#Golden path

[martiverseart]

[Mohan Ghale's journal] One of the thing I liked the most about Far Cry 4 was the final plot twist, and boy oh boy how cool would it be if you could ACTUALLY decide to switch sides after the last quest. So, to quench my thirst, I decided to make an animation about it!

[biblioflyer]

Bad Dune Takes are the Mind Killer

I'm going to type up some more robust thoughts on Dune part 2, but I've seen some subtle bad ideas circulating that are drawn from shallow readings of either the films or the books or both.

First off, anyone who swallows the Bene Gesserit propaganda about their eugenics program needs to be pushed back on. They are NOT sorting humans from animals. The function of the Gom Jabar test (I will look up the proper spelling later and edit it in), doesn't even really seem to have anything to do with the metaphysics of the setting so much as its testing for self discipline. This is something that is nature AND nurture.

The dirty truth of the matter is that no one is a true Tabula Rasa, we do inherit some tendencies genetically, but barring a serious developmental disorder, those are tendencies. Tendencies can be ameliorated, if not even outright disappear in the noise of lived experience and explicit education.

If Feyd Ruatha can pass the Gom Jabar, you know its not actually testing for merit, its testing for a specific set of traits that the Bene Gesserit find useful.

Those traits are part of the ingredients they are seeking for the Kwisatch Haderach (yes, I know, I'll edit it later) but here's the kicker!

Major book spoilers ahead

While this is probably not exclusively the Bene Gesserit's fault, all of these secret societies, all of this obsession with bloodlines, and perfection is a time bomb. Paul is not a white savior. Paul is a labradoodle. He is an incredible endgame of generations of effort but he's a symptom of a broader problem that he himself vaguely glimpses and his son, Leto II, sees in all its terrible truth: the Bene Gesserit and their ilk are reserving autonomy for themselves, perhaps even at the genetic level, and trying to breed complacency into "the commons." The ones they regard as "animals" unfit for and incapable of self direction. People who are only fit to be ruled.

Sound familiar?

Its feudalistic "divine right of kings" merged with eugenics.

AKA fascism.

Paul and Leto II become despicable tyrants and authorial fiat would seem to indicate they are trapped by a sort of accelerationist framing of the problem. The end result of the millennia of power brokering in the background by all of these secretive societies and open monarchism is a humanity that is doomed. One way or another, it will be snuffed out. Whether by a total war, plague, or collapse of civilization.

This is why I say that the Bene Gesserit endgame is labradoodles. Pretty? Yes. Companionable? Sure. But like many, many, many designer breeds very, very lacking in genetic diversity.

This is what selective breeding gets you. Its why Leto II foresees the need to provoke a "Great Scattering." To ensure humanity exists in so many places, in so many different genetic and cultural forms that it cannot be subjugated by even the most charismatic and supernaturally powerful tyrant - not even by himself - and incapable of being extinguished by any plague or natural disaster. Because consolidation into too narrow and tight of a socio-cultural-political footprint means when (not if) that civilization screws up epically, it brings everyone down with it.

So if Roddenberry believed in the end of history, as expressed by the Federation: a society that is not incapable of error but IS capable of introspection and correction in the wake of error such that it is extremely unlikely to collapse from its own errors and contradictions. Then Herbert seems to be positing that history has no end. It will be one damn thing after another for all time and his implicit solution is that we desperately need diversity: genetic diversity and cultural diversity otherwise a self anointed superior sect of schemers and intriguers will get us all killed in the end by making us docile and homogeneous in order to make us more useful: to them.

Herbert also is suggesting that events like the Fremen Jihad is a likely bit of blowback from such consolidation. That human beings (the very same the Bene Gesserit regard as animals) naturally crave autonomy, dignity, and the essentials of life and if you press these things, the result will be a socio-political nuclear explosion.

I don't know if Herbert was an accelerationist. But it doesn't really matter because this leads me to the second bad take:

The Jihad and the Golden Path are not good, actually. Authorial Fiat dictate that they are necessary because authorial fiat dictates that human civilization in Dune has become so consolidated and bent to the whims of shadowy schemers that any attempt to wrest control away and return it to "normal" people, if indeed that is even possible given the technologies and superhumans running around, will result in such disorder and chaos that it be, functionally, genocide even if it is not genocide in intent.

The Jihad itself is also a consequence of the Great Man relying on people who only see a sliver of the overall project and interpret it through their own prism. That prism being one of anger, resentment, and a desire to see others conform to their worldview in order to ensure they are never again under anyone's boot.

Authorial fiat dictates that by the time Paul is born, there's no way back. No way to unwind all of this mess. The systems and structures are too complex, too interdependent. The Bene Gesserit, the Face Dancers, and everyone else I'm forgetting have too many contingency plans to fall back on. Not even a psychic can pull the Jenga pieces of civilization out delicately enough to restack them without the whole thing coming apart, not if he has to rely on millions of people with an axe to grind against the civilization he's trying to reform, a civilization that spent millennia trying to subjugate the Fremen or drive them into extinction.

