I’m *this* close to being finished with my last term paper of the semester. It has been one of (if not the) most difficult papers I’ve ever written, largely because of my level of comfort/familiarity with the subject matter.

My prof is a big sci-fi fan, which is not a criticism in and of itself, but he also apparently expects his students to be mind-readers and know what he wants, even when he doesn’t specify it in the assignment instructions. It has been very frustrating and is something that I will certainly note in the end-of-semester survey.

I’ve mentioned before (a few times, in fact) that one of our required readings for the semester was Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi classic, Dune. I didn’t loathe the book, but sci-fi isn’t my go-to genre. Furthermore, Dune is a series — and a rather lengthy one, at that — so trying to encapsulate the organizational structure of the society (which is the whole premise of the class) really involves more than just the first book. Much happens in later books (which I have not read, but I will be making a donation to Wikipedia when this class is over) that changes the scope of the storyline.

So, given a list of topics from which to choose, I set out to write about “universal political truths” in Dune. Easy enough, right? Um, sure, except for the fact that no one agrees on anything universal when it comes to politics. I decided to look at the Golden Rule, because it transcends numerous cultural, religious and political boundaries and could, arguably, be described as “universal.” In fact, one article I found said that at least 10 world religions have some variation of the Golden Rule in their texts.

I looked at the standard rendition (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you), the negative interpretation (Don’t do unto others as you wouldn’t want them to do unto you) and the economic version (He who has the gold, rules), with examples of how each rule is demonstrated in Dune. Then, I listed a fourth variation that I linked to the Dune saga beyond the first book: Do unto others so that they will not do unto themselves. This final scenario has to do with Leto II’s tyrannical but messianic rule that he set into motion in order to save humankind, aka, the Golden Path.

Since this blasted paper had to be 20-30 pages (rather than the typical 12), I had to write about more than just variations of the Golden Rule, so I pulled in some philosophy by Immanuel Kant and John Rawls, both of whom fall under the category of “social contract” philosophers, which I tied in with the Golden Rule and compared to Leto II. I’m neither a Kant nor Rawls scholar, so I’ve been grasping at straws trying to wrap my head around their perspectives well enough to write coherently about them.

It’s a twisted, convoluted effort, but I think I’ve made it work. I’m still about three pages shy of being finished, but the boys have kids’ church tonight, so I hope to finish TODAY. Then, I can study for my other class’ final exam that begins later this week!