Foundations of Dune 

This is a strange prelude for Godzilla x Kong...

Just wanna say, I really enjoy these academic reviews. Potshots at bad media is fun, but it's really hard to find anyone who will thoroughly engage with the content and context of a story like this. I hope you will do more.

I never finish a Little Platoon video without a refreshed understanding of how little I actually know about the subject of the video.

Frank Herbert was really quite revolutionary by creating a science fiction setting that is completely devoid of robots, androids or any kind of Ai or thinking machines. They were all destroyed long before the events of the books in the Butlerian Jihad. Robots were all the rage in sci-fi books and tv and movies. I Robot, forbidden planet, the day the earth stood still etc. everything had to have a robot. Without robots or AI Frank can tell a story purely about humans. A setting where humans have become so different culturally that they are close to being aliens. And at the same time these human characters from the far future can used be used to tell us about ourselves.

A quote from "God Emperor" that also helps signify Frank Herbert's contrast to Isaac Asimov: "If we deny the need for thought, Moneo, as some do, we lose the powers of reflection; we cannot define what our senses report. If we deny the flesh, we unwheel the vehicle which bears us. But if we deny emotions, we lose all touch with our internal universe."

"Foundations" of Dune - there's a double meaning there, bravo

It may not mean much but I just want to say Platoon how much I appreciate someone doing some actual fucking research and intelligence in this modern churn of sound bites and reactionism. Looking forward to the main video.

Excerpt from "a short critique". 40 minutes. Yep. This is what I subbed for.

Rome.. Whigs.. Locke.. Jung.. Asimov…. 36 minutes into a 53 minute video, and we’re only just getting to the first hints of Dune proper. This is exactly what I love about TLP.

Not one "WHHHHIIIIIGGGSSSS INNNNN SPAAAAAAACCCEE" What a waste

The idea that very smart fellas have it all figured out only for some small factor to throw it all into whack feels very poingent today

I never thought I'd see such a good breakdown of Whig History in, of all things, what's supposed to be a review of Dune. If you ever want to make the jump from media analysis to pure political analysis, you've got my vote of confidence!

I can tell now why the Libertarian and free minded conservatives love warhammer 40K, a world where a science loving genius almost conquered the universe except that he failed to account for the emotions of the his own sons and that thru everything into literal chaos.

One of my favorite parts of RU-vid is how hard people will study something, and go on to share their knowledge with the world. You’re a treasure LP!

“These are illusions of popular history which 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 rewards; 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” - F. Herbert, Children of Dune This is my fav quote by Herbert and it supports some of the points you've made in your video. Amazing video! As an avid reader and a fan of Asimov and Herbert, thank you for not dumbing it down and inspiring people to read more.

"Surely we're past the idea of wars of religion." I cracked a rib laughing at that one, that's a good joke 😂

As an Oregon native, I'm proud that my state - from the sand dunes to the natives - played such a pivotal role in inspiring Frank Herbert's story. I remember taking trips to the dunes as a kid, and doing mushrooms out by the coast there as a teen. Had no idea I was following in one of my favorite author's footsteps.

“tolkien got stuckmanized” 😂

Excellent and correct. Many (inexplicably) fail to see the enormous critique in Dune both of power and knowledge, possibly because so many are mired in the Vision of the Anointed and thus seem (to me) to drift in the direction of assuming that Dune represents either that Vision performed “incorrectly” or somehow an image of the opposing future which the Anointed would seek to prevent.

As a Pole I love LittlePlatoon metioning 1670 and saying "learn some polish history". God bless you for that.

I caught that little snippet of The Name of the Rose...and I smiled

An interesting thing to consider is that supposedly there is no intention of adapting Children of Dune. I do not know what that means for the depiction of the Golden Path and Paul's relationship to it in the next film. Chani leaving does make me worry that the 3rd film is going to diverge far more from the original themes than the first two, and possibly try to give Paul a redemption arc, which would be truly atrocious.

the guy mentioned poland i am now satisfied i shal return to my cave and await another episode

The movie made me want to read the books, so when he started talking spoilers I had to stop the video. I'll watch LP's Dune videos after I get to the books myself. I like these essay videos.

That heckler at UCLA is probably of the opinion that Herbert should have not given any villain traits that the heckler finds in themselves...let authors write what they want and then the market or souk decides eh

My word. That preamble was meaty enough to be a course on its own. As a Brit you have far more depth of knowledge of our political paradigm than most of the political vocal crowd in the USA. We'd be more than happy if you'd join us through a freedom gland replacement surgery, sir.

