Studies in Leadership, as Shown in Science Fiction, Part I: Paul Muad'dib Atreides

While Paul Muad'dib Atreides's leadership rests heavily on its fantastic elements, at its core is a real world lesson of how a group's energy dictates its actions, even over the decisions of the group's beloved leader. In the first novel of Frank Herbert's Dune series Paul becomes recognized as the messiah of the Fremen. He manages to unite the powerful desert people into the most powerful military force in the known universe.

What happens after his ascension to the imperial throne is especially notable: Paul realizes that he can't stop the Fremen jihad, and his vision of the future is filled with terrible alternatives. This illustrates a reality faced by leaders every day: those being led are often beyond control. Consider for a moment the humorous t-shirt or coffee cup, "Have you seen them? Which way did they go? I must find them because I am their LEADER!!" While this shows the extreme, it also illustrates that no leader can direct a group somewhere they don't want to go. Along the same vein, a leader also cannot prevent a group from doing something they are determined to do.

This does assume that the group has great potential energy with a pre-determined direction. In the Fremen example, this civilization had evolved for generations into a homogeneous group of survivors. Prior to Paul's appearance, they lacked the cohesion to express their energies beyond their cultural survival based taboos. Once united, these energies exploded upon the universe in the form of jihad.

Tolstoy illustrates similar concepts throughout his great novel, War and Peace. When the Russian Army stops Napoleon's invading force, no power on the planet could have stopped that desperate retreat. No Russian leader could have stopped the Russians from driving out the invaders, and no French leader could have reformed the French forces.