Quote:
Originally Posted by Gordis
Tolkien was not racist himself, but I am afraid the Numenoreans, both in Gondor and Arnor, were.
Why did the Hillmen of Rhudaur so universally turn against their Dunedain rulers and supported Angmar? Why did Dunlendings follow Saruman? I suspect Dunedain and Rohirrim racism was a huge factor.
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I'm afraid you're right. As to the Haradrim, I think their long animosity against the Numenoreans was not entirely unjustified. It probably started as far back as the Second Age, when the King's Men came to their shores as conquerors exacting heavy tribute, and the suprematist politics of the Gondorian kings in the Third Age certainly didn't make things better. I guess Sauron's Ministery of Propaganda had an easy job exploiting that justified grudge, just like Saruman with the Dunlendings.
Tolkien's own view is quite another matter. I don't get the feeling that he meant to paint Gondor as an ideal kingdom, nor that he wholeheartedly endorsed the way they dealt with the Southrons and Easterlings. The Dunedain were the good guys in so far as they were the only viable opposition to Sauron, but in every other respect they were as fallible as any other humans.
Back to Gandalf and the Hobbits.
TM, I agree that once the Northern Kingdom was firmly reestablished, there would be no more need for the Hobbits to exercise their capacity for self-defense, so yes, they'd probably revert to their peaceful way of life. So I see the Scouring more as an afterlude (if that word actually exists) to the War of the Rings than a prelude to the Hobbits taking an active role in the power politics of the Fourth Age.
I'm sure Frodo would have agreed with you wishing for a solution that didn't cost 19 hobbit lives (not to mention the killed ruffians). Would he also have blamed Gandalf for not helping ? I don't think so. Gandalf's job, as I see it, was aiding mortal men (including hobbits) in their fight against the last incarnation of evil on a mythological scale. The Scouring, on the other hand, was just a fight against mere human evil (Saruman being reduced to little more than a mortal villain without his Maiarin powers), so Gandalf was forbidden to meddle by something like the Maiarin equivalent of the Federation Prime Directive
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So, did the Scouring make the Hobbits better? Probably not. Was it deplorable, in so far as it cost lives? Sure. Was it necessary? I'm afraid it was. No clean solution to anything in this Age of Men...