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> However, the book makes it very clear that the totally ruthless environment, culture, and way of life on Arrakis (and on Salusa Secundus) is the cause of the

> However, the book makes it very clear that the totally ruthless environment, culture, and way of life on Arrakis (and on Salusa Secundus) is the cause of the Fremen (and Sardaukar) making such vastly superior soldiers. Yes but it's fiction. That's possibly true within the fictional world of the book because the author decided it would be. In actual history that view is disproved time and time again and historical consensus view is that societies that are more interpersonally brutal and competitive are not stronger for it. See HN-favorite historian bret devereaux's 40,000 word essay on exactly this subject, using exactly the fremen as the focal point.

jackothy 4y ago
> In actual history that view is disproved time and time again Oh I don't dispute whatever it is the historians are saying at all. I was simply arguing about what the themes of the book were, since that was what you were also talking about in your previous comment. Whether the themes of the book are scientific or not I don't know much about at all. So I guess what you are saying is that Frank Herbert might have a more or less inaccurate take on social/political/historical science, which would not surprise me.