Tolkien's political views

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Faramir Jones

If we could get back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people. If people were in the habit of referring to 'King George's council, Winston [Churchill] and his gang', it would go a long way to clearing thought, and reducing the frightful landslide into Theyocracy.

I work for a government and I agree 100% with what Tolkien says here. We Moderns have this widely shared delusion that Institutions are fair and right because they are Institutions and Institutions are immune from personal bias and personalities because...they are Institutions! There is probably no other political idea so unquestioningly and widely held in the Western World as this, and yet it is utterly and wholly ridiculous! Working from the inside of an Institution I can assure you that they are just as personality driven from the top and from its members as every other human endeavor that has been conceived down through history.

But, of course, the Institution can do no wrong as it is not a person and it is always fair and right. (Caesar can do no wrong! The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

Human thinking hasn't really developed or changed much over the centuries. There is a political idea called "naïve monarchism" that in many respects Tolkien's beliefs line up with. This is commonly (and rightly) criticized because of the fallacy of "if only the king were a just man, all would be right with the world." The sad fact of the matter is that all the Modern World has done is replace the word "king" with "administrator" or "director" and now it is "if only the Director of our Institution was a just person all would be right with the world." The underlying ideology of the Modern World in this respect is almost identical to that of the past. People just like to deceive themselves that it is not.

I like to tell people that I am an atheist when it comes to Institutions or Organizations. I do not believe they exist. They are a form of deceitful show intended to distract, hide the decision-maker, and pacify the people so that the individual decision-makers can get on with whatever scheme they wish to impose.

In many respects, I do agree with Tolkien. Give me an honest monarchy where I know who is responsible for decisions over a sham republic or a conglomeration of Institutions any day of the week. The conglomeration of Institutions probably have as much, if not more, power over me as a monarch would anyway.