The way you presented this push and pull and discourse between the Whigs and the Libertarians really gave me an aha moment after having pondered on Dostoevsky's works for so long. Dostoevsky characters almost always fall into the "asimov" type vs the "tolkein" type. However, in the hands of Dostoevsky, just like Herbert, the "Asimov" type characters, in theory, are one way, but in reality, become monstrosities (like Paul and Leto). This Dostoevsky quote sums up this unfolding beautifully; "the science of this world, having united itself into a great force, has, especially in the past century, examined everything heavenly that has been bequeathed to us in sacred books, and, after hard analysis, the learned ones of this world have absolutely nothing left of what was once holy. But they have examined parts and missed the whole, and their blindness is even worthy of wonder. Meanwhile the whole stands before their eyes as immovably as ever, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Did it not live for nineteen centuries, does it not live even now in the movements of individual souls and in the movements of the popular masses? Even in the movements of the souls of those same all-destroying atheists, it lives, as before, immovably! For those who renounce Christianity and rebel against it are in their essence of the same image of the same Christ, and such they remain, for until now neither their wisdom nor the ardor of their hearts has been able to create another, higher image of man and his dignity than the image shown of old by Christ. And whatever their attempts, the results have been only monstrosities."

dang…. this essay really opened my mind..

Close to 2 hours worth of content shown and it only covers the lead up to what Dune is as a series and why Paul isn't a Hero of the Hero's Journey understanding. Oh man, we are in for a treat. Truly Platoon, you're giving even Mauler a run for the Long Man title.

We get it, Platoon. C.S. Lewis was an Anarcho-Primitivist

This is one of the most fascinating videos I’ve seen this year. Holy cow.

19:16 some people now would say, rather than what Gibbon affirmed, that Byzantine empire was actually good and really part of the roman empire rather than other "civilization". It was, in fact, a bunker of metaphysical knowledge, survived for many years against invasions, and regained Rome. Here is your second Foundation, Asimov.

Thanks for this, LP. This helps me to articulate and understand better the reasons why I couldn't resonate with "Lord of the rings," or, "Star Wars," but could with, "Dune."

This was fantastic, I already knew I loved everything about Herbert, but hearing him speak solidifies his genius in my eye.

We need a little platoon history channel

"surely we are past the idea wars of religion" what a fascinating statement from Asimov. for such a smart guy, how could he possibly not get the "not everyone agrees with you"? no Isaac. they believe it. its such a remarkably sheltered view. Man, what would have Atheism++ and that that nonsense have done to that man.

What got us into the Great Depression: The Fed, fractional reserve banking, and buying stock on credit. What got us out of it: mass industrialisation of WW2 and the civilian marketplace having capital to trade. What did FDR do? Make things worst.

Let's be honest, between mutton chops or a full luxurious beard, it was never going to be a hard choice.

You know what I heard.....🎵MericA, fuck yeah🎵

I should not be surprised that Platoon has read - and clearly enjoyed - Sowell, but I am nevertheless delighted to learn this fact.

Whigs in space🤣. I love it!

I like your funny words, magic man.

Regarding 24:43-26:00 I was about to disagree but then you addressed it in 29:43.❤ I don't think Herbert was repudiating the univeral rightness of moral vision itself but rather the individual's who and attempts by those individuals to place said moral vision onto other people. Since the results of which are in praxis, usually just as if not far more evil. This would suggest that Herbert and "Dune,"have a moral centre just not one shared by Asimov, Tolkien ect

Fun fact Asimov has books in every section of the Dewey Decimal System save Philosophy and Psychology

I read all Dune books several times. This grounding in Herberts larger philosophical environment was interesting. I must say though that I find this whole focus some people have on how subversive Dune, especially Dune Messiah, was on the hero journey to miss the larger themes Herbert explored. The subversion is a story gimmick, not the point of the story.

Jesus Christ, is there any research you DON'T DO? Dozens or hundreds of hours later, after examining the basic philosophies of the writers, is there a right way and wrong way? I absolutely cannot wait for the full video breakdown. If the underlying philosophy of the writers, all the characters and set pieces makes a difference to you, this review is fucking gold. Absolutely incredible.

I cannot applaud you enough for using the word "liberalism" correctly. Excellent historical explanation, said by someone who has spent too much time working on that myself.

