When God hath ordained a creature to die in a particular place, He causeth that creature’s wants to direct him to that place.
- Liet-Kynes quoting OC Bible in Frank Herbert’s Dune
One of my favorite quotes from Dune. The power of desires over humanity permeates from it, nevermind God. Or even keeping God in, what are desires but another tool of God? I feel a cynical view festering towards the rear of my mind… coming to the fore. The hedonistic nature of man is on my mind, and I want to write about it.
Desires fuel life. You want that promotion. You want that apartment with a sweet riverview. What do you want to do for them? Not what are you willing to do. All willing means is that you want to do something more than doing without what you want, and will receive. It all boils down to wants.
Life functions (or is designed, if you’re a big Creator fan) around the carrot on a stick. And we are slaves to it. We are mice given cookies. We are given life, we want to eat, and then we want more.
Needs? Needs are wants in disguise. You need to eat because you don’t want to die, so you want to eat. Need to die? You want a gun because you don’t want a painful death. Need leads to want and is guilty by association.
Everything boils down to what we want or don’t want, and how these wants balance into the most desirable course for us based on our situation. Maybe you don’t want to fuck that crazy cock-eyed red head with a zit you’ve named Daniel Whitehead, but you don’t want to go another night without sex. Who knows, she probably looks better with the lights off.
Some people think they have control over their desires. They’re at peace. Maybe they are, but they simply have a strong desire to control other desires.
And that’s my little pointless faux-philosophical dribble for the day. It’s 530am and I’ve been sipping on rum and dr pepper all night. I had an unusually strong desire to have some chocolate. Unusual because I’m not even big on chocolate. Oh sure, I enjoy it as well as the next fatty, but hey, I like salty better.
But this was incredibly strong, like… nagging me completely crazy until I got up and drove to the BP. So I did, and it got me thinking about all this stuff.
:: Related Extras ::
- Dune Quotes – Oh man.
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