BC,
In the novel "Dune" by Frank Herbert (and its
movie incarnations), the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen has an
evil plan for placing his chosen boy-toy on the
imperial throne.
Dune is, as we know, a metaphor for the middle
east - desert planet, the universe depends on the spice which can
only be found there in order to safely travel
outer space. The spice is the primary commodity of the empire's economy
- without it, the entire system collapses. And
Dune, or Arrakis, is the only source of the spice. It can't be more obvious.
Arrakis was taken from the Harkonnens and given
to the Atreides family by the emperor. The Atreides ruled for a brief
period of justice and harmony, with the promise
of economic prosperity on the horizon. Naturally, the Baron had conspired
with the emperor to rid the universe of the Atreides,
joining forces to defeat them through betrayal and subterfuge. So after
defeating the Atreides and retaking Dune, the
Baron (and his evil Mentat - Grima Wormtongue... that is, Piter DeVries)
come up with a plan to control the spice. The
Baron places his nephew Rabban in charge of Arrakis. Rabban is huge,
gross, uncouth, cruel, hateful, arrogant - an
utterly clueless stooge (known as the Beast Rabban) who the Baron knows
will totally screw up the planet. He orders Rabban
to squeeze Arrakis and its people for every ounce of spice he can,
to be merciless, knowing full well that this
is Rabban's one talent and that he will accomplish his task admirably,
filling
the Baron's coffers with wealth.
In time, the Baron knows, the people of Arrakis
will come to hate Rabban so much that when he removes his incompetent
nephew and replaces him with Sting... that is,
with his other nephew Feyd-Rautha, the people will welcome Feyd as a savior.
But Feyd is actually more cruel and ruthless
than Rabban - the difference being that he is also brilliant.
So if Dubya is Rabban (and the comparison is too
scary to ignore), and the Harkonnens are the Bushes and the
Atreides are the Clintons, who is Feyd?
Feyd is handsome, charming, cunning, and trained
since birth to warfare and politics.
For a while, I thought it was going to be Jeb.
But now...
(Koresh, I hate to do this.)
He sounds a lot like Wesley Clark - currently
being hailed as a savior, the only Democrat who can beat Bush.
If we want to solve this riddle, we need to find
out who is playing the role of the Baron. When I saw that Monkey Mail
post today that said Cheney had urged Clark to
run, the bells went off. Is this true? Did Cheney urge him to run?
Have you heard anything more about this? If he
did, then I'd say we have our fat man. Maybe Cheney's undisclosed
location is Geidi Prime.
Can Frank Herbert be declared the first ackowledged prophet of the Church of Reality?
Jeff
PS. This also begs the question, who is Muad'dib?
Certainly not Gore, although this son of Clinton
has sort of disappeared into the wilderness.
Will he return one day, filled with the vision
of his destiny and a fire in his belly, in time to save us from the evil
Baron?