That part about FDR and the New Deal myth was great Always good to see anyone addressing that myth

Yea, info dump Even better Asimov!

PROUD OREGONIAN HERE! I think the crazy, seemingly nonsensical ending of the Dune series buttresses your thesis that Herbert is subverting the Asimov-progressive sci-fi vision. Two new characters, Daniel and Marty (widely thought to be proxies for Frank and his wife), appear and urge the main characters to garden with them. The End. This clearly seems like a reference to Voltaire's Candide ending, where his protagonist Candide's conclusion to how to live a good, moral life is that we must "tend to our gardens." Voltaire was satirizing the original Optimists, who claimed everything we experience must be good because God wills it. Candide travels the world Forrest Gump-style and sees all kinds of ridiculous suffering that makes the Optimists look real crazy. What to do? Cultivate beautiful and nutritious things in your personal garden. To me, that Herbert's epic, convoluted, sci-fi political epoch ends this way says it all. We're not ubermensch heroes of progress, we're products of our ecology, culture, ancestry, etc. We should do our best and some of us have a narrow shot to direct civilization, but it's a lot more like diverting a raging river and violence, corruption, and more are inevitable--especially when the system they create spirals out of control. Even when we DO become ultimate forms of ourselves, horrible inhumane things result when we assert our will upon humankind. Heck, even when they finally turn Arrakis into a green paradise as per the Fremen's deepest desires... it ends up killing most of the worms and ruining their entire culture and ecosystem. They become as soft and decadent and wayward as the empire they conquered. The remaining Fremen clinging onto the old ways in what remains of the desert are quaint curiosities, old fashioned and irrelevant. You better believe if Asimov wrote this story, turning Arrakis green would've simply been a happy ending of scientific triumph. So what to do? As per the series ending, get in the no ship to as far from the madness as possible and tend to your garden. Sounds pretty Western America libertarian to me.

Okay. I'm only five minutes into a video about Dune, which is produced by an Englishman, and he's already quoted both John Locke and Thomas Sowell. Sir, well done. Thank you.

There is another way to see both stories: emerging behaviour or complex systems that can be guided through century long guidance. In effect you can think about it through elimination on the long term of individual differences. In complexity theory the individual nodes don’t matter, only the system itself.

I was on the fence about investing further into the Duneverse, but this video has convinced me to do so. I appreciate the deep dive into the theme here.

Your video essays are enlightening, thanks for the work you put in to them 👍

Really great excerpt from what looks to be shaping up to be an epic video. Your first snippet on the hero's journey was very interesting and this section proved equally as good, if not better. Looking forward to seeing the final product, it's shaping up beautifully. Best wishes and keep up the great work Platoon ✌️

One note I have near the end is that Herbert was subverting the idea of Prescience being a default good, more so that he was subverting the actual assumption that the authorities with prescience would even have the wisdom to deal with the knowledge they were given correctly, because at the end of the books, Leto II realized that yes, the empire NEEDED to crumble for humanity to flourish, and that saving the empire merely doomed it to stagnation. He's basically taking a jab at Hari Seldon saving the empire with "have you considered that maybe civilizations crumbling is a necessary and important part of human flourishing"?

The siren song of the tyrrant is ways to concentrate power in the state "for the greater good".

Oh my ... I'm gonna have to watch this many many times ... so much information! I feel mentally stimulated ! Good job !

I don’t care if you are reviewing a movie or not. I would happily listen to you talk about political philosophy for hours on end, typically agreeing with you, occasionally screaming at my phone about how wrong you are about some nitpick or another. thank you for all the excellent material.

I have to be honest you are probably one of the most unbelievably entertaining people I’ve come across, you make education something truly interesting and enjoyable in a way I could listen to for hours. You sir are a very educational fellow

I find it funny that Starship Troopers basically refutes Dune and Foundations fairly quickly. The rule of the scientists ended quickly, and was replaced with the rule of the veteran, or to put it more bluntly, the rule of the wise guardians of Plato. As of current times, I see it as a man running on air, thinking he will keep running forward, so he uses everything at his disposal to maintain his altitude, but his descent is already predestined, and his refusal to go down, simply expands the scope of the destruction to come.

I had a little bit of a giddy moment when herbert talked about making good sifi by taking what's popular and playing around with and deconstructing it, I've used that technique a few times in some of my writing. Namely what happens to a society when you introduce telepathy, what if AI is not like humans and is actually really dumb and what happens if we discover immortality, though admittedly the answer to all those is usually some flavour of war and societal collapse.

