What
are the implications of power?
How does it affect the way that
Man thinks and makes decisions?
Is the Corruptibility of
Man something intrinsic to his nature, or is it only a selective disease,
plaguing those too weak to uphold their morals and listen to their inner
voices?
Muad'Dib is one
such quandary.
Thrust
into the role of godhood, he is unable to fully assess the meaning of such
a role before he must act under its weight, taking on the responsibility
of billions of people.
How
does it affect the human mind to be perceived as God? Even Muad'Dib,
with his extensive training and iron will, can not be without a certain
susceptibility to the wiles of immense power.
As the adage goes, Absolute
Power Corrupts Absolutely.
And
yet Paul is never really corrupted, not really. He is always conscious
of the immense weight of his actions, of the implications of his role as
a God clothed in human flesh.
But how can we know of its ultimate impact upon him?
Already beladen with the multiple roles of Mentat, Kwisatz Haderach, Lisan
al-Gaib, he is now additionally forced to become the figurehead of an immense
religious bureaucracy. You and I would crack, I think.
But
Paul . . . Paul bears his burden.
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A
man with a thousand faces, Muad'Dib is everyone's idol, and no one's friend.
As Michael
J. Anderson might say of him: He's
filled with secrets.
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This page was
created on Monday, Aug. 25, 1997