Once Frank Herbert identified the concept of prescience
(seeing the future) as something he wanted to explore in the Dune saga, it is
fascinating to consider the long tendrils this one theme reaches out to. The societal addiction to the drug mélange
(spice) is connected to it since “ancient” times when Norma Cenva first
discovered its ability to open her vision to guide through fold-space. That ability to “see” also led to Leto II
breeding for humans that could not be “seen” by Guild searches, Siona being the
first in that line. And it led to the
design of the no-rooms, no-ships, etc.
This, naturally, would lead to the desire to nullify the no-ship’s
ability to hide.
In my estimation, more
misery has been created by reformers than by any other force in human
history. Show me someone who says, “Something
must be done!” and I will show you a head full of vicious intentions that have
no other outlet. What we must strive for
always! is to find the natural flow and go with it.
-The Reverend Mather Taraza
Conversational Record, BG File GSXXMAT9
(Heretics of Dune, p. 90)
This chapter starter got my attention because I genuinely like change and therefore could be considered a “reformer”. Yet I would have to agree that to foster change, you do need to find “the natural flow”, and I am not sure I could have said it or even identified it as clearly as was done in this passage.