وَمَن كَانَ غَيرَ السَّيفِ كَافِلُ رِزقِهِ
فَلِلذُّلِّ مِنهُ لا مَحَالَةَ جَانِبُ

ما أَخطَأَتكَ سِهامُ الدَهرِ رامِيَةً
فَما أُبالي مِنَ الدُنيا بِمَن تَقَعُ

الناسُ حَولَكَ غِربانٌ عَلى جِيَفٍ
بُلَهٌ عَنِ المَجدِ إِنْ طاروا وَإِنْ وَقَعوا

فَما لَنا فيهِمُ إِنْ أَقبَلوا طَمَعٌ
وَلا عَليهِم إِذا ما أَدبَروا جَزَعُ

هِيَ ما عَلِمتَ فَهَل تُرَدُّ هُمومُها
نُوَبٌ أَراقِمُ لا يُبِلُّ سَليمُها

أَرواحُنا دَينٌ وَما أَنفاسُنا
إِلّا قَضاءٌ وَالزَمانُ غَريمُها

أَرى نَفسي تَتوقُ إِلى النُجومِ
سَأَحمِلُها عَلى الخَطَرِ العَظيمِ

وَإِنَّ أَذى الهُمومِ عَلى فُؤادي
أَضَرُّ مِنَ النُصولِ عَلى أَديمي

— الشريف الرضي

— Dune: Part Two

Reverend Mother😔💚

To assess political parties according to the criteria of truth, justice and the public interest, let us first identify their essential characteristics.
There are three of these:

1. A political party is a machine to generate collective passions.
2. A political party is an organisation designed to exert collective pressure upon the minds of all its individual members.
3. The first objective and also the ultimate goal of any political party is its own growth, without limit.

When someone joins a party, it is usually because he has perceived, in the activities and propaganda of this party, a number of things that appeared to him just and good. Still, he has probably never studied the position of the party on all the problems of public life. When joining the party, he therefore also endorses a number of positions which he does not know. In fact, he submits his thinking to the authority of the party. As, later on, little by little, he begins to learn these positions, he will accept them without further examination.

In fact – and with very few exceptions – when a man joins a party, he submissively adopts a mental attitude which he will express later on with words such as, ‘As a monarchist, as a Socialist, I think that . . .’ It is so comfortable! It amounts to having no thoughts at all. Nothing is more comfortable than not having to think.