“Dune” is on fire: All suffering stems from ignorance of human nature.
Recently, the film “Dune 2” gained tremendous popularity.
Its unique “Dune” aesthetics and the awe-inspiring fear of the colossal creatures left countless viewers thrilled, garnering a high score of 8.2 from 340,000 internet users.
Some media commented that “Dune 2” must be among the greatest blockbusters of the 21st century.
However, compared to the honor and standing of the original work, these accolades pale in comparison.
Both “Dune 2” and the previous film in the series, “Dune,” are adaptations of Frank Herbert’s legendary science fiction masterpiece “Dune” by the American science fiction giant.
With its grand imagination, intricate story, and rich subtext, it has won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.
It is the first work to simultaneously receive both of these highest honors in the science fiction literary field.
It has also been included in the “100 Books to Read in a Lifetime” lists of both Amazon in the United States and BBC in the United Kingdom.
“Orbit” magazine named it the “Best Science Fiction Novel of the 20th Century,” making it a milestone in science fiction literature.
The book depicts a planet completely covered in dunes, where a miraculous spice with incredible effects exists.
Various forces resort to all means to vie for control of the spice, resulting in a cycle of power struggles and wars, with conspiracies and rumors spanning hundreds of years.
Every individual is tormented within the vortex of fate, unable to obtain their desires, unable to evade their fears, with betrayal occurring at any moment and death ever-present.
Only by reading the original “Dune” can one truly grasp the deeper meanings left unexplored in the film. It finally becomes clear that all the wars and sufferings in the world have underlying roots.
1
What can harm people is never external objects, but human beings themselves.
The story of “Dune” takes place in a distant future, where humanity has left Earth and established an empire spanning galaxies in space.
However, the technology of this empire is not advanced. They once created thinking machines, but the owners of these thinking machines ended up enslaving others.
Humanity paid a heavy price to destroy the thinking machines and left an iron law in their religious scriptures: “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.”
The development of machine thinking was forbidden, and the direction of human development shifted towards unlocking their potential.
At this time, melange, a spice that can stimulate psychic awakening and prolong life, became the most precious resource of the empire.
Everyone knew that “He who controls the spice controls the universe.”
For many years, the planet Arrakis, the only source of the spice, was controlled by the House Harkonnen, who amassed great wealth from it.
However, in that year, the Emperor suddenly ordered that Arrakis be handed over to the mortal enemies of House Harkonnen, the House Atreides, for administration.
The ruler of House Harkonnen, Baron Harkonnen, pretended to obey the imperial command but was unwilling to give up the immense profits.
He left a large number of spies on Arrakis and orchestrated various assassinations, instigating a fortress rebellion.
His ultimate move was to plant a traitor in the company of Duke Leto Atreides, the leader of House Atreides.
One late night, the traitor suddenly struck, poisoning and capturing Duke Leto.
Baron Harkonnen regained power, controlled the spice, and continued to plunder wealth without restraint. However, his triumph didn’t last long.
Although Duke Leto was killed, his concubine Jessica and their son Paul managed to escape.
Mother and son embarked on a journey of survival, being pursued by the military, attacked by sandstorms, and buried by quicksand.
After enduring countless life-threatening situations, they finally encountered the Fremen, a desert-dwelling people who came to their rescue.
By overcoming deadly tests of combat and poison, they integrated into this closed desert tribe and gradually became their leaders.
Paul led the fierce and unmatched Fremen warriors, launching lightning-fast attacks on the vast dunes, slowly annihilating the House Harkonnen’s army.
The balance of power gradually shifted, and Paul rose in dominance.
Several years later, he finally achieved a decisive victory by engaging in a duel, killing the last bloodline of House Harkonnen, and completing his revenge completely.
This is a thrilling story, but if we strip away the science fiction shell, it has played out countless times in reality.
The imaginary spice in the book is analogous to ancient gold or modern oil.
The struggle for spice in the book is no different from the colonial plunder of the past or the Russia-Ukraine war of today.
As Takeshi Kitano once said, humans, no matter how beautifully adorned on the surface, when that layer is peeled away, all that remains is a pile of desires.
The lack of what one wants, the fear of losing what one has, and the desire for more even when one possesses something.
Thus, there is the endless agony of dissatisfaction, the anxious coveting of plots and schemes, and the fear of not being able to hold on to what one currently possesses.
