Just Finished Reading God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

It hasn't been the most pleasant reading voyage I've experienced, but with God Emperor of Dune I have now finished with four of Frank Herbert's six-volume Dune science fiction series...at least the books he wrote by himself, that is.  Here again is my reviewer's dilemma: to summarize what happens in this book without giving away its ending isn't enough to avoid plot spoilers: after all, the beginning of God Emperor of Dune, along with its main protagonist (which I'm afraid I already did on Friday), cannot be revealed else I give away the previous book's ending!  And so I guess it will be for the last two Dune books as well...instead I'll do what I've seen Isaac Asimov do in many of his previews for different science fiction short stories in his anthology series: I'll discuss some aspects of Herbert's story while veering as much as I can away from its plot...

There is a lot of philosophy expressed in God Emperor of Dune...much more so than in the previous books, which also delved heavily into metaphysics.  The problem with this is that the one doing most of the philosophizing is a godlike character armed with the complete life memories of thousands upon thousands of others and who has the ability to chart...in detail...alternative future paths of reality, thousands of years into the future, based on actions that he can take in his lifetime.  His unique circumstances make it hard to model my thinking after his, but from time to time he comes up with some significant ideas that many can apply to their lives...but few often do.  One of these is the notion that the beginning of learning is the recognition that I am ignorant...how often do we prideful humans mask our lack of knowledge about a particular area in order to save face or resist a possible challenge to our entrenched worldview?  Yet if my car's engine light goes on and I don't know the cause, I will take it to the mechanic...an implicit admission on my part that I don't possess the knowledge to fix it.  In like manner, I don't understand climatology on the level that advanced scientists in the field do, so I rely on their expertise when they overwhelmingly claim that the earth is overheating at a rapid rate due to manmade carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.  In the case of the car, my learning is based on the effective path I need to take to get it fixed, knowing that I do not possess the resources myself to get it done...with the climate, I can also depend on the scientific community's resources through their research in at least understanding some rudimentary principles that fortify their positions on the subject and then take positive measures in my own life to help contribute to a solution.  In both cases, it is my admission that others are more adept and knowledgeable in an area than myself that spurs me on to constructive actions and learning how to solve problems from my particular position...

Ironically, there are also areas in life that I've discovered it's a good idea to pretend that I know what I'm doing when I really don't.  In these instances I engage in the practice of "winging it", that is, immersing myself in the activity and stumbling around until I pick up enough knowledge and ability to become effective at it.  But still, while I may have initially concealed my ignorance in these cases to other people, in my own mind I never deceived myself into believing I was capable from the start...sometimes you just have to get down in the middle of something and struggle around a bit while being prepared to look a little foolish for a while...