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In rereading the FotR for the Chapter-by-Chapter discussion, I was reminded of something I'd forgotten about the saving of the community of the Shire - Elrond originally wanted to send Merry and Pippin back to warn their fellow Hobbits of impending danger. Aside from the fact that their presence in the Fellowship was vital to the success of the quest, I started thinking about what might have happened had they gone back.
Was their own understanding of the danger great enough to convey it to the others? I'm not sure - they experienced the Black Riders, but aside from that, they only heard of deeper matters, and they weren't even present at the Council of Elrond. Even if they had warned, would the Hobbits have taken them seriously enough? Without actually having experienced anything negative at that time, I doubt that they would have understood the danger. The taking over by Sharkey and his ruffians was necessary to arouse them, and even after that, they fell back into complacency, for the most part.
Insular communities tend to stay aloof from the events of the greater world surrounding them until they are actually invaded...
As I see it, Elrond's good intentions would not have brought the results he hoped for, and the events preceding the Scouring would not have been prevented.
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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