Re: US Vice President J.D. Vance and Tolkien

In rec.arts.books.tolkien O. Sharp <[email protected]> wrote:
> Steve Hayes <[email protected]> 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?  :)
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> [email protected]    "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

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