Decode Society

This Holy Week, while most of the people I know have gone to the beaches, and the rest of the people in the Philippines were either bored or forced to be religious, I was at home reading a Science Fiction novel by Frank Herbert. I was reading his series of books that began with Dune, proceeded by Dune Messiah, and Children of Dune. As a Science Fiction fan (geeks are by nature sci-fi or fantasy enthusiasts) I’ve begun to read it as part of my private leisure to read all the influential science fiction books I can find. Critics say the Dune Universe, created by the author, was Science Fiction’s version of The Lord of the Rings. And so I went on to read it.

The book presents itself as a story set thousands of years from now, where Earth has been forgotten and humanity has spread across the galaxy, building a vast empire. This ‘galactic empire’ was ruled by families or royal houses that controls the empire, its economy, and its politics. Dune may be hard to understand at first, but just like Tolkien’s Silmarillion it is indeed hard because it is rich in history (fictional history of course) that goes deeper than any mainstream science fiction like Star Wars or Star Trek.

Each family or house has its planet to govern, and each family has its ulterior motive. The House Corrino, the Imperial family, holds the power of the empire and manages it as a large corporation where it manipulates institutions to preserve their hold on power. House Harkonnen, the family ruling a dark planet of Giedi Prime, is evil, ruthless and scheming. The last and the most important family of all, was the honorable House Atreides, ruling a gentle and peaceful planet of 90% water, the planet Caladan.

The House Corrino manages the monopoly of spice, a strange element in the Dune universe that is used for space travel, for prolonging life, and for seeing ‘visions.’ Without spice, space travel would not exist, life would be shortened, and various schools like the Bene Gesserit (a group of women who kept on attempting to manage the genetic pool of humanity by interbreeding to create a super-human called the Kwisatz Haderach) and the Spacing Guild (a group of space pilots who are addicted to spice) would cease to exist. In short, without spice, civilization would crumble.

Spice, which smells like cinnamon, is addicting. It is its ultimate side-effect, and when taken, it turns the color of the eyes into blue. It is a substance that has its origins from the giant worms that roam around the desert planet of Arrakis. As part of the scheming of House Corrino and House Harkonnen, the emperor appointed House Atreides to manage the desert planet of Arrakis or Dune, the only source of Spice in all the universe. Both houses have set a trap to House Atreides so that the threat to power might be eliminated.

To cut the long story short, the House Atreides was betrayed, as it was attacked by House Harkonnen with the imperial family’s assistance, and the heir to the house–Paul Atreides–and his mother barely escaped. They met the desert people called the Fremen and they staged a revolution that retook the whole planet. With Arrakis on their hands, the monopoly of spice is now in the hands of House Atreides. The emperor was forced to give up his throne, and due to the mystical rise of Paul Atreides, he put himself as emperor, and was branded by the Fremen as their ‘Messiah’.

The book is really comparable to Lord of the Rings. The intricacies of politics, deception and betrayal made it almost like the human drama we’re experiencing today. The imagination of the author is quite fascinating.

Later on in the story, Arrakis, a once unheard of planet in the universe became the center of commerce and religion. The people in planet Arrakis became so full of religiosity and rituals that they were empty and useless. The priests became corrupt. People are just following the herd without thinking why they are doing those rituals. A rugged old man called ‘The Preacher’ (he was really Paul Atreides himself) who roams in Dune to speak against the priests proclaims:

Is your religion real when it costs you nothing and carries no risk? Is your religion real when you fatten upon it? Is your religion real when you commit atrocities in its name? Whence comes your downward degeneration from the original revelation?

What a reflection of the Philippines! We are drenched with tradition, of rosaries, of novenas. Yet our empty rituals are not consistent with our lives. Every year, during Holy Week, its as if the whole metropolis is a ghost town. It’s as if, God has died again. “Bawal maligo!” people say. Useless superstitions that do not have any rational purpose can be heard in our streets. The real thing has been substituted by rituals that have no meaning. Churches are full but after the Holy Week is over, we’re back again to the same old life we’ve been. There’s no risk. There’s no inward change. It’s like wearing a different mask on Sunday but unmasking our true selves the rest of the week.

The sci-fi story I just told you may be an imagination away from our present situation and yet somehow it’s so true. What I love about Science Fiction so much is that it presents to us a glimpse of reality that we may have overlooked if it were put on a real setting. Somehow, fiction and imagination makes it all the more clearer.

This Holy Week, may it not be a religion that can be strutted in public and is a means to cover the rot inside. May it not be a religion with empty rituals, mediocrity and a heart that remains unchanged. But may it be a true spirituality that possesses a changed heart, a life so vibrant that people would see true light in it, a life that hopes for the betterment of all, a life that begins a true reformation in our country, a spirituality that is not afraid to risk but taking every step of faith hand in hand with integrity and honor.

These are the musings of a geek on a dry desert planet. (Did you notice the sudden change of climate? :D)

-resplend3nt

PS: resplend3nt commemorates the life of Arthur C. Clarke, who passed away recently and is one of the giants of Science Fiction. Clarke once had a correspondence with replend3nt’s favorite author, C.S. Lewis, and their interaction when it came to space travel spurred resplend3nt’s serious look on what could be, and the adventure that lies beyond the confines of Earth. “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”