"There is no escape - we pay for the violence of our ancestors."
~ from "The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
I find that opening quote so fatalistic and depressing. Do the people of the Duniverse truly believe that things cannot ever be changed, that new paths cannot ever be chosen?
In this chapter we see how the Atreides are tearing themselves apart with mutual suspician and from the stresses of a new and very dangerous environment.
Duncan Idaho comes back in the middle of the night following the big banquet, drunk as a skunk. He wakes up the Lady Jessica with his yelling. And from what he says, Jessica figures out that
she is the current main suspect as the highly placed Harkonnen spy. Needless to say, this bothers her greatly.
She has a show down with Thufir Hawat.
Ironically enough, Jessica says that the only top Atreides aide that she has not fully investigated and found clear is Yueh. And Hawat says that the spy cannot be Yueh, because of his conditioning.
Jessica reveals some of her Bene Gesserit powers to Hawat, a voice of command and the power of coercion. She points out that she would have the powers to make Leto do whatever she wants him to do, and to even make him think that those actions would be his own idea. But she will not do it. And she says that if she unleashed her powers on Leto's enemies that would weaken him and make him dependent on her. And for the Bene Gesserit to use these powers too often would make them targets, and lead to their own destruction.
Thufir leaves, filled with a great admiration for Jessica, but still not convinced of her innocence. And he does not know that she is pregnant with Leto's daughter...
A couple of things here - does it ever say anywhere exactly
what the conditioning of doctors to make them (supposedly) incorruptiable consists of?
And what kind of a sick place has to worry about
doctors being murderous traitors to their patients?
And why do the Bene Gesserit so rarely use their powers? Why do they not intervene in wars, for example? To protect innocent civilians? Does their long term outlook strip away some of their basic humanity in that they allow a lot of suffering that might have been stopped?