It's 1984 in the Third Age

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Interesting. The ruffians are thieves and they know it; they raise the houses without care. They're there to ravage and steal and take what isn't theirs. But the hobbits don't care for the houses either, as you point out. No sense of ownership. It seems that there's a piece of commentary from Tolkien here, on modern life. Shoddy work is done when, among other reasons, there is no sense of ownership. Is this Tolkien's anti-socialism popping up again?

I think Marx made a similar complaint, lmp, only he called it a consequence of the alienation inherent in capitalist production.

Originally Posted by Lal

I'd say he was a fairly typical Englishman, refusing to be put into a little box when it didn't suit him to be that way.

Probably the only 'box' which Tollers was ever put into, and which fit, was his coffin.