Thought, and it's implications.

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.

When I saw this quote, I immediately though of the books I've been reading, which are the Dune series by Frank Herbert. If you have not read these, you might want to give them a look, because they are very very good. But on topic, in the series the idea of thought and change comes up multiple times.

One of the things was, that to a government, thought is dangerous. Thought, invention and change are all dangerous to the survival of a government. Personally, I think this is ironic. One of our greatest assets is the ability to have such organization as government and be able to co-exist like this, and work towards a common goal.

Kind of.

Often, we see our government applied for many other reasons than making our collective life better, but to make their own and their selective friends better off. And how better to do this been by using one of the most powerful resources available? An unthinking mass of people. One of the interesting takes that the Dune series gives is that the leader did not want the people to become this way. But they turned him in to a religious symbol, and deifyed him. And so, made way for themselves to be controlled.

And, at the risk of offending someone, which is not my goal, what better way to take control of a population then convincing them that you have religious or holy power? There have been many cases of abuses of this trust that is placed in religious figures, because that is almost the ultimate power. You are speaking with the word of God. And to question this, as we as a species are want to do, question, is heresy or blasphemy. Obviously, some people take religious figures and symbols with a grain of salt, and focus more on the connection with a higher power. But what of those who don't, always? What happens if this is taken advantage of, even if only by one person?

I apologize if this sounds like I'm speaking too much about my opinion on religion, but I'm more using it as an example than anything, as hopefully an easy way to explain what I'm about to try and say.

As a whole, thought creates change and inventions, which also create change. Thought is change. This creates a problem for governments, because often you see governments stagnate after a certain period of time, unless a radical, and very often, a bloody change occurs. Most likely, this is a complete upheaval of the government, and a replacement is put in place. This can cause a huge loss of life, very very unnecessary loss. How many countless millions have been killed because of this basic concept, of all that is created will eventually be destroyed. All forms of life, even artifical ones like government.

So, would it be better to have a benevolent despot who controls all change, thought, and invention, at the plus side of having much much loss of life. Or is it worth all those countless lives that have been wasted, all for something as immaterial as change and free thought? It's a strange...thought. Often we determine human life as the ultimate object, with no price on it worth paying.

But what happens when that price becomes something that even if you don't always use, but that MEANS something to you as much as being able to think what you want?

Again, I apologize if this is slightly rambling. My thoughts aren't always coherent, but I do my best.