But I maintain accelerationism is bad. You're not psychic. I'm not psychic. There's no Kwisatch Haderach lurking in the background to see what comes next. If you burn it all down, there might be a flourishing of dignity and freedom on the other side or it might be extinction because some other "cabal" will just take over and do the same things only meaner and dumber.

So if not accelerationism then what?

Federationism.

Introspection always. Seeking reform and equity before the power structures get too entrenched that gambling on a Great Scattering following in the wake of genocidal messiahs start seems like a good idea.

I'm not dunking on Dune to build a motte and bailey around Star Trek. I love Dune, but people tend to fixate on icky parts and call them good, when the whole point was don't let society get so bad you need to cross your fingers and hope the God Emperor is secretly an enlightened genocidal tyrant who is waiting for you to get restive enough to strike him down as part of some harebrained scheme to generate so much historical trauma it inoculates humanity against tyranny for all time.

Which of course, is a false premise. Herbert may or may not have known this in the mid-20th century, but we live in a world where 5-6 generations later, everything we were supposed to learn from and never repeat about tyranny, fascism, eugenics, and being disinterested in how and why there came to be fighters in difficult to pronounce faraway lands who seem to be rather upset with us, is now a thing that has to be taught and can be disputed and debated.

[alethianightsong]

Dune Part 2 made me hate Jessica's guts

I get it, ok? The love of your life is dead, you and your son have no army or aid, and you're surrounded by an insular community that won't hesitate to kill outsiders. You NEED their help to survive, you WANT revenge for your duke, but you didn't need to become Reverend Mother the way you did. You exposed your unborn daughter to a poison with a 99.9% mortality rate and when she's born, you reject her for being what you made her. You manipulated your son, slithered your way into the highest position on the planet, and helped bring about the death of billions. Yes, the Golden Path ensures the survival of humanity but you sacrificed your daughter to do it, which was needless in the grand scheme of things.

[pedroam-bang]

Amita - Far Cry 4 (2014)

[lucky82007]

[spatialapprentice]

The broken crown prince looked, looked forward. There is no meaning to looking backwards. There only lies the thorns of the past. the prince could not move backwards.

There was no reverse movement only continuing. continue. continue. into the breach. into the portal you must go. move forward.

broken crown prince, you seek the golden path. You seek its wisdom and direction. You seek foundation that has been broken in all essential ways. You seek answers to the mysteries of rule and the mysteries of the hearts of the people.

broken crown prince, you seek some new perpetuity. broken crown prince, seek out your new mistake. Will you fix the cycle? Or will you show it its proper end?

broken crown prince, continue.

[nandyrueman]

So I’m continuing my farcry 4 replay and I’m going through and finding all the collectibles which is something I’ve never done. I regret not recording this but in the souther region far to the east of the map there is a large pit with water at the bottom for a mask of Yalung and right at the top I found two men sitting together. I should have recorded this because it is the first time I’ve seen gay representation in this specific farcry game but they were sitting together at the top having a moment and the lines that stuck out to me the most, and I may misquote them, but they were talking about the war and I remember hearing this.

“If we win..”

“When we win, we’ll always be together” and they had a longer conversation then that but then they got up and embraced before starting to walk down the mountain.

Honestly that single interaction gave me more reason to help the golden path than either amita, sabal, or pagan min did the entire game. It was so sweet the way they were talking to each other.

[kofidawolf]

if you play far cry 3/4 and kill the rakyat/golden path at every opportunity pls follow me and make out with me

[poligraf]

« In The Sun » (Walking the Golden Path, 1935) by Josef Čapek

[yeetoscope]

I for one welcome the our new Lisan Al’Gaib overlord and the unimaginable suffering he will bring.

They should remove the age requirement for presidency. Its time for america to enter its despotic boy-king era

[liminalitycarb]

We've heard rumors of a path of gold, and found clues throughout this world. And now, it is finally time for us to travel the Golden Path and find our other way.

The last VOD of Tunic is up now

[1introvertedsage]

Steps of Gold

*Only Main fear - should be remaining here*

Please be with me on this day And moving forward Month of May. Guide me. Show me. Walk beside when I'm lowly. You have my fated vow. Allegiance that's unwavering Deserving of a bow. For my heart beats to your command. Granted wishes Simple demands. As we walk together hand in hand. Surveying our great land. Golden path not hard to find. Just take a step back into your mind.

~I.S.~

[dinosaurwithablog]

I love this image!!! I used to live in Pennsylvania, and I'd drive down a road lined with huge oak trees whose leaves would turn golden yellow every fall. It was like driving through the sun because as the sun shone through those gorgeous leaves, they were illuminated like the video above. It's was a golden path home, and it was beautiful 😍 It brought me great joy and comfort every day.

[mianimasenpoeticus]

[carpethedamndiemdejavu]