The ceaseless desires are the root cause of all suffering.
As time passes, human nature has remained unchanged for thousands of years.
Compared to imaginary extraterrestrial beings or the rapid development of AI intelligence in recent years, the greatest enemy of humanity has always been humanity itself.
2
Ignorance of human nature has ruined many people’s lives.
The main storyline of “Dune” is a simple “prince’s revenge” tale.
The real excitement lies in the layers of conspiracies beyond the spectacular special effects and battles.
In the space empire depicted in the book, three major forces maintained a precarious balance of power over many centuries.
The Emperor was the nominal leader with powerful military forces.
The major noble families controlled various planets and formed the Landsraad, a coalition that rivaled the Emperor’s power.
The Spacing Guild operated independently from the imperial political system, monopolizing space travel by using spice to navigate.
These three factions stood in opposition to each other while being interdependent.
Duke Leto Atreides, one of the major noble family leaders and a character of noble character, was seen as a spokesman by other families.
The Emperor harbored deep resentment towards him. However, he couldn’t directly kill Duke Leto, as it would cause panic among the other noble families.
Thus, the Emperor orchestrated a power shift on the planet Arrakis, intending to manipulate others to do his bidding.
Greedy Baron Harkonnen refused to relinquish control of Arrakis and ruthlessly assassinated the incoming Duke Leto. The Emperor then disguised his troops as the Harkonnen army to ensure the plan went smoothly.
However, the death of Duke Leto turned the once cooperative parties into bitter enemies.
The Emperor discovered that Baron Harkonnen had been embezzling funds and sent agents to investigate.
The Baron cryptically threatened to expose the Emperor’s dark deeds, knowing that the other noble families would rally against him.
The agents confronted the Baron, indicating that the Emperor could veto the chosen successor to the Harkonnen.
The Baron, who had his heart set on having his nephew succeed him, had no choice but to temporarily back down.
However, both sides knew that the future struggle in the shadows would be even more cruel.
In this power struggle among the elite, the biggest beneficiary was the Spacing Guild.
They delivered massive armies to Baron Harkonnen and collected exorbitant interstellar shipping fees.
The cost was so high that the Harkonnen family had to extract every penny from Arrakis for a full sixty years to barely meet the payment.
Temporary interstellar transportation of troops was a common tactic employed between major families during times of war.
The Spacing Guild profited handsomely from these opportunities, even condoning or plotting killings behind the scenes.
However, the consequences of easily profiting without taking risks made them unwilling to take any further risks.
The Spacing Guild could only maneuver among various powers but not control the situation themselves.
Everyone believes they are the ones orchestrating the game, but in reality, they have long been trapped within the game.
Human nature, once consumed by greed, can only be controlled by desire.
Once desire takes hold, weaknesses are created that can be endlessly exploited, manipulated, and framed by others.
In life, the more one seeks high returns with low effort, the more susceptible they are to being deceived of their entire fortune.
In the workplace, once someone’s thoughts turn to seeking illegitimate benefits, they inevitably embark on a crooked path, sinking deeper and deeper into darkness.
As Charlie Munger said, even if you possess a brilliantly calculating mind, without being able to overcome the entanglement of desire, you are doomed to be shattered.
Those who do not understand human nature are the most likely to become mere pawns for others.
In the end, they lose everything and even bring harm to their families, spending their remaining years in regret and despair.
3
Throughout our lives, we are constantly engaged in a game of human nature.
On the planet Dune, everyone, from the high-ranking Emperor to the impoverished masses, is consumed by a frenzy for the spice.
The only exception is Paul. His birth was a mistake.
His mother, Jessica, is a member of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, a secretive female religious organization.
For centuries, the sisterhood operated discreetly, with its members usually appearing as concubines or truth-sayers to the Emperor and the nobility.
However, in reality, they have been quietly carrying out a “human breeding program.”
In simple terms, this program involves arranging for members to mate with talented male nobles and give birth to daughters.
Then, select those daughters to mate with other male nobles to produce more daughters…
The sisterhood believes that talents are passed down through bloodlines.
Generations of selective breeding combine to create sufficiently exceptional genes.
When the time is right, they can give birth to a male child.
This male child will be the all-knowing, all-powerful Kwisatz Haderach.
However, Jessica defied their orders because she deeply loved her husband, who wanted a son as his heir. She gave birth to Paul.
