A major message at the heart of Frank Herbert’s Dune is a warning against messiahs and mankind’s
tendency to blindly follow charismatic leaders.
As the author himself stated, the character of Paul Atreides was intentionally designed
to be a charismatic and attractive person for all the right reasons.
Then, after power comes to him, he is forced to make decisions, the consequences of which
result in the deaths of billions.
This catastrophic loss of life is brought about through the triggering of an interplanetary
war known as Muad’dib’s Jihad.
In this video I’d like to examine this jihad, what led up to it and how it fundamentally
transformed the known universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune.
Spoiler warning as I will be discussing significant events occurring throughout the Dune Series.
While the arc of the first novel can largely be viewed as a survival story for Paul Atreides,
as he seeks to restore his House to the seat of power on Arrakis, the steps he takes to
do so effectively cement his status as a god among his supporters.
In order to gain such support in the first place, Paul would rely on the religious engineering
performed generations earlier by the black arm of the Sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit
on Arrakis.
These efforts, by the Missionaria Protectiva, ensured that a member of their order would
be able to take advantage of the affected subjects in order to gain protection or for
any other purpose required.
Paul’s mother the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica was well aware of the Sisterhood’s work
on Arrakis and immediately began noticing signs of manufactured superstition and messianic
prophecy after their arrival.
From the moment the Fremen set eyes on the young Paul Atreides, rumor began to spread
of the possible appearance of their Mahdi, the offworld messiah who they believed would
lead them to paradise.
Jessica proved herself skillful in her manipulation of the myths and prophecies of the Fremen,
being careful to speak in a way which reinforced these beliefs while allowing the Fremen to
convince themselves of his authenticity.
While the exploitation of the religious fervor of the Fremen ensured Paul and Jessica’s
short term survival after the Atreides suffered their initial defeat on Arrakis, their actions
served as a catalyst for the Fremen’s bloody Jihad which would fundamentally reshape the
power structure of the known universe.
After gaining asylum among the Fremen, Paul and his mother were quick to integrate and
cement their place in the tribe of Stilgar, with Jessica inheriting the position of Reverend
Mother, serving as a spiritual leader for sietch Tabr.
Given the preconceptions held by many of the Fremen, Paul quickly settled into a position
of leadership among them.
He then trained them in the weirding way of the Bene Gesserit, enabling the Fremen to
evolve into an incredibly lethal and unstoppable force.
With the Prana Bindu training they received from learning the weirding way, the Fremen
were successful in achieving several major victories in their ongoing war against their
hated enemies, the Harkonnens.
Their war against these oppressors resulted in a disruption of Spice production, a most
serious threat to the powers of the Imperium.
Consequently, in order to get a handle on the situation the Emperor Shaddam Corrino
IV took it upon himself to travel to Arrakis along with his mighty Sardaukar warriors.
Until that time the Sardaukar were widely renowned as the greatest warriors in the known
universe, however by the time of the events of Dune, their ferocity had been undermined
by arrogance, overconfidence and the increase of cynicism in their ranks.
Therefore, under Paul's leadership, the Fremen were easily able to defeat House Corrino’s
Sardaukar enabling the young Atreides to challenge and usurp the Emperor, taking his place on
the Golden Lion throne.
This victory served to fuel the religious fervor among the Fremen, strengthening their
faith that Paul was in fact their chosen one who would make the golden flower blossom in
the night, the one who would facilitate the great change they had been promised for generations.
With their zeal at an all time high, the Fremen, led by Paul’s elite Fedaykin warriors exploded
across the universe in a violent and bloody Jihad, seeking to force upon the masses the
religion of Muad’dib and to put to death any who fought to resist it.
As a result, entire religious systems were wiped out, ninety planets were sterilized
and an estimated 61 billion lives were lost.
This left an indelible mark on humanity at large as it was reformed and brought into
the shining light of the Emperor Muad’dib.
Although they were initially driven by religious ideologies, the Jihad for many became a source
of strange experiences, adventure and wealth.
Given that their lives had previously been confined to the strict discipline and limitations
required to survive on a desert planet, the opportunity presented to the Fremen through
their participation in this interplanetary conquest was too enticing to pass up.
Although their Emperor was in fact a manufactured messiah, the wild success of their Jihad in
his name served to catalyze their blind devotion and commitment to his godship.
Consequently, their fanaticism continued to snowball, causing the movement to spiral out
of control as it burned across the universe.
The devotion to Muad’dib was reinforced through the Qizarate, clergymen who served
at Paul’s behest and who worked to spread the religion of Muad’dib, the Golden Elixir
of Life.
In time, the tribes of the Fremen began to embrace formerly abandoned extremist customs
as they were said to have reintroduced old rites and blood sacrifices.
As for Paul’s part in this war, all evidence points to the fact that he saw this consequence
of his actions as the best path forward..
That being said, from the moment he began seeing visions of the Jihad Paul felt a strong
sense of terror and revulsion.
Early on, Paul was able to see two main branchings of the future, one which saw him reconcile
with his Grandfather the Baron Harkonnen and another which revealed the great and terrible
Jihad.
It appears that although both options were distasteful to Paul, he ended up viewing the
latter as the lesser of two evils.
No doubt, a strong desire to avenge his father’s death and the defeat of his House heavily
influenced this opinion.
It’s widely held that apart from a path of reconciliation with the Baron, the only
real option to prevent the Jihad would have been one in which Paul had died in the desert
before meeting the fremen.
However, after the Atreides were taken in by the Fremen, the fuse on that future had
been irreversibly lit, condemning the known universe to all of the Jihad’s inevitable
horrors.
From that point on, the realization of this terrible purpose continued to weigh heavy
on Paul’s mind.
Even with his supreme abilities as the Kwisatz Haderach, after supplanting the emperor Shaddam,
he was forced to watch as the mental epidemic of the Jihad spread, powerless to prevent
its devastation.
Thereafter any delusions of Free Will quickly faded as Paul became hemmed in and caged by
destiny.
Despite this, he continued to search for and take advantage of opportunities to diminish
and temper the destruction in whatever ways he could.
Toward the end of the Jihad, Paul was able to come to grips with reality and eventually
managed to put it into perspective.
He concluded that when measured against eternity, it would only amount to a brief and finite
spasm in mankind’s history.
Ultimately, true to Paul’s observation, while the Jihad did much to transform the
societal structure of the known universe, by the end of the Dune Saga this bloody war
would fall into the shadow of the Golden Path, a necessary future accomplished through the
introduction of even greater atrocities.
But I’m curious to know what you think of Paul’s Jihad.
Are there any lessons or themes that you appreciate from the way Paul’s story unfolds?
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
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Thank you all so much for your support and as always have a very nerdy day.