Mirror, mirror

Do you have a book that you read over and over again and can't put down as much as you try? Dune by Frank Herbert fills that role for me. I'm not sure if you've ever read it but it's one of the greatest novels I've ever had the pleasure to read. Having said that, I've never met a woman that told me she loved Dune; it's perhaps very much a male tale. Why is sci-fi that way? I don't think anyone of any gender can deny that it is a brilliantly conceived universe with complex characters and a subtle, nuanced plot.

I've been thinking lately just how much the themes of Dune mirror those our current world. I'll pick a few of the larger themes to expand upon slightly:

1) Oil

Dune's universe revolves, much like our own, around a single substance. This substance known as the spice allows almost instantaneous travel over long, interplanetary distances. Without it there could be no trade or contact between human beings on distant planets. Empires and great houses could not be maintained, nor could power be projected across vast distances. Things would fall apart.

The spice is also totally addictive much like oil. I often wonder if Herbert was taking a shot at the post-war suburban American dream. There's little use denying that our society is addicted to oil. Are you ready to give up your car? Are you ready to live in a world without plastic? Do you look forward to the idea of a cold house all winter; how about losing your entitlement to wear a t-shirt all winter? Better enter rehab now because we're all in for a major shock.

Arguably humans are headed for a point when we will slowly but surely lose access to our most precious of resources. This is phenomenon known as peak oil. How will we react? What withdrawal symptoms will we undergo? Can we get off the sauce before it's too late?

2) Climate change

Dune is also a novel about climate change. More precisely about dream of changing a planet from a barren, desert world into a green paradise. While the protagonists in Dune are slowly improving their planet, here on earth we are setting about ruining the paradise we had the good fortune to be blessed with. Whereas they are mindfully, slowly improving their planet (though I doubt human induced climate change on Dune would be as benign as Herbert suggests), we are blindly racing toward a point that we might not be able to return from. All because we are addicted to oil and other fossil fuels.

Perhaps we will be forced to learn to live the harsh life of the Fremen, the people of Dune, on our precious earth if we don't take climate change seriously. This would be a great tragedy. Unlike the Fremen we won't be able to build our paradise. The universe already gave us that, we just didn't recognize it.

3) Politicized religion

Dune is also deeply about the manipulation of religion to serve political ends. Characters, especially the protagonists, find their justification in holy books and link their destinies to legends to win popular support. Most, if not all, of our leaders today appeal to higher powers and wrap themselves in the cloak of faith or legend to distort and enhance their prestige with the people. Ultimately the Islamists and evangelicals, fundamentalists and settlers, that face off against one another in this world are doing so for political and economic reasons. Religion is but a tool which we should never forget can be used for good just as much as it can be used for evil.

I could have chosen a dozen other topics to expand on including atomic weapons, genetic selection, artificial intelligence, genocide and many more. This fact demonstrates the wonderful complexity of the novel and the sharp mind of its author. I wonder sometimes if Herbert had a vision of the future that inspired him to write Dune in the 1960s. Surely he could not have realized his book would have resonated so well with events and trends at the start of the 21st century.

If you want a thoughtful window into our world, you should take a copy of Dune out of your local library.