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Old 02-24-2006, 03:54 PM   #56
Lalwendë
A Mere Boggart
 
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
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Lalwendë is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.Lalwendë is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kuruharan
I find this statement rather inexplicable and absurd. (Well, in a certain why. I’m pretty sure I know why you would say something like this, but I’ll not try to put words in your mouth). Turgon was the king. Not only that, his followers followed him of their own free will. You will have to explain why Turgon has no moral right to rule his own kingdom.
The people who chose to follow Turgon also chose to go to Gondolin and live there for safety, but the very fact that they are not allowed to leave deprives them of that same free will. That is totalitarian, and I do question whether any leader has the moral right to do that, even in Tolkien's world. A ruler has the right to rule, and of course must do what will work, but sometimes what might seem to work, will ultimately fail; freedom comes at a price, but so does safety. I see that Aredhel would rather risk danger than have her free will removed.

I suppose the closest real world equivalent would have been the USSR (or maybe East Germany) when it was a closed Communist state; people could choose to go and live there but once there, it was made almost impossible for them to leave again. Inevitably, this system was doomed to fail, as depsite the risks there are alwyas those who choose to take them rather than be kept 'safe' but restricted.

I also think that even though I find Turgon's methods questionable and misguided, it was fated that this should happen. If it had not, then other remarkable things would not have happened, and I think that this could be why Ulmo intervened. That is the cruel side of Eru's world; sometimes people do suffer and even die because they are tied to the fate of the world and what will follow.
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