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diff --git a/fortune-mod/.local/share/fortune/god-emperor b/fortune-mod/.local/share/fortune/god-emperor new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cc7a1e --- /dev/null +++ b/fortune-mod/.local/share/fortune/god-emperor @@ -0,0 +1,551 @@ +I am the most ardent people-watcher who ever lived. I watch them inside me and +outside. Past and present can mingle with odd impositions in me. And as the +metamorphosis continues in my flesh wonderful things happen to my senses. +It's as though I sensed everything in close-up. I have extremely acute hearing +and vision, plus a sense of smell extraordinarily discriminating. I can detect +and identify pheromones at three parts per million. I know. I have tested it. +You cannot hide very much from my senses. I think it would horrify you what +I can detect by smell alone. Your pheromones tell me what you are doing or are +prepared to do. And gesture and posture! I stared for half a day once at an old +man sitting on a bench in Arrakeen. He was a fifth-generation descendant of +Stilgar the Naib and did not even know it. I studied the angle of his neck, +the skin flaps below his chin, the cracked lips and moistness about his +nostrils, the pores behind his ears, the wisps of gray hair which crept from +beneath the hood of his antique stillsuit. Not once did he detect that he was +being watched. Hah! Stilgar would have known it in a second or two. But this +old man was just waiting for someone who never came. He got up finally and +tottered off. He was very stiff after all of that sitting. I knew I would +never see him in the flesh again. He was that near death and his water was +sure to be wasted. Well, that no longer mattered. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Oh, the landscapes I have seen! And the people! The far wanderings of the +Fremen and all the rest of it. Even back through the myths to Terra. Oh, the +lessons in astronomy and intrigue, the migrations, the disheveled flights, the +leg aching and lung-aching runs through so many nights on all of those cosmic +specks where we have defended our transient possession. I tell you we are a +marvel and my memories leave no doubt of this. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Sometimes I indulge myself in safaris which no other being may take. I strike +inward along the axis of my memories. Like a schoolchild reporting on a +vacation trip, I take up my subject. Let it be . . . female intellectuals! +I course backward into the ocean which is my ancestors. I am a great winged +fish in the depths. The mouth of my awareness opens and I scoop them up! +Sometimes... sometimes I hunt out specific persons recorded in our histories. +What a private joy to relive the life of such a one while I mock the academic +pretentions which supposedly formed a biography. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +You, the first person to encounter my chronicles for at least four thousand +years, beware. Do not feel honored by your primacy in reading the revelations +of my Ixian storehouse. You will find much pain in it. Other than the few +glimpses required to assure me that the Golden Path continued. I never wanted +to peer beyond those four millennia. Therefore, I am not sure what the events +in my journals may signify to your times. I only know that my journals have +suffered oblivion and that the events which I recount have undoubtedly been +submitted to historical distortion for eons. I assure you that the ability +to view our futures can become a bore. Even to be thought of as a god, +as I certainly was, can become ultimately boring. It has occurred to me +more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the +invention of free will. + + -- Inscription on the storehouse at bar-es-Balat +% +I tell you this in the hope that it will help you understand why I ad as I do +in the full knowledge that great forces accumulate in my Empire with but one +wish-the wish to destroy me. You who read these words may know full well what +actually happened, but I doubt that you understand it. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Some say I have no conscience. How false they are, even to themselves. +I am the only conscience which has ever existed. As wine retains the perfume +of its cask, I retain the essence of my most ancient genesis, and that is +the seed of conscience. That is what makes me holy. I am God because I am +the only one who really knows his heredity! + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +You must remember that I have at my internal demand every expertise known to +our history. This is the fund of energy I -draw upon when I address the +mentality of war. If you have not heard the moaning cries of the wounded and +the dying, you do not know about war. I have heard those cries in such numbers +that they haunt me. I have cried out myself in the aftermath of battle. I have +suffered wounds in every epoch-wounds from fist and club and rock, from +shell-studded limb and bronze sword, from the mace and the cannon, from arrows +and lasguns and the silent smothering of atomic dust, from biological invasions +which blacken the tongue and drown the lungs, from the swift gush of flame and +the silent working of slow poisons. . . and more I will not recount! I have +seen and felt them all. To those who dare ask why I behave as I do, I say: With +my memories, I can do nothing else. I am not a coward and once I was human. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Your Lord knows very well what is in your heart. Your soul suffices this day as +a reckoner against you. I need no witnesses. You do not listen to your soul, +but listen instead to your anger and your rage. + + -- Lord Leto to a Penitent, From the Oral History +% +Odd as it may seem, great struggles such as the one you can see emerging from +my journals are not always visible to the participants. Much depends on what +people dream in the secrecy of their hearts. I have always been as concerned +with the shaping of dreams as with the shaping of actions. Between the lines of +my journals is the struggle with humankind's view of itself-a sweaty contest on +a field where motives from our darkest past can well up out of an unconscious +reservoir and become events with which we not only must live but contend. +It is the hydraheaded monster which always attacks from your blind side. +I pray, therefore, that when you have traversed my portion of the Golden Path +you no longer will be innocent children dancing to music you cannot hear. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +How sad it was that the Shadout of old had become today's Fish Speaker. And a +true crysknife had been used to bind a servant more strongly to her master. +He knew that some thought his Fish Speakers were really priestesses + + -- Leto's answer to the Bene Gesserit. +% +The Duncans always think it odd that I choose women for combat forces, but my +Fish Speakers are a temporary army in every sense. While they can be violent +and vicious, women are profoundly different from men in their dedication to +battle. The cradle of genesis ultimately predisposes them to behavior more +protective of life. They have proved to be the best keepers of the Golden Path. +I reinforce this in my design for their training. They are set aside for a time +from ordinary routines. I give them special sharings which they can look back +upon' with pleasure for the rest of their lives. They come of age in the +company of their sisters in preparation for events more profound. What you +share in such companionship always prepares you for greater things. The haze +of nostalgia covers their days among their sisters, making those days into +something different than they were. That's the way today changes history. +All contemporaries do not inhabit the same time. The past is always changing, +but few realize it. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +I know the evil of my ancestors because I am those people. The balance is +delicate in the extreme. I know that few of you who read my words have ever +thought about your ancestors this way. It has not occurred to you that your +ancestors were survivors and that the survival itself sometimes involved savage +decisions, a kind of wanton brutality which civilized humankind works very hard +to suppress. What price will you pay for that suppression? Will you accept your +own extinction? + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +What is the most profound difference between us, between you and me? You +already know it. It's these ancestral memories. Mine come at me in the full +glare of awareness. Yours work from your blind side. Some call it instinct or +fate. The memories apply their leverages to each of us-on what we think and +what we do. You think you are immune to such influences? I am Galileo. I stand +here and tell you: "Yet it moves." That which moves can exert its force in ways +no mortal power ever before dared stem. I am here to dare this. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +The female sense of sharing originated as familial sharing-care of the young, +the gathering and preparation of food, sharing joys, love and sorrows. Funeral +lamentation originated with women. Religion began as a female monopoly, wrested +from them only after its social power became too dominant. Women were the first +medical researchers and Practitioners. There has never been any clear balance +between the sexes because power goes with certain roles as it certainly goes +with knowledge. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Unceasing warfare gives rise to its own social conditions which have been +similar in all epochs. People enter a permanent state of alertness to ward +off attacks. You seethe absolute rule of the autocrat. All new things become +dangerous frontier districts-new planets, new economic areas to exploit, new +ideas or new devices, visitors-everything suspect. Feudalism takes firm hold, +sometimes disguised as a politbureau or similar structure, but always present. +Hereditary succession follows the lines of power. The blood of the powerful +dominates. The vice regents of heaven or their equivalent apportion the wealth. +And their know they must control inheritance or slowly let the power melt away. +Now, do you understand Leto's Peace? + + -- The Stolen Journals +% + +Our ancestor, Assur-nasir-apli, who was known as the cruelest of the cruel, +seized the throne by slaying his own father and starting the reign of the +sword. His conquests included the Ururnia Lake region. which led him to +Commagene and Khabur. His son received tribute from the Shuites, from Tyre, +Sidon, Gebel and even from Jehu, son of Omri whose very name struck terror +into thousands. The conquests which began with Assur-nasirapli carried arms +into Media and later into Israel, Damascus, Edom, Arpad, Babylon and Umlias. +Does anyone remember these names and places now? I have given you enough clues: +Try to name the planet. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +I am beginning to hate water. The sandtrout skin which impels my metamorphosis +has learned the sensitivities of the worm. Moneo and many of my guards know my +aversion, Only Moneo suspects the truth, that this marks an important waypoint. +I can feel my ending in it, not soon as Moneo measures time, but soon enough as +I endure it. Sandtrout swarmed to water in the Dune days, a problem during the +early stages of our symbiosis. The enforcement of my will power controlled the +urge then, and until we reached a time of balance. Now, I must avoid water +because there are no other sandtrout, only the half dormant creatures of my +skin. Without sandtrout to bring this world back to desert, Shai-Hulud will not +emerge; the sandworm cannot evolve until the land is parched. I am their only +hope. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +"Another Festival so soon?" the Lord Leto asked. +"It has been ten years," the majordomo said. +Do you think by this exchange that the Lord Leto betrays an ignorance of time's +passage? + + -- The Oral History +% +From that welter of memories which I can tap at will, patterns emerge. They are +like another language which I see so clearly The social-alarm signals which put +societies into the postures of defense attack are like shouted words to me. +As a people. you react against threats to innocence and the peril of the +helpless young. Unexplained sounds, visions and smells raise the hackles you +have forgotten you possess. When alarmed, you cling to your native language +because all the other patterned sounds are strange. You demand acceptable +dress because a strange costume is threatening. This is system feedback at +its most primitive level. Your cells remember + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Safaris through ancestral memories teach me many things. The patterns, ahhh, +the patterns Liberal bigots are the ones who trouble me most. I distrust the +extremes. Scratch a conservative and you find someone who prefers the past over +any future. Scratch a liberal and find a closet aristocrat. It's true! Liberal +governments always develop into aristocracies The bureaucracies betray the true +intent of people who form such governments. Right from the first, the little +people who formed the governments which promised to equalize the social burdens +found themselves suddenly in the hands of bureaucratic aristocracies. Of +course, all bureaucracies follow this pattern. but what a hypocrisy to find +this even under a communized banner Ahhh, well, if patterns teach me anything +it's that patterns are repeated. My oppressions. by and large, are no worse +than any of the others and, at least. I teach a new lesson. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +The trance-state of prophecy is like no other visionary experience. It is not +a retreat from the raw exposure of the senses (as are many trance-states) but +an immersion in a multitude of new movements. Things moue. It is an ultimate +pragmatism in the midst of Infinity, a demanding consciousness where you come +at last into the unbroken awareness that the universe moves of itself, that it +changes, that its rules change. that nothing remains permanent or absolute +throughout all such movement, that mechanical explanations for anything can +work only within precise confinements and, once the walls are broken down, the +old explanations shatter and dissolve, blown away by new movements. The things +you see in this trance are sobering, often shattering They demand your utmost +effort to remain whole and. even so, you emerge from that state profoundly +changed. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +When I set out to lead humankind along my Golden Path. I promised them a lesson +their bones would remember. I know a profound pattern which humans deny with +their words even while their actions affirm it. They say they seek security and +quiet, the condition they call peace. Even as they speak. they create the seeds +of turmoil and violence. If they find their quiet security. they squirm in it. +How boring they find it. Look at them now. Look at what they do while I record +these words. Hah! I give them enduring eons of enforced tranquility which plods +on and on despite their every effort to escape into chaos. Believe me, the +memory of Leto's Peace shall abide with them forever. They will seek their +quiet security thereafter only with extreme caution and steadfast preparation. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +As each day passes, you become increasingly unreal, more alien and remote from +what I find myself to be on that new day. I am the only reality and, as you +differ from me, you lose reality. The more curious I become, the less curious +are those who worship me. Religion suppresses curiosity. What I do subtracts +from the worshipper. Thus it is that eventually I will do nothing, giving it +all back to frightened people who will ,find themselves on that day alone and +forced to act for themselves. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +The problem of leadership is inevitably: Who will play God? + + -- Muad'Dib. From the Oral History +% +I am both father and mother to my people. I have known the ecstasy of birth and +the ecstasy of death and I know the patterns that you must team. Have I not +wandered intoxicated through the universe of shapes? Yes! I have seen you +outlined in light. That universe which you say you see and feel, that universe +is my dream. My energies focus upon it and I am in any realm and every realm. +Thus, you are born. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +I have isolated the city-experience within me and have examined it closely. +The idea of a city fascinates me. The formation of a biological community +without a functioning, supportive social community leads to havoc. Whole +worlds have become single biological communities without an interrelated +social structure and this has always led to ruin. It becomes dramatically +instructive under overcrowded conditions. The ghetto is lethal. Psychic +stresses of overcrowding create pressures which will erupt. The city is an +attempt to manage these forces. The social forms by which cities make the +attempt are worth study. Remember that there exists a certain malevolence +about the formation of any social order. It is the struggle for existence +by an artificial entity. Despotism and slavery hover at the edges. +Many injuries occur and, thus, the need for laws. The law develops its +own power structure, creating more wounds and new injustices. Such trauma +can be healed by cooperation, not by confrontation. The summons to cooperate +identifies the healer. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +The singular multiplicity of this universe draws my deepest attention. +It is a thing of ultimate beauty. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Groups tend to condition their surroundings for group survival. When they +deviate from this it may be taken as a sign of group sickness. There are +many telltale symptoms. I watch the sharing of food. This is a form of +communication, an inescapable sign of mutual aid which also contains a deadly +signal of dependency. It is interesting that men are the ones who usually tend +the landscape today. They are husband-men. Once, that was the sole province of +women. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +If you know all of your ancestors, you were a personal witness to the events +which created the myths and religions of our past. Recognizing this, you must +think of me as a myth-maker. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Let there be no doubt that I am the assemblage of our ancestors, the arena in +which they exercise my moments. They are my cells and I am their body. This is +the favrashi of which I speak, the soul, the collective unconscious, the source +of archetypes, the repository of all trauma and joy. I am the choice of their +awakening. My samhadi is their samhadi. Their experiences are mine! Their +knowledge distilled is mfr inheritance. Those billions are my one. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +"Make no heroes," my father said. + + -- The voice of Ghanima, From the Oral History +% +The prophet is not diverted by illusions of past, present and future. The +fixity of language determines such linear distinctions. Prophets hold a key to +the lock in a language. The mechanical image remains only an image to them. +This is not a mechanical universe. The linear progression of events is imposed +by the observer. Cause and effect? That's not it at all. The prophet utters +fateful words. You glimpse a thing "destined to occur." But the prophetic +instant releases something of infinite portent and power. The universe +undergoes a ghostly shift. Thus, the wise prophet conceals actuality behind +shimmering labels. The uninitiated then believe the prophetic language is +ambiguous. The listener distrusts the prophetic messenger. Instinct tells +you how the utterance blunts the power of such words. The best prophets +lead you up to the curtain and let you peer through for yourself. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +The pattern of monarchies and similar systems has a message of value for all +political forms. My memories assure me that governments of any kind could +profit from this message. Governments can be useful to the governed only so +long as inherent tendencies toward tyranny are restrained. Monarchies have +some good features beyond their star qualities. They can reduce the size and +parasitic nature of the management bureaucracy. They can make speedy decisions +when necessary. They fit an ancient human demand for a parental (tribal/feudal) +hierarchy where every person knows his place. It is valuable to know your +place, even if that place is temporary. It is galling to be held in place +against your will. This is why I teach about tyranny in the best possible way +by example. Even though you read these words after a passage of eons, my +tyranny will not be forgotten. My Golden Path assures this. Knowing my message, +I expect you to be exceedingly careful about the powers you delegate to any +government. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +You know the myth of the Great Spice Hoard? Yes, I know about that story, too. +A majordomo brought it to me one day to amuse me. The story says there is a +hoard of melange, a gigantic hoard, big as a great mountain. The hoard is +concealed in the depths of a distant planet. It is not Arrakis, that planet. +It is not Dune. The spice was hidden there long ago, even before the First +Empire and the Spacing Guild. The story says Paul Muad'Dib went there and +lives yet beside the hoard, kept alive by it, waiting. The majordomo did not +understand why the story disturbed me. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Memory has a curious meaning to me, a meaning I have hoped others might share. +It continually astonished me how people hide from their ancestral memories, +shielding themselves behind a thick barrier of mythos. Ohhh, I do not expect +them to seek the terrible immediacy of every living moment which I must +experience. I can understand that they might not want to be submerged in a mush +of petty ancestral details. You have reason to fear that your living moments +might be taken over by others. Yet, the meaning is there within those memories. +We carry all of our ancestry forward like a living wave, all of the hopes and +joys and griefs, the agonies and the exultations of our past. Nothing within +those memories remains completely without meaning or influence, not as long as +there is a humankind somewhere. We have that bright Infinity all around us, +that Golden Path of forever to which we can continually pledge our puny but +inspired allegiance. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +The realization of what I am occurs in the timeless awareness which does not +stimulate nor delude. I create a field without self or center, a field where +even death becomes only analogy. I desire no results. I merely permit this +field which has no goals nor desires, no perfections nor even visions of +achievements. In that field, omnipresent primal awareness is all. It is the +light which pours through the windows of my universe. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +One of the most terrible words in any language is Soldier. The synonyms parade +through our history: yogahnee, trooper, hussar, kareebo, cossack, deranzeef, +legionnaire, sardaukar, fish speaker... I know them all. They stand there in +the ranks of my memory to remind me: Always make sure you have the army with +you. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Do you know what guerrillas often say? They claim that their rebellions are +invulnerable to economic warfare because they have no economy, that they are +parasitic on those they would overthrow. The fools merely fail to assess the +coin in which they must inevitably pay. The pattern is inexorable in its +degenerative failures. You see it repeated in the systems of slavery, of +welfare states, of caste-ridden religions, of socializing bureaucracies-in +any system which creates and maintains dependencies. Too long a parasite and +you cannot exist without a host. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +In the cradle of our past, I lay upon my back in a cave so shallow I could +penetrate it only by squirming, not by crawling. There, by the dancing light of +a resin torch, I drew upon walls and ceiling the creatures of the hunt and the +souls of my people. How illuminating it is to peer backward through a perfect +circle at that ancient struggle for the visible moment of the soul. All time +vibrates to that call: "Here I am!" With a mind informed by artist-giants who +came afterward, I peer at handprints and flowing muscles drawn upon the rock +with charcoal and vegetable dyes. How much more we are than mere mechanical +events! And my anti-civil self demands: "Why is it that they do not want to +leave the cave?" + + -- The Stolen Journals +% + +The Duncans sometimes ask if I understand the exotic ideas of our past? +And if I understand them, why can't I explain them? Knowledge, the Duncans +believe, resides only in particulars. I try to tell them that all words are +plastic. Word images begin to distort in the instant of utterance. Ideas +imbedded in a language require that particular language for expression. +This is the very essence of the meaning within the word exotic. See how it +begins to distort? Translation squirms in the presence of the exotic. +The Galach which I speak here imposes itself. It is an outside frame of +reference, a particular system. Dangers lurk in all systems. Systems +incorporate the unexamined beliefs of their creators. Adopt a system, accept +its beliefs, and you help strengthen the resistance to change. Does it +serve any purpose for me to tell the Duncans that there are no languages +for some things? Ahhh! But the Duncans believe that all languages are mine. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Given enough time for the generations to evolve, the predator produces +particular survival adaptations in its prey which, through the circular +operation of feedback, produce changes in the predator which again change the +prey etcetera, etcetera, etcetera .... Many powerful forces do the same thing. +You can count religions among such forces. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +It required almost a thousand years before the dust of Dune's old planet-wide +desert left the atmosphere to be bound up in soil and water. The wind called +sandblaster has not been seen on Arrakis for some twenty-five hundred years. +Twenty billion tons of dust could be carried suspended in the wind of just one +of those storms. The sky often had a silvery look to it then. Fremen said: +"The desert is a surgeon cutting away the skin to expose what's underneath." +The planet and the people had layers. You could see them. My Sareer is but +a weak echo of what was. I must be the sandblaster today. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Most civilization is based on cowardice. It's so easy to civilize by teaching +cowardice. You water down the standards which would lead to bravery. +You restrain the will. You regulate the appetites. You fence in the horizons. +You make a law for every movement. You deny the existence of chaos. +You teach even the children to breathe slowly. You tame. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +What is the most immediate danger to my stewardship? I will tell you. +It is a true visionary, a person who has stood in the presence of God +with the full knowledge of where he stands. Visionary ecstasy releases +energies which are like the energies of sex-uncaring for anything +except creation. One act of creation can be much like another. +Everything depends upon the vision. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% + +You cannot understand history unless you understand its flowings, its +currents and the ways leaders move within such forces. A leader tries to +perpetuate the conditions which demand his leadership. Thus, the leader +requires the outsider. I caution you to examine my career with care. +I am both leader and outsider. Do not make the mistake of assuming that I +only created the Church which was the State. That was my function as leader +and I had many historical models to use as pattern. For a clue to my role as +outsider, look at the arts of my time. The arts are barbaric. The favorite +poetry? The Epic. The popular dramatic ideal? Heroism. Dances? Wildly +abandoned. From Moneo's viewpoint, he is correct in describing this as +dangerous. It stimulates the imagination. It makes people feel the lack of +that which I have taken from them. What did I take from them? The right to +participate in history. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +You think power may be the most unstable of all human achievements? +Then what of the apparent exceptions to this inherent instability? +Some families endure. Very powerful religious bureaucracies have been known +to endure. Consider the relationship between faith and power. Are they +mutually exclusive when each depends upon the other? The Bene Gesserit have +been reasonably secure within the loyal walls of faith for thousands of +years. But where has their power gone? + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +Think of it as plastic memory, this force within you which trends you and your +fellows toward tribal forms. This plastic memory seeks to return to its ancient +shape, the tribal society. It is all around you-the feudatory, the diocese, the +corporation, the platoon, the sports club, the dance troupes, the rebel cell, +the planning council, the prayer group . . . each with its master and servants, +its host and parasites. And the swarms of alienating devices (including these +very words!) tend eventually to be enlisted in the argument for a return to +"those better rimes." I despair of teaching you other ways. You have square +thoughts which resist circles. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +What am I eliminating? The bourgeois infatuation with peaceful conservation +of the past. This is a binding force, a thing which holds humankind into one +vulnerable unit in spite of illusionary separations across parsecs of space. +If I can find the scattered bits, others can find them. When you are +together, you can share a common catastrophe. You can be exterminated +together. Thus, I demonstrate the terrible danger of a gliding, passionless +mediocrity, a movement without ambitions or aims. I show you that entire +civilizations can do this thing. I give you eons of life which slips gently +toward death without fuss or stirring, without even asking 'Why?' I show you +the false happiness and the shadow-catastrophe called Leto, the God +Emperor. Now, will you learn the real happiness? + + -- The Stolen Journals +% +In all of my universe I have seen no law of nature, unchanging and inexorable. +This universe presents only changing relationships which are sometimes seen as +laws by short-lived awareness. These fleshly sensoria which we call self are +ephemera withering in the blaze of infinity, fleetingly aware of temporary +conditions which confine our activities and change as our activities change. +If you must label the absolute, use it's proper name: Temporary. + + -- The Stolen Journals +% |