[Sarumian]

I believe we have reached a very interesting point. Tolkien's view on technical progress somehow resembles me that of philosopher Martin Heidegger. According to Heidegger, the destiny of the West was sealed when such thinkers as Parmenides, Plato and Aristotle started seeing and describing the way things exist in nature as if they were somehow 'crafted': the nature (physis) of things appeared to them as 'techne'.

The New Age, however, goes even further. Things now appear to our mind as objects within the framework of the 'world-picture'; each thing occupies a place that perception assigns for it. Method, thus, achieves supremacy over Being.

If we observe now the nature of evil in Melkor, Sauron and Saruman, we can see differences but also a kind of succession. Morgoth exercised his power through the nature, making it fight against itself. Sauron wanted to rule with the help of craftsmanship: he aspired to create an ideal "thing" that would keep the world unchanged. Saruman wanted to rule via method that unfolds itself in machinery. Each lust is dangerous. An attempt to suppress change can be as dangerous (and hopeless) as progress in which production is going on for the sake of production itself.

The ambivalent nature of craft, skills and design (from Tolkien's point of view) is probably reflected in the fact that Alue is the most troubled Valla after Melkor.