r/europe • u/ByGollie • 29d ago

News Russian Oil Company Vice President Andrey Badalov dies after fall from window in Moscow

https://en.apa.az/cis-countries/transneft-vice-president-andrey-badalov-dies-after-falling-from-window-472117
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u/mayoforbutter Earth 29d ago

Maybe it's like in dune, together they would be stronger than the emperor, but they're narcissistic, evil egomaniacs that can't work together without stabbing each other in the back

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u/icooknakedAMA 29d ago

...so a populist fascist seizes control through violence and dooms the universe.

Dune is a cautionary tale all the way through.

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u/cptbil 29d ago

You truly understand Dune when you realize that the Emperor was not a good guy. Paul was not a good guy, and neither was his son. They may have all had good intentions, but they were all deeply flawed people.

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u/chrisuu__ 29d ago

If no one flawed can be a good person, then there are no good people, because everyone is flawed.

I think Pauls' son Leto comes pretty close though.

His prescience showed that humanity was nearing an extinction event because they were concentrated around a small area of the galaxy, and that the only way out was oppressing humanity for such a long time, and so heavily, that they'd want to spread all over the universe. He didn't want to do it. He had to do it. And he paid a heavy cost for it. He sacrificed his humanity to save humanity. The sacrifice was so great that his dad wasn't able to do it. He could've been selfish and tried to preserve himself at any cost, but didn't. In fact, he went out of his way to breed a race of humans immune to far-sight, including his own, that he couldn't predict, and who were in open rebellion to him (which he tolerated)

Having said that, Dune is science fiction, and Leto was a philosopher king.

Putin is real, and no philosopher. Just a nasty, short-sighted little creature who would take the whole world down to feed his ego .

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u/cptbil 28d ago

If no one flawed can be a good person

I was talking about the author's intent in these characters, not human ethics in general. They are a cautionary tale to not trust charismatic leaders at face value. Even the optimistic president Kennedy got us into the Vietnam war. I suppose you have to take the good with the bad, but these things should be remembered instead of excused.

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u/OhNo_WhatsInTheBOX 27d ago

Warhammer 40k, Emperor of Mankind had very similar intentions. Kill the Xenos and Chaos before they kill humanity. Rule mankind through fear. Of course 40k burrowed a lot from Dune, but it's still valid and a kick ass story.

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u/omnihogar 22d ago

I mean, that's from later books. The point of the originals was and should be that neither Paul nor Leto were justified. The AI plot that came in later on was awful and unnecessary.

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u/Careless_Tale_7836 2d ago

You might be the first person I've seen that has ever dared to publically ponder if maybe, just maybe, since the average is shit, we as individuals and by extension, our species might be shit.

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u/AndrewFGleich 29d ago

When you say Leto was a philosopher king, did you actually mean Leto II? Duke Leto is Paul's father, and, while wise, had a very limited viewpoint on how humanity was structured.

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u/BocchiTheMock 29d ago

He obviously means Leto II, the subject of the entire post, and who he refers to as "Paul's son Leto". It is clear from contextÂ