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

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.

"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?  :)

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[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