These are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness . . .
– From the Instruction Manual: Missionaria Protectiva
2 Comments
Evil men never prosper –> Untrue. only the brave deserve the fair –> Sounds like something out of a fairy tale. honesty is the best policy –> Sounds like something on a first standard kid’s four line book. actions speak louder than words –> This, I agree. virtue always triumphs –> Thoo. a good deed is its own reward –> Who said bad deeds don’t? any bad human can be reformed –> Lost hope. religious talismans protect one from demon possession –> What if a demon wears them? only females understand the ancient mysteries –> Well, I certainly don’t.
Illusions indeed. ‘scuse the long comment, if you will.
honesty is the best policy
or is it ?
actions speak louder than words –> This, I agree.
I beg to differ. Action can only get you so far, you need words to go the full distance, and vice versa [look at 4 years of my hard work, it got noticed only when I started talking about it last year].
only females understand the ancient mysteries
Missionaria Protectiva is written by the sisterhood of Bene Gesserit and hence the obvious slant. Dune is one of the most insightful books I’ve ever read (including the economy inversion, relgious conflict and essential grayness of characters – starting with Jessica)
Religions are often based on some basic precepts – the Azhar Book in Dune is an excellent example of simple religious propoganda. Including the time to live and time to die fatalism…