[Rhod the Red]

"The elves are not the most gifted, and the closer to the valar in values and behaviour; they are the fair folk. Orcs are not just some of the cruelest beings, they are just plain ugly. The drugs challenge all this; and the fact that they are secretive and wary, and apparently use transfer of power to objects (Tolkien admits that one can consider this a miniature of the transfer of Sauron's power to the one ring or Barad-dur) really does not help their case."

Thankfully we don't have to face such terrible flaws in our world, lesser ones currently call attention, But the arrangements Tolkien has is both consistant with the real world and sophisticated enough for the storylines to be very interesting.