[Imladris]

I think that many people forget (as Rimbaud so accurately pointed out) that Middle Earth isn't as....romantic, as we like to think.

People have said that Middle Earth doesn't have as many problems as the real world. That they have nobility, that they love nature, etc, and it really makes it seem as if this civilization is going to the dogs! (Technically it is, of course, but I believe that everything goes downwards and that we're just closer to the end as it were than in Middle Earth's time.)

See, the thing is is that Middle Earth is the real world (Tolkien wrote it as a mythology) so it has its real problems. The problem of survival, and others that we don't know about because Tolkien didn't go into them.

What about the problems of caste? Remember Sam and calling Frodo sir? Tolkien wrote him as a servant, as an unequal. Of course the relationship gradually changed but that still doesn't change the thinking of inequality.

Also what about the Sackville Bagginses? One still had the irate, selfish, thieving neighbours.

There was even corruption within the governments (Denethor not wanting to give the throne to Elessar and Grima and Theoden). So it wasn't all sunshine and roses.

But there is nobility in this era too. Washington, Joan of Arc, every time a person gives up his own needs/ life for another. That is still alive here. The only reason it's more rampant in Tolkien's legendarium is because he wrote about that one segment of history. We don't hear about the every day stuff.

I guess what I'm saying is that Middle Earth is not problem free. Maybe there's not the problem of pollution etc, but it has its own problems that we'd gripe about as well.