, the rebel cell, the planning council, the prayer group . . . each with its master and servants, its host and parasites. And the swarms of alienating devices (including these very words!) tend eventually to be enlisted in the argument for a return to “those better times.” I despair of teaching you other ways. You have square thoughts which resist circles.
–Emperor Leto II, Stolen Journals
It’s amazing when you think about it, how much “group instinct” tends to drive our lives, and how much we long for leaders drive us, even though we want individuality and freedom of choice.
P.S. More on “tribal” thinking in a later post.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
I think alot of it is that humans are a communal species. we seek companionship. It is against mosts people nature or instinct to desire to be 100% alone or separate.
We all seek some alone time but it is the very rare case that a person seeks to be apart from society 100% of there life. They usually are the Ted Kazinsky types.
Hi Jon,
You’re quite right. I think what Herbert was getting at was how we groups ourselves into tribes on multiple levels (religion, sports, ethnic groups, etc), when there’s no need to do this anymore. Also, I think his reference to “those better times”, was a criticism of conservative thought that tries to revert things to a “better time”.