Is Osama bin Laden a Knockoff of Asimov’s Hari Seldon?
Thursday night, the news of yet another Osama bin Laden video got me thinking: isn’t this Osama bin Laden character like Hari Seldon, of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series?
I stuck the idea into Google, thinking I couldn’t be the first person to have thought of this. Sure enough, I wasn’t:
Asimov’s best-known novel sequence, half a century old, features the fall of a great but now decadent Galactic Empire. One man, Hari Seldon, has the vision to predict the decline of the West (as you might call it). So he creates an organization on a remote and poverty-stricken world which will eventually take over and run the galaxy properly — once the Empire has finished its inevitable fall.
Seldon is so confident of his thousand-year Plan that he prepares videotapes to be shown at key points in the future, bragging about his correct forecasts and the scheme’s ongoing success. The dying Empire itself is annoyed by all this, and with its remaining military might attacks the power-base set up by Seldon … but owing to historical inevitability, even the Great Satan itself can’t upset the orderly progress of the Plan and the prophetic vision of Hari Seldon.
The small but alarming coincidence is that this is Asimov’s “Foundation” series (Seldon’s outfit is called the Foundation), allegedly popular among Arabic-speaking SF readers under its translated name Al Qaeda. Usually rendered into English as The Base, this also means The Foundation.
Interesting.
This theory of the origin of the name “Al Qaeda” has been around since October 2001, so it’s not really news. But I never heard about it until I went looking for it. If you want to read more about the theory, this extensive article in the Guardian from 2002 will tell you everything you could possibly want to know.
So how will it all end? Well, if you buy the connection, you’ll have to read the series to find out. (If you haven’t, you should anyway.)
Sometimes, Truth IS stranger than Fiction!
Anyone know where I could joing an Order of Maltese Knights?
Another Drew (8018ee) — 9/8/2007 @ 11:16 amPlease pardon the errant “g”.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 9/8/2007 @ 11:17 amAs I recall, Hari Seldon was not an avowed enemy of the Empire whose end he prophesied. That Empire also represented a civilization that he valued, and his goal was to preserve as much of it as possible, not hasten its demise.
So if bin Laden is Hari Seldon, he’s at a secret base in Pakistan making pirate copies of Michael Jackson CDs.
Glen Wishard (b1987d) — 9/8/2007 @ 11:39 amThat’s fascinating. It also makes sense in light of his recent tape, which shows that OBL and al Qaeda pay attention to current events like the Democrats’ position on the war, Kyoto and global warming. Maybe they do read and watch SciFi … but why couldn’t they have picked Star Trek?
DRJ (2afbca) — 9/8/2007 @ 11:40 amHmmm…As I recall the Foundation series, the first couple of Seldon recordings did accurately predict what was happenening in current affairs. However, around the third his predictions went off track because of an an foreseeable mutant called the Mule. The name was for obvious reasons. The mutation was the Mule’s ability to exercise mind control.
An interesting question to speculate about might be who (or what) is the Mule in the current situation. Is it Osama controlling the thoughts of various allies in Islamic countries and the west? Or is it Bush who had unexpected resolve to stand up and fight the threat.
And I second the motion that if you haven’t read the Foundation series, you really should
Ragnar (68dfaf) — 9/8/2007 @ 11:54 amThursday night, the news of yet another Osama bin Laden video got me thinking: isn’t this Osama bin Laden character dead?
So, I looked closely at the video of bin Laden. I noticed several obvious cuts in the tape. Then, about 2 minutes into the tape, he stops moving entirely, but keeps talking. His words sound like Howard Dean wrote his speech.
Wow, I thought. The blogosphere is going to rip into this video like it’s a Reuters photograph taken by Dan Rather and directed by Mary Mapes. It’s so obviously been faked.
Imagine my surprise when, lo and behold … nobody bothered to notice.
The blogosphere is become mainstream.
We need a new paradigm.
skeptic (950314) — 9/8/2007 @ 12:13 pmHasn’t the US Gov’t said it’s likely his voice — referring to events that recently happened?
Patterico (2a8eaa) — 9/8/2007 @ 12:21 pmTrue that there’s not much notice. I’m not sure you have the reason right though. OBL just isn’t that relevant to tactical events and hasn’t been since fleeing Afghanistan. I doubt his strategic influence has been much since Zarqawhi bought the farm.
Just Passing Through (cb6c8d) — 9/8/2007 @ 12:27 pmSick old men can talk. He should get a diarist gig at DailyKos or Huffington Post. At least it would fill his days.
Just Passing Through (cb6c8d) — 9/8/2007 @ 12:32 pmHe’s more like Khan Noonian Singh.
narciso (c36902) — 9/8/2007 @ 1:57 pmI would think that the name came from the Frank Herbert novel Dune. In that book the revolutionary protagonist Paul Atreides who is known as Muad’Dib but who’s secret name is Usil which means the base of the pillar. Using Dune makes far more sense that the “Foundation trilogy”. The Fremen match up quite nicely to today’s Islamic Jhiadist. Along with the complete overthrow of of a decedent empire, the goals match as well.
Sindarian (7b3fbf) — 9/8/2007 @ 2:15 pmIsn’t Isaac Asimov Jewish?
nk (a6ecc6) — 9/8/2007 @ 7:25 pmIf they are trying to track the Asimov stories–we’d better not forget the existence and locale of the Second Foundation.
Dune is tempting, but Herbert used jihad and other Arab-derived terms to point out his meaning, so it’s easy to overrate the resemblances. Herbert was imitating the Muslims, not vice versa. His term for the messianic figure is actually Hebrew oddly transliterated and grammatically abused (the first word is actually a verb form, not a noun; the actual Hebrew means something like “to cut/shorten the way/road”), and his qualifications are, in essence, his pedigree. Which lines up with either the Jewish or the Shia versions, but not the Sunni version. And then there’s the Bene Genesseret–would any Moslem fundamentalist allow a bunch of women to pull the strings?
kishnevi (0ffb02) — 9/8/2007 @ 7:47 pmOh come on, Kishnevi. Don’t try to confuse the issue. It’s very obvious to me that Al Qaeda is a creation of the Jews in the KGB (Asimov is not just a Jewish name, it’s a Russian Jewish name) with a three-fold evil purpose. 1) To waste America’s resources on an illusory war against terror; 2) to turn the whole world against Islam and religious beleif in general (Communists are atheists you know); and 3) to create a honey-trap for and eliminate true Believers who might actually threaten a genuine jihad.
nk (a6ecc6) — 9/8/2007 @ 8:08 pmNK, don’t forget the fourth goal: to figure out how to make the ultimate borscht.
kishnevi (0ffb02) — 9/8/2007 @ 8:17 pmDon’t forget 4) to adopt Kyoto, end global warming, establish a flat tax system, and corner the world oil market (or diamonds or something, I’m not sure about this part).
DRJ (2afbca) — 9/8/2007 @ 8:20 pmOops. Make mine 5) since Kishnevi beat me to it.
DRJ (2afbca) — 9/8/2007 @ 8:20 pmSo how will it all end? Well, if you buy the connection, you’ll have to read the series to find out.
What? It’ll end with two guys flying around the Universe, bickering?
Veeshir (5f9b87) — 9/9/2007 @ 5:29 amHere’s what bin Laden says about the name al Qaeda in this Al Jazeera interview:
Ken Hirsch (92c4bc) — 9/9/2007 @ 6:17 amIn the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when the chattering classes were desperate for something — anything — to say about the situation, someone noted the Al Qaeda/”Foundation” coincidence and started yawping about the Asimov connection. Not that there was one, of course, any more than there had been between Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and the Manson Family that someone else tried to peddle back in the day. I’m still waiting for another genius to complete the trifecta by pointing out the “obvious” similarities between some new horrific event and the works of Arthur C. Clarke.
porkopolitan (c9ae6a) — 9/9/2007 @ 9:04 amI think OBL is more like The Mule than Seldon.
Viktor (6c107f) — 9/9/2007 @ 9:27 amSkeptic, it’s been noticed. As has been the fact that the style of the delivery and content both don’t jibe with Osama’s known videos.
And all of the topical references occurred while the video was frozen. Hmm. And then there’s the poor audio quality.
I’ll quote Michael Leedan’s conclusion:
LarryD (feb78b) — 9/10/2007 @ 7:41 am[…] Osama Speaks (UPDATED: Transcript) | GINA COBB: Osama Bin Laden Wants YOU . . . to Surrender! | Patterico’s Pontifications » Is Osama bin Laden a Knockoff of Asimov’s Hari Seldon? | The Belmont Club: Osama Bin Laden’s Message to America | http://www.qando.net/ – Kos and […]
Neocon News » Reflecting on bin Laden's "bring your Chomsky to work day" message (aaa2c9) — 9/11/2007 @ 8:39 am