Interplanetary Marxism ala Dune

Thought of this in class, House Atreides are Marxists and the Hakkinens are just mercantilists

Spoiler alert if you haven’t watched the movies yet, I highly recommend spending the 5 hours to do so. It’s worth it.

I was in class earlier today, specifically about International Political Economies and such. I and my group took on the European Marxism as a theoretical base of our discussion. In the midst of it, my lecturer talked about how Marxism is just, rallying up the proletariat. Gaining power through the social revolution of the many.

And then, half sleepy me remembered the entire plot of Dune Part One and Two that I watched last Monday out of sheer impulse. Great movie when viewed on IMAX btw. It’s basically Islamic canon Star Wars for nerds like me. I kind of hyper fixated on the whole Islamic canon references scattered throughout the plot. Like how they call Paul the Lisan al-Gaib which is just Arabic. And how they basically refer to him as the Imam Mahdi in the movies. It’s geeky cool knowing the references. I almost exclusively call it Bani Atreides now with how the house has turned into a sharia version of itself.

Another thing I liked about the movie is it’s what in my opinion is a fairly realistic view of an interplanetary extension of International Relations. I remember a line where Duke Atreides himself said that harnessing the power of the Arrakis’ native Fremen is like the key to their success. When they got “liberated” by the emperor to be “saved” by the Atreides, the Hakkinens before them left a legacy of colonialism and resource exploitation. Almost parallel to how the Dutch used to colonialise Nusantara, for Spice, just way cooler because of the future punk spice extractors and the giant sandworms. Those things don’t really exist in the VOCs time.

The parallels don’t end there though. While the Hakkinens act in the way that today is known as mercantilism, House Atreides’s plans to success just feels a bit too close a parallel to how Marxism defines international economic relations. Duke Atreides realised the sheer power of the Fremen and their mastery of their dunes, seeing them not as a competitor but as an asset. From the end of Part One, the Atreides have always wanted to open diplomatic relations with the Fremen. They have always wanted to exploit the anger and potential of the Fremen as the proletariat in this case, to control the Spice trade, to be the most powerful among the Great Houses.

This whole thing just screams Marxism to me. Like even in my IPE class earlier, marxists’ way of reaching a utopia is through the social revolution of the proletariat not just in one country, but everywhere around the world. The way that Marx sees the world reaching a consensus of societal revolutions is through free trade. Especially when it comes to information and such. The diplomatic nature of the Atriedes and their governorship over Arrakis feels like one step towards a radically changed Fremen, one where the Fremen leads and overthrows the Arrakis governance. I guess in the end the Fremen won anyway with the Lisan al-Gaib’s revenge pilled crusade on the empire, but still. I can see the parallels here and man do I just have to say this movie was definitely one for me. It’s hyper fixation and geek friendly that’s for sure.

I’ve been thinking of writing more of these international relations in fictional future worlds tangents lately, I guess I’ll see if I can develop them into something possibly thesis-worthy.

previously posted on Medium at https://medium.com/@fjello/interplanetary-marxism-ala-dune-718e0c13d4ac