The Ring of Power Corrupts Absolutely
I was obsessed with Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series when I hit adolescence. But it wasn’t until the era of Trump that I recognized all its lessons. Without much straining, you can see the characters and different populations all around us. The plot, though seemingly simple, can be an analogy for our current situation.
For those that have managed to avoid this cultural juggernaut, the main plot can be summarized very quickly. There is an object — the ring — that is in the possession of a simple being, a hobbit in a time and place called Middle Earth. The chief bad guy of all time — Sauron — has realized that the ring still exists and has reemerged to find it. If he does get it, the world — Middle Earth — will be destroyed. The good populations need to unite to destroy the ring, and therefore, Sauron and the rest of the bad guys (orcs mainly). The character shouldering the burden of destroying the ring is a small halfling — very reminiscent of a child — that can travel under the radar of Sauron and therefore throw the ring into the only place — the fires of Mount Doom — that can obliterate it once and for all.
The first time I read the trilogy, I took issue with one of the central outcomes should Sauron be successful. I thought, why would anyone want to lay waste to their natural world? that is like soiling your own bed.
The answer to that question is that it really is all about the ring. And the type of character that is seeking it, and for what purpose. But first, let’s be clear about what the ring symbolizes: absolute power. And hardly anyone ever can avoid wanting it once it gets even just a glimpse of it. The ring tempts almost every character, old and young; powerful and meek; and knowing and naive in the trilogy. Complete world destruction is just a side-effect, in other words, of obsession over the ring.
I’m going to have fun drawing a line between the book’s characters, populations and themes, and the very dark times we live in today. But, like in the trilogy, good can still prevail. We just need to accept the burden and make the journey.
Here are a few of the books’ themes that are on my mind today.
1. Are you one of the good guys? Or are you an orc?
Though many will say that this analogy is too simple, there is indeed gray area among the good “races” of Middle Earth. The main point is that you don’t want to be an orc. Orc’s are cruel, exploitative, nihilistic, and authoritarian as long as their obedience hits their sadistic pleasure center.
The Good Guys are a various group of beings, elves, dwarves, humans and hobbits. They have varying traits and are fallible, but the main thing to note is that they want to preserve Middle Earth. Humans and dwarves are more warlike and don’t shy from battle. Elves are immortal and at the top of the hierarchy. Hobbits are halfling childlike sentient’s that really just want to enjoy life in their Bacchus like ways.
In order for Middle Earth to be saved, the good-guy inhabitants have to unite to defeat Sauron. Without agreeing to pool their strengths and resources, they will lose. They have lived for centuries without having to worry about their lives being in danger, and coming together is no easy task. But they did it and were all the better for it.
I see orcs everywhere today. I now understand that Tolkien was also trