Only the Bene Gesserit perceive the Golden Path and are therefore faced with a choice: keep to their traditional role of hidden manipulators who quietly ease tensions and guide human progress while struggling for their own survival, or embrace the Golden Path and push humanity onward into a new future where humans are free from the threat of extinction.
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"WHY DID YOUR SISTERHOOD NOT BUILD THE GOLDEN PATH? YOU KNEW THE NECESSITY. 'YOUR FAILURE CONDEMNED ME, THE GOD EMPEROR, TO MILLENNIA OF PERSONAL DESPAIR."– lucasbachmannCommented Nov 14, 2021 at 19:36
1 Answer
The BG can't see the Golden Path. It's one of their major failings and the reason why they wanted their Kwisatz Haderach in the first place, to lead them with fully sighted prescience.
As with every report preceding this one, we must address the Lord Leto’s prescience. There is no doubt that his ability to predict future events, an oracular ability much more powerful than that of any ancestor, is still the mainstay of his political control.
We do not defy it!
It is our belief that he knows every important action we take far in advance of the event. We guide ourselves, therefore, by the rule that we will not knowingly threaten either his person or such of his grand plan as we can discern. Our address to him will continue to be:
“Tell us if we threaten you that we may desist.”
And:
“Tell us of your grand plan that we may help.”
He has provided no new answers to either question during this period.
God Emperor of Dune
It's not entirely clear whether the Golden Path plan (e.g. the need to push humanity down a specific set of pre-determined outcomes to prevent their extinction) ended with 'the scattering' or with the birth of Siona and her unique prescience-resistant genes, but there was very little scope for the Bene Gesserit to need to support his plans after the God Emperor died.
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For the BG, the KH is a 'be-careful-what-you-wish-for' thing?– Kinzle BCommented Nov 6, 2021 at 15:31
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@KinzleB - They were very lucky to survive their own machinations. Leto II considered having them all murdered.– ValorumCommented Nov 6, 2021 at 15:37
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"one of their major failings" Along with one of the 'major failings' of the Ixians, every Duncan Idaho ghola, the fish speakers, face dancers, and Frank Herbert fans? Seems like a harsh indictment of "they don't have that ability."– LexibleCommented Nov 7, 2021 at 3:32
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@lexible - Well, no. They, like the Guild, are stunted prophets because they used their limited spice prescience to go down the safe path. Had they taken bigger risks, they needn't have bred a Kwisatz Haderach in the wild.– ValorumCommented Nov 7, 2021 at 4:25
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@Valorum Huh... "taken bigger risks"... do you mean something like the kinds of risks taken by the people who became the Honored Matres?– LexibleCommented Nov 7, 2021 at 16:32