Id love to hear LP do a similarly in depth look at other books and writers. Personally i think his views on Paradise Lost would be fascinating

Another Great Video, thank you! On that node, do we get the remaining As(s)hoka Series anytime this year? I know its not clicked as much that it would benefit your channel, but i really enjoyed every second of your opinion on that series

The one thing going through my mind as I watched this is: "Please get to the point....."!

Kudos for promoting 1670 mate. I never have thought It would be entertaining to somebody outside of PL as it contains a lot of references to some very specific traditions or proverbs.

God dam, platoons ability to tow the line between political discourse and insightful media dissections never cease to amaze me. Well done man.

These are even more interesting than the movie reviews.

I enjoyed these Dune vids. Thankyou for the work you put into their production :-)

Thanks!

I really like the choice of releasing these "short" excerpts prior to the release of the main video. And they've been so good I know I will still listen to the main video in its entirety without skipping what amounts to nearly two hours I first heard in the segments. I think it will likely enhance my appreciation for the longer video because I won't have to pause and rewind the long quotes or definitions. I hope to get more of these researched portions in the reviews that goes deeper than "here's what happened in the movie, this is why I like/dislike it, and here is the thing someone on the project said a year ago that warned us about the final product" type videos most people tend to release. I like that I'm learning things that prompt further consideration after the video is over.

I'm totally on board for the TV series "Whigs in Space".

Asimov: "Surely we are past the idea of wars of Religion" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Fantastic essay, platoon. I didn't realize you have another channel and I'm glad YT recommended it to me

Anyone else wanna hear platoon read lord of the rings?

Thank you Ploots, that was fascinating.

Thank you for all your work. This is really good.

You are my one of my favorite personalities on RU-vid. Brilliant work on this one!

The incredible show *Connections* comes to mind when watching this video. Well done!

At 19:01 - Empires typically demand tribute in monetary taxes, goods, or labor. Another hallmark of empires is that they explicitly emplace their own governors or viceroyalty to rule their vassal states. Empires claim the territory they conquer, along with all its resources and people. So empires, historically, involve a little more than the mere presence of military bases.

One quick note *the Butlerian Jihad was against the men who controlled the thinking machines as much as it was against the AI.* The machine overlords were themselves in the service of human masters who were controlling humanity.

Thanks Ben. Your Dune videos are excellent. I don't usually have the patience for long form analysis - back when I was a lawyer my favorite jurist was Lord Denning; mostly for his relative brevity, ability to explain complex concepts of law in terms that lesser minds ( like mine) could understand and wonderful turn of phrase. But your video essays are always worth making time for. This one reminds me that, tragically, there has never been a decent adaptation of Asimov's work. Cheers.

2:10 this this i like. thank you for that, Eastern Europe History is one of those pages nobody is intrested in. Basicly people think it is all balkans 24/7

0:59 Those spines! Brutal 🤣

I possess the requisite command of conversational language to neither illustrate how appreciative I am of your content nor the palliative release of realization that I am not alone in the thoughts whose water I have carried for my entire thinking life.

Love this format!

Like so many others, I'm going to end up watching the full version on repeat.

Very well done video, sir! I always enjoy your videos. Dune is one of my favorite book series. I really enjoyed where you took this history. Dune propper vs. Dune Light is a fantastic way to put the reality of the recent films! Well said!

All systems work, it's people that don't, or as WC Fields supposedly once said, "never give a sucker an even break". All systems fail when the sucker majority begin to wise up, as such the system spends a huge amount of its resources ensuring dogma prevails and ignorance is bliss. Is your pronunciation of Denis surname name based on Professor Tossport, or am I just reading too much into this?

Thank you so much. I love these men and their work.

Again I’m a strong believer in if it lines up theory

Editor notę at 2:09 got me laughing.

Amazing video. Thank you, Platoon.

Seems like an excellent critique and valuable for at least considering a lot of major themes in modern society right this moment and in our recent past.

Well that was bloody marvellous. Now I don’t have to read any of those dusty books myself. Thank you.

I can't wait for the full video

You reference Thomas Sowell I gotta thumbs up.

Congratulations on one of the best summaries on Dune, that is findable on the internet

You served us a massive appetizer, Sir! Well done!

This video really made me think that I should give Dune another chance. I read it a while ago and admittedly I was not too fond of it but then again I have changed a lot from academic to much more practical man just by the reality hitting me in the face and reminding me that I need to get outside and experience the world