XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.books, alt.literature
XPost: rec.arts.books, alt.politics
From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net
On Mon, 22 Sep 2025 20:06:40 -0000 (UTC), "O. Sharp"
wrote:
>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".
The name alone should be sufficient to tell who desires to use such
technology, and for what purpose.
>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.
As I said, their perception of "good" is neatly mirrored in that of
the Sackville-Bagginses.
>
>"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.
When he was chosen as vice-presidential candidate, I, like most people
outside the US, had never heard of J.D. Vance. In my curiousity to
learn more about him, I discovered that he claimed to be a Tolkien
fan, and rather hoped that he might therefore act as a brake on
Trump's excesses.
After 9 months in office it is clear that Trump's excesses are ten
times more excessive than they were in his first term, and that J.D.
Vance goes along with them. The Ring controls those who try to control
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
--
Stephen Hayes, Author of The Year of the Dragon
Sample or purchase The Year of the Dragon:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/907935
Web site: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail: shayes@dunelm.org.uk or if you use Gmail hayesstw@telkomsa.net
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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