Paul turned out to be extraordinary.
He could occasionally glimpse the future in his dreams and possessed incredible computing abilities.
After his father was appointed the ruler of Dune, Paul accompanied him to the desert planet.
The spice, present in the air, soil, and food, continuously stimulated his potential.
During their escape from pursuit by the Harkonnen army, Paul’s abilities suddenly awakened.
Using his prescient abilities, he discovered that his mother, Jessica, was the daughter of Baron Harkonnen.
One possible outcome derived from this revelation was that he would one day reconcile with his father’s killer.
This prospect filled Paul with a nauseating sense of conflict.
Paul also foresaw through his prescient abilities that many years ago, the sisterhood spread the prophecy among the Fremen people that an outsider messiah would lead them out of their harsh living conditions.
This was the sisterhood’s way of preparing for the advent of the male Kwisatz Haderach in their “human breeding program.”
However, this messiah’s lineage and abilities coincided perfectly with Paul’s current circumstances.
If Paul so desired, he could use this identity to gain the loyalty of the Fremen people.
The subsequent events in reality confirmed his deductions one by one.
By continuing in this direction, Paul could effortlessly gain everything: revenge, power, adoration…
Yet, he also saw in his prescient visions the end of this path, a universe engulfed in Holy War, with mountains of corpses left in its wake.
The compassionate Paul, regardless of the circumstances, refused to witness such a tragedy.
The only way to stop it was to risk drinking the poisonous “Water of Life.”
If he wasn’t the true Kwisatz Haderach, he would be fatally poisoned.
If he were the Kwisatz Haderach, the poison would trigger a full awakening of his abilities, granting him the ability to traverse various timelines and predict the future more accurately.
Fortunately, Paul survived and fully awakened his abilities.
While physically in the cave, he used his consciousness to witness the Emperor, the major noble families, and the Spacing Guild uniting and preparing to attack him with a formidable force.
Despite the overwhelming odds, Paul remained calm. He had an ace up his sleeve — he could destroy the spice.
The consequences would be that people would no longer be able to slow aging, lose their prescient ability, and embark on interstellar travel.
This was a tremendous interest that his enemies couldn’t let go of, but Paul was willing to give it up entirely.
A military showdown ultimately transformed into a game of human nature.
The Emperor, the nobility, and the Spacing Guild had to bow their heads to protect the spice.
Paul, who could overcome desires, became the indisputable winner.
He achieved revenge, liberated the Fremen, and ascended to the throne through a marriage alliance with the Emperor, standing at the highest point of the empire.
Throughout his life, Paul encountered traps of human nature multiple times.
Each time, he eschewed shortcuts and chose the righteous path; he abandoned attachments and remained true to his initial intentions.
That’s why he was able to take control of his life instead of becoming a pawn of fate, drowning in desires like others.
Paul’s clarity serves as a warning to ordinary people outside the book.
There are too many temptations in reality, and almost everyone has various desires.
It is important to understand that the majority of life’s suffering stems from uncontrollable desires, resulting in helplessness and anger.
Although we know that indulging in pleasure from alcohol, sex, or material possessions is detrimental to our well-being, we still succumb to temporary happiness time and time again.
Despite knowing that behind fame and fortune lies danger, we can’t help but chase after them, often paying a heavy price.
As Samuel said, the most important value of a person lies in restraining their instinctive impulses.
Winning in the game against human nature, overcoming our instincts, allows us to live our lives with composure, rather than becoming pawns of destiny submerged in desire.
▽
There is a line in the book that says, “Every time humanity confronts its insignificance, it is a tremendous progress for itself.”
It is precisely because Paul can soberly examine himself and control his desires that he transforms from a slightly gifted young man into a beloved leader and ultimately becomes the victorious figure standing at the pinnacle of the world.
When looking back at his life, you will discover that true personal growth is a process of constantly grappling with the weaknesses of human nature.
By recognizing the limitations of human nature, one can open their mind, embrace new ideas, and make more rational choices.
By breaking free from the shackles of human nature, one gains the energy to actively sharpen and improve themselves, steadily moving towards the desired future.
Give it a thumbs up, align with the observation of human nature in dealing with external things, and practice against human nature in cultivating the inner self.
May you and I be able to break all the puzzles from now on, steer clear of the pain of losing control, and live the rest of our lives with clarity and conviction.
