In this day and age, we humans like to think of an advanced society as one that is on the technological cutting edge, not necessarily as one with a deep history and culture or a good way of life. It's sad, really; we have come to define and judge a society solely upon the state of its technological advancements, without paying attention to what matters more in the grand scheme of things. We dismiss American Indians, Aborigines, African Bushmen and just about every other indigenous race as 'quaint' or 'primitive' simply because they are not surrounded by gadgets and gizmos and because they have lived much the same way for hundreds or thousands of years. We don't stop to think that maybe they are set in their 'primitive' and 'uncivilized' ways for a reason--that they are, perhaps, content with their ways of life. I think it is much the same with the elves of Middle Earth: they developed extraordinarily as far as culture goes (i.e. writing, literature, song, architecture, etc.) but were content to live as their ancestors had, without the aid of technology. Gwaihir spoke well when he made the distinction between advanced society and advanced technology in the Shire. Same goes for the elves, I think.
Meneltarmacil asks:
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...what about Men? They certainly wouldn't have the same beliefs as the elves, and Gondor has had 3000 years to develop new technology. That's almost 1000 years more than we have had since the ancient Roman Empire. Why are they still in the Middle Ages?
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In my opinion, the fact that the men of Middle Earth are of the same species as the people of this earth don't make the two societies equivalent--not by a long shot. There are a myriad of distinctions between the two societies, divergences between them that make it impossible to compare them with each other. Perhaps the humans of ME did have the same philosophy as the elves when it came to technological advancements, which is why their society would be considered Medieval in our world.
I'm hardly a Middle Earth expert, so I might be mistaken in some of my hypotheses/assumptions about elves and ME men, but I'd like to see what other folks have to say... so go 'head and rant at/correct me, if I haven't already lulled you to sleep by this point... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]
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"The other [theme] had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony...and it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern..."
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