Plus, of course, he couldn't very well invent a mythology for England without setting his work in the far past of this world. Tolkien makes a lot of references in his writings to the Fall, and blames this for humanity's inability to create a perfect world. Being a Christian he believed that Man once lived in a state of innocence, which was lost, and which we all miss at some level and long to retrieve. Here he talks about the sense of exile from Eden:
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I do not now feel either ashamed or dubious about the Eden 'myth'. It has not, of course, historicity of the same kind as the N[ew] T[estament], which are virtually contemporary documents, while Genesis is separated by we know not how many sad, exiled generations from the Fall, but certainly there was an Eden on this very unhappy earth. We all long for it, and are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of 'exile'. ... As far as we can go back the nobler part of the human mind is filled with the thoughts of sibb, peace and goodwill, and with the thought of its loss. We shall never recover it, for that is not the way of repentance, which works spirally and not in a closed circle; we may recover something like it, but on a higher plain. ... Of course , I suppose that, subject to the permission of God, the whole human race (as each individual) is free not to rise again, but to go to perdition and carry out the Fall to its bitter bottom (as each individual can singulariter). And at certain periods, the present is notably one, that seems not only a likely event but imminent. Still I think that there will be a 'millenium', the prophesied thousand-year rule of the Saints, i.e. those who have for all their imperfections never finally bowed heart and will to the world or the evil spirit (in modern but not universal terms: mechanism, 'scientific' materialism, Socialism in either of its factions now at war).
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So yes he did blame humanity for the troubles of the world, but like any good Christian he believed in the possibility of salvation through sincere repentance. His writings show us many examples, such as the fall of Saruman and the downfall of Númenor, of how in an imperfect world nothing good can ever last; but he believed that the Fall was neither permanent nor inevitable. Gandalf, the only Istar who continues with his mission, achieves his aims because he upholds the authority of Eru and does his will in faith. Aragorn's kingship comes after devoting his life to a seemingly hopeless struggle; and Saruman and Denethor are brought down because they become daunted by the strength of the enemy (which also occurs because they try to use his weapons against him, and to struggle against his will directly, for which neither of them has the strength). Unfortunately, as the popularity of the Noldor over the Vanyar attests, living in harmony with one another, and in deference to the divine authority, doesn't appeal to a lot of people as much as strife and tragedy. The Vanyar are an unfallen people, whereas the Noldor are more like us: given to folly and to bringing misery on themselves. Their eventual return to the West is the salvation that Tolkien envisages for Man: not a return to the former state of things, but a version of it coloured by the knowledge of their failure and redemption, and appreciated all the more for it.
[ March 29, 2003: Message edited by: The Squatter of Amon Rûdh ]