A hundredth re-read of the LotR

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May remind you of this earlier statement of yours, Nogrod.

(my bolding)

Originally Posted by Nogrod

PS. I will not post like this further on. It's just that the Concerning Hobbits is a general description of a folk bringing forwards an social and political ideal and thence it requires a social-political thought to try and understand it - in my opinion.

I´d like to make a few comments on this before I go to bed:

I have indeed been too busy to read all of it yet (believe it or not) but there is a classic in the beginning I'd like to make an observation on to get this running.

It's the row between Sam and Ted Sandyman of course.

It's a great example of a traditionalistic & conservative society facing news / ideas they're not too keen to take in as those things could imbalance the beliefs of the group and their basic security on their shared worldview.

I don't find it too far-fetched to compare the discussion between Sam and Ted to one that could take place in RL in some rural community today.

While I agree with some of what you´re saying I don´t think the points you are making are the main points Tolkien was trying to make. Actually, I don´t think he was trying make a point at all here, no, he was trying to set up a good story and succeeding well I may add.

What Ted and Sam are discussing here is of course Elves, Dragons and Giants, things Ted deems as belonging in bed-time stories for children, not under the sun in the real world. Much like we would had someone suggested that immortal Elves were crossing the seas on the straight path. Despite being habituated by "Hobbits", The Shire feels familiar to us since it is very much like the world we know (or at the very least, the pastoral idyll we would want it to be or have been). There is nothing magical or "unnatural" in the Shire. Therefore the perspective of the Hobbits easily becomes a natural perspective for us too. The things that happens later on is just as amazing to the Hobbits as it would be for us. Although Frodo knows of the Elves he doesn´t think the trees in the old Forest would actually attack him any more than we would fear to be possessed by evil spirits after having heard stories about from it some "native people" somewhere. He also has a very hard time grasping that wraiths of the Dark Lord Sauron could come after him in the Shire. Things like this only happens in the fairy-tales.