DUNE Shows How Colonial Dehumanization is The Oppressor's Undoing
When you dehumanize a population, you quickly forget they can kill you.
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“Savages.” “Human animals.” “Rats.”
These phrases are a few of the many used to dehumanize oppressed populations, typically those who have found themselves on the short end of a colonial enterprise. The first insult was leveled at indigenous Americans by European colonizers, Israeli officials use the second to describe Palestinians, and the third slur — “rats” — was infamously used by the Nazis to slander Jews during the Holocaust. By framing Jews as filthy animals that transmit diseases and provide no benefit to society, the Nazis dehumanized Jews to much of Europe, smoothing the path to genocide. Given the chilling history of this term, it’s easy to see why filmmaker Denis Villeneuve brought it into Dune: Part Two to showcase the brutality of colonization.
In the film, the pale-white Harkonnens refer to Arrakis’s indigenous Fremen population as “rats,” most notably before they bombard their desert sietches (underground cities). The theme of colonization and resource extraction is central to the movie, as it was to the original novel written by Frank Herbert in 1965. While Herbert’s warning about charismatic White saviors remains front and center of Dune: Part Two, the movie goes beyond the capabilities of the novel. When lifted from the written page onto the silver screen, Dune (both parts one and two) spotlights components of the colonial process unseen by those of us who reside far from the zone of conflict. While the brutality of settler colonialism is well known, Villeneuve’s films show two underexplored elements of the colonial playbook: both the process of dehumanization that colonialism is built upon, and how that dehumanization can become the colonizer’s undoing.
Dehumanization Breeds Underestimation
When a population is dehumanized, the oppressors see them as subhuman (duh). While the intended purpose of dehumanization is to make it easier for imperial soldiers to commit atrocities, dehumanization carries a secondary effect, which often backfires on the oppressor. By slandering the oppressed as “rats,” “insects,” or a similar insult, colonizers stop seeing indigenous populations as worthy opponents and instead view them as unintelligent, cowardly beasts, only able to abide by basic instinct and flee from the allegedly brave and cunning conquerors.
Throughout history, underestimating ostensibly “primitive” societies has been a double-sided sword for colonizers. While it enables fascist propaganda and eases the conscience of imperialist soldiers, it is also a weapon wielded by the resistance. As they are underestimated, they can take their attackers by surprise. Both the French and American militaries fell victim to this racist arrogance in Vietnam. American General William Westmoreland famously claimed, “The orientals don’t value human life”, one of many racist beliefs held by American brass. Repeatedly telling themselves the Vietnamese were incapable of bold, strategic warfare left both militaries unable to respond to the Viet Minh offensives that eventually drove them from the country. Similarly, Al Jazeera’s “October 7” documentary details how a senior Israeli intelligence officer warned about the Hamas attack months beforehand. Israel’s head intelligence chief dismissed her concerns on the basis that Palestinian militants “couldn’t pull it off.” As we know now, the Israeli military was severely unprepared for the attack, leading to a catastrophic defeat.
Once occupiers begin to disrespect and downplay their opponents, they subconsciously diminish their technological capabilities, especially regarding warfare. At the onset of the colonization of North America, European colonists viewed indigenous Americans as primitive, as they lacked firearms, sea-faring ships, and metallurgy. But as many of these colonists soon learned (or rather, died unwilling to learn), the indigenous technology was far superior to the Europeans’, at least in frontier conditions. As historian Charles C. Mann points out in his book 1491, early colonists quickly traded their European shoes for native moccasins which performed better in the swampy wetlands. And while firearms have now usurped bows and arrows as the superior technology, this was not the case during the colonial era. Gunpowder and lead balls were finite, while arrows could be created and retrieved, giving indigenous warriors an unexpected but welcomed advantage in battle. As late as 1776, Benjamin Franklin argued the Revolutionary Army should adopt bows and arrows due to six technological advantages over muskets. He argued:
Because a Man may shoot as truly with a Bow as with a Common Musket.
He can discharge 4 arrows in the time of charging and discharging one Bullet.
His object is not taken from his view by the smoke of his own side.
A Flight of Arrows seen coming upon them terrifies and disturbs the Enemy’s Attention to his Business.
An Arrow Striking in any part of a Man, puts him hors de combat ‘till ‘tis extracted.
Bows and Arrows are more easily provided every where than Muskets & Ammunition.
During the Vietnam War, simplistic punji sticks and booby traps laid by the Viet Minh forces resulted in 11% of American casualties. The psychological effect of these weapons sent terror through the occupying force. In contemporary Gaza, Israel’s state-of-the-art tanks are proving less effective than military strategists previously thought. Less than two months into the fighting, Israel had lost two dozen tanks to Palestinian anti-tank units, who creep within the effective minimum range of Israel’s antimissile systems before attacking. It also appears many Israeli tanks disarmed their top-hatch machine gun, fearing theft more than enemy combatants.
In Dune, these historic follies of racist underestimation and ignorance of indigenous technology, both of which are commonplace amongst earthly occupiers, past and present, are brought into a fantastic setting and shown to be the undoing of intergalactic imperialists.
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