11-29-2008, 04:05 PM
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#250
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shadow of a doubt
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Back on the streets
Posts: 1,125
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Andsigil
Sam is a direct reflection of Tolkien's own philosophy on society. I put the bits I thought relevant to Sam in bold font.
Quote:
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His view of the world, in which each man belonged or ought to belong to a specific 'estate', whether high or low, meant that in one sense he was an old-fashioned conservative. But in another sense it made him highly sympathetic to his fellow-men, for it is those who are unsure of their status in the world, who feel they have to prove themselves and if necessary put down other men to do so, who are the truly ruthless. Tolkien was, in modern jargon, 'right-wing' in that he honoured his monarch and his country and did not believe in the rule of the people; but he opposed democracy simply because he believed that in the end his fellow-men would not benefit from it. He once wrote: 'I am not a "democrat", of only because humility" and equality are spiritual principles corrupted by the attempt to mechanize and formalize them, with the result that we get not universal smallness and humility, but universal greatness and pride, till some Orc gets hold of a ring of power- and then we get and are getting slavery.' As to the virtues of an old-fashioned feudal society, this is what he once said about respect for one's superiors: 'Touching your cap to the Squire may be damn bad for the Squire, but it's damn good for you'.
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Taken from J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, by Humphrey Carpenter, pg 133. |
That's interesting and I partly sympathise with the prof's opinions - the problem with democracy truly is that people are morons who don't know what's good for themselves (and won't agree with me more importantly). Then again, the alternatives are so much worse; Churchill's famous words on the subject immediately come too mind. To say that every man should be content with his lot is easy to do for an Oxford professor too, eh? But I don't want to steer this too far off-topic here. Care to vote, sir?
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