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It is interesting that the end of LotR is the end of the Middle earth that Tolkien has built up in the greatest detail. All the cultures, the history he has created, the greatest flowering of his creation happens at the end of the story of that world. In other words, there isn't a tailing off, but rather a crescendo. Middle earth passes not with a whimper but with a bang.
What is preserved is the Shire, almost in a desperate effort on the part of Elessar (& Tolkien) to hold onto something of the past, yet what is held onto is in many ways the most simple thing in that world. The hobbits are in many ways the most vulnerable race in Middle earth - the greater races - Elves in particular - bring their destruction on themselves, but the hobbits will pass from the world not because of their own failings, but because the world of men will impinge on them & drive them to virtual extinction, & certainly their way of life will pass away. They are the supremely vulnerable race, because their survival will not depend on themselves. I can't help feeling that Aragorn's decree is a tacit admission that they can only survive if others, stronger than themselves, work to ensure that survival.
Ultimately, for all their faults, they are helpless - yes, they can see off the ruffians, but only when they outnumber them massively. The hobbits' tragedy is that they are so small & innocent. In a middle earth which is sparsely populated they can survive unnoticed, yet their innocence (& it is a moral innocence - no hobbit has ever killed another on purpose in the Shire) makes them vulnerable. They will pass into the woods & lonely places - like any Elves that remain in the world. Yet the elves can leave, & such a fate is their choice. The hobbits don't have such a choice, because they have no-where to go.
I think Aragorn is simply acknowleging that hard reality. What happens to the hobbits under Saruman is a horror, & if Sam, Merry & Pippin hadn't returned they would have been enslaved & that would have killed them. Just those three hobbits ensured the survival of the race. Their race story is a tragedy. They appear out of nowhere, settle & make a peaceful home for themselves, save the world, & disappear again.
When Aragorn bans Men from entering the Shire he is acknowledging a harsh fact about his own race. It is Men who will destroy the hobbits in the end, not anything the hobbits could do to themselves (yet it is also men who will ensure their survival for as long as possible).
The Woses are in the same position - they won't survive for long either. So the question is, do we struggle to artificially keep alive the vulnerable, or simply shrug our collective shoulders & leave them to their fate? We can condemn Aragorn (& Tolkien) for the solution he comes up with, but what other alternative does he have?
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