Tolkien's 'Machine' - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 11-30-2002, 12:27 PM

Hi davem! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] I think it's both. Before the advent of the machine's dominance (roughly coincident with the turn of the 20th century), there was nothing separating the powerful people from the powerless people except other people or the documents and feudal or other governmental systems the powerful had put in place. It remained personal, at least to a far greater extent than after the advent of the machine's dominance.

After above-mentioned advent, the machine stands between the powerful and the powerless in so many ways, and in every one of them, impersonally. This impersonalization makes it easier for the powerful to ignore, even to deny the personhood of the powerless. Anybody in modern life is familiar with the term, "Just a number." I think that about says it all.

The personalness of former society is one of the things Tolkien saw as passing, and grieved for it. Rightly.

11-30-2002, 12:27 PM	#1
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	Hi davem! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] I think it's both. Before the advent of the machine's dominance (roughly coincident with the turn of the 20th century), there was nothing separating the powerful people from the powerless people except other people or the documents and feudal or other governmental systems the powerful had put in place. It remained personal, at least to a far greater extent than after the advent of the machine's dominance. After above-mentioned advent, the machine stands between the powerful and the powerless in so many ways, and in every one of them, impersonally. This impersonalization makes it easier for the powerful to ignore, even to deny the personhood of the powerless. Anybody in modern life is familiar with the term, "Just a number." I think that about says it all. The personalness of former society is one of the things Tolkien saw as passing, and grieved for it. Rightly.