Frank Herbert avrebbe detto che lo scopo della fantascienza non è sempre quello di prevedere il futuro, ma potrebbe essere anche quello di prevenirlo.
Questo che segue è un passo tratto da Dune Messiah, in cui viene riportato il testo della lettera che Lady Jessica scrive alla figlia.
No doubt my son is an epochal figure of history. […] but I cannot see this as an excuse for submitting to a rabble invasion. […] You produce a deadly paradox. […] Government cannot be religious and self-assertive at the same time. Religious experience needs a spontaneity which laws inevitably suppress. And you cannot govern without laws. Your laws eventually must replace morality, replace conscience, replace even the religion by which you think to govern. Sacred ritual must spring from praise and holy yearnings which hammer out a significant morality. Government, on the other hand, is a cultural organism particularly attractive to doubts, questions and contentions. I see the day coming when ceremony must take the place of faith and symbolism replaces morality.
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