Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

Stilgar couldn't explain it, but he was greatly shocked by Leto's inadvertent words.On the way back across the desert to Teb's lair, Leto's words had implanted themselves in his consciousness more deeply than anything Leto had said on The Servant. Indeed, this year, the women of Arrakis are exceptionally beautiful, as are the young men.Their faces glow with a moisture-rich glow.Their eyes are large and bright.They showed off bodies unmasked by still suits and snaking pipes.They often don't even wear distillation suits in the wilderness, but prefer to wear new-style clothes, showing their young and flexible figures under the clothes.

Against the backdrop of the human landscape is the beautiful natural landscape of Arrakis.Compared with before, people's eyes are now often attracted by the young leaves mixed with brown-red rocks.The ancient caverns, which have maintained a cave culture, with vapor seals and wind catchers at all entrances and exits, are now degenerating into open villages, often built of mud bricks.mud bricks! Why do I want to see those villages destroyed?Stilgar was so lost in thought that he almost stumbled. He knew he belonged to a group that was going extinct.The old Fremen marveled at the luxury that took place on their planet—water being wasted in the air just to be molded into bricks to build a house on.The water used by the family is enough to last the entire cave for a year.

The new buildings even have transparent windows, through which the heat from the sun can enter the house and evaporate the moisture from the occupants.These windows were still open to the outside world. The new-style Fremen lived in mud-brick huts with views out to nature.They are no longer huddled in burrows.New landscapes can be seen from time to time, and new imaginations are stimulated.Stilgar could feel it all.The new landscape gave the Fremen a whole new sense of space, bringing them into close contact with the rest of the Empire.The harsh natural environment in the past bound them to the water-scarce Arakis, preventing them from being as open-minded as the inhabitants of other planets.

Stilgar could sense these changes, which at times clashed violently with his deepest doubts and insecurities.In the past, the Fremen would hardly have considered leaving Arrakis to start a new life on a world with plenty of water.They were even deprived of the right to dream of escape. He watched Leto walking ahead of him, the young back moving before his eyes.Layde just mentioned the restrictions on interstellar immigration.Yes, restricting immigration is a consistent fact of life for the vast majority of worlds, even for planets that allow people to fantasize about immigrating to alien planets as a safety valve for people to vent their grievances .But in this regard, Arrakis of the past was the most extreme.The Fremen, unable to develop outward, had no choice but to go inward, imprisoned in their own thoughts, just like being imprisoned in a cave.

The word "cave" originally meant a refuge in case of trouble, but in reality, it became a prison, imprisoning the entire Fremen nation. What Leto said was true: Muadji changed all that. Stilgar felt lost, he could feel his ancient beliefs crumbling.The new outward-looking landscape gives life a desire to escape from this container. "The girls this year are so beautiful." "An ancient rule (my rule! he admits) compels his people to ignore all history except those memories of their suffering. Only suffering can enter their hearts. The history the old Fremen read is only their terrible The process of migration, from one persecution to another. Past planetary governments have faithfully implemented the policy of the Old Empire, suppressing creativity and any form of development and evolution. Prosperity means danger to the Old Empire and those in power."

Suddenly, Stilgar realized that the path Aria set was equally dangerous. Stilgar tripped again, pulling him further behind Leto. In ancient rules and religions, there is no future, only endless present.Before Muad'di, Stilgar saw that the Fremen were made to believe in failure, not in the possibility of success.Well...they believed Lett Keynes, but he set a timetable of forty generations.It wasn't success; that dream, he realized now, was just another form of turning from the outside in, into the inner world. Muad'di changed all that! During the jihad, the Fremen learned a great deal about the old Padisha Emperor Shadham IV, the eighty-first emperor of the Korino family who occupied the Golden Lion Throne and controlled countless kingdoms belonging to the Empire. world.For him, Arrakis was a testing ground for policies that could be applied throughout the empire.His planetary governor on Arrakis has been using the Fremen's pessimism to bolster his rule.The Fremen were taught to consider themselves a hopeless people, without any outside savior.

"The girls this year are so beautiful." Looking at Leto's back, Stilgar wondered how this young man made him have these thoughts—and with just one seemingly simple sentence.It was with this remark that Stilgar began to look at Alia and his own role in the Council of State with fresh eyes. Alia likes to say that old rules are slow to change.Stilgar admitted that her words made him feel strangely reassured.Change is dangerous.Inventions must be suppressed.The will of the individual must be resisted.Besides suppressing individual will, does the church have other functions? Alia has always said that opportunities for open competition must be reduced to manageable limits.This means using technology to limit people.This is how technology has served the rulers in the past.Any technology licensed for development must be rooted in tradition.otherwise...otherwise...

Stilgar stumbled again.He came to the canal and saw Leto waiting for him under a row of almond trees by the stream, his feet scraping the untrimmed, free-growing grass. Grow freely! What should I believe?Stilgar asked himself. The Freemen of his generation believed that it was imperative for anyone to know their own limits well.In a closed society, tradition is the most important element of control.One must know the limits: the limits of time, the limits of society, and the limits of territory.Is there anything wrong with thinking that all thoughts must be based on the hole?Everyone's choices must be limited to a closed circle: the circle of the family, the circle of the community, and any decision must be guided by the superior.

Stilgar stopped and looked across the trees at Leto.The young man stood there, smiling and nodding to him. Does he know the storm in my head?Stilgar thought. This old Fremen Neb tried his best to return to the cave traditions of the Fremen.Any aspect of life needs a long-established pattern. This pattern is closed and well-known. Knowing how to do it will succeed and how to do it will fail.Life has patterns, and the same pattern extends to the community, to the larger society, up to the highest government.That's the cavernous pattern, and its desert counterpart: Xiahulu.The gigantic sandworm is certainly the most formidable creature, but when threatened it also retreats to the unfathomable depths of the earth.

Change is dangerous!Stilgar warned himself.Continuity and stability are the correct goals of the government. But the young guys and girls are so beautiful. He started walking again, heading towards the cave passage to Leto's right.The young man came up and stopped him. Stilgar reminded himself that Muad'di had said that societies, civilizations, and governments are born, aged, sick, and died just like individual lives. Dangerous or not, change is always there.The beautiful young Fremen knew.They looked out, they saw it, and they were ready for change. Stilgar was forced to stop.Either stop or bypass Leto.

The young man stared at him gravely, and said, "Do you understand, Stilgar? Tradition is not what you think it is. It is not the supreme guiding light."