XPost: alt.books.inklings, rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.books   
   XPost: alt.literature, rec.arts.books   
   From: le@lekno.ws   
      
   In rec.arts.books.tolkien 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".   
   >   
   > 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.   
      
   (For the end of his miserable life,see quote below)   
      
   > "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.   
      
   "For a moment it wavered,looking to the West;   
   but out of the West came a cold wind,and it bent away,   
   and with a sigh dissolved into nothing."   
      
   > ...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   
      
   -=-=-   
   The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,   
   at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)