Only Fools?

Some people have asked me, why Museum Fremen? Well as I've mentioned before it's a term from the Dune books that have had such an impact on me. I titled this blog based on a reading of God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert. However this reading was some years old. Since rereading the book, I've realized that perhaps Museum Fremen isn't what we're totally about here in the east.

The Museum Fremen were a deliberate creation of the God Emperor to maintain certain traditions that had been lost over time and through a changing climate. He understood that in time the Fremen and their skills and beliefs would be needed again as the climate would change again.

Obviously civilized humans and especially North Americans have lost so much essential knowledge, not to mention seeds and topsoil, over just the past hundred years. So our goals here are to resurrect some of that knowledge, to build our resilience. We are going to need it if our communities are going to survive the days to come. If grocery stores and their bright shelves disappeared tomorrow, would we survive? Unlikely. So in that way the name Museum Fremen fits.

However in the book, Museum Fremen are objects of derision and ridicule because they do such a poor job of impersonating Fremen. Though other characters in the book live comfortable lives they take ample time to insult the Fremen. Perhaps they have good cause, perhaps not. It's also hard to come close to the real thing without the appropriate climate to form you; like other animals we should always evolve in relation to our climate, predators and with foresight. And I don't expect people to respect our decision to come here and do what we are doing. Doing so might imply that your choice of lifestyle is inappropriate given the days to come. So give us a hard time, we can take it and maybe we'll just convince you.

I think that the most important lesson I learned from my rereading of the book was that you can never really go back to some idealized past. In that way Museum Fremen are not enough. They need to become agents of change and create the new taking lessons from all times in history. As the God Emperor states: "Only fools prefer the past". But this does not mean, like our culture teaches, that history is a straight progression toward some technological paradise. It ain't.

So there's some thoughts on the label I've assigned to myself. Not perfect but what is? Check out the Dune books though. They aught to be counted with Silent Spring and Small is Beautiful as the books that started it all.