XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.books, alt.literature   
   XPost: rec.arts.books, alt.politics   
   From: ohh@panix.com   
      
   Steve Hayes  writes, in part:   
      
   > It has been said that US Vice President J.D. Vance is a fan of the   
   > work of J.R.R. Tolkien, ad he imself has claimed that "The Lord of the   
   > Rings" holds the key to his political views.   
      
   It appears he's not the only one, since some others in the basking glow of   
   the current regime also claim to have Tolkien's work as an inspiration for   
   their worldviews: like Peter Thiel naming his surveillance and data mining   
   company "Palantir Technologies", or the up-and-coming defense contractor   
   "Anduril Industries".   
      
   I'd say, though, they've savagely misread Tolkien, seeing only a vast   
   Good-Versus-Evil story and picturing themselves as The Good Guys - but   
   missing every single bit of the subtleties of what being "good" means.   
      
   "Do not tempt me!" Gandalf said when Frodo offered him the Ring. "For I do   
   not wish to become like the Dark Lord himself." Elrond had similar   
   sentiments, "[f]or nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not   
   so. I fear to take the Ring to hide it. I will not take the Ring to wield   
   it." Galadriel's thoughts on the Ring were certainly expressed the most   
   clearly: "I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning   
   and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain!   
   Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of   
   the earth. All shall love me and despair!" Her brief moment in "a great   
   light that illumined her alone and left all else dark", quickly shunned,   
   certainly sounds like something Donald Trump would want to have for   
   himself all his miserable life.   
      
   "Gandalf as Ring-lord would have been far worse than Sauron," JRRT noted   
   at the end of Letter #246. "He would have remained 'righteous', but   
   self-righteous." A marginal note adds that if Gandalf had the power of the   
   Ring, he "would have made good detestable and seem evil", which seems like   
   exactly the goal our once-fair country is currently set upon.   
      
   ...Maybe Vance thinks he's making things better, you know, by trying to   
   curb some of Trump's excesses: "the Wise, such as you and I, may with   
   patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide   
   our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils   
   done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge,   
   Rule, Order". If so, I'd suggest that Vance ought to reread the trilogy   
   and see how well that same strategy worked for Saruman when _he_ tried it.   
      
   ...Is my reply, here, showing any slight political bias?  :)   
      
   -------------------------------------------------------------------   
   ohh@panix.com    "You hold out your hand to me, and I perceive only   
                     a finger of the claw of Mordor. Cruel and cold!"   
                           -- me, to any Republican fund-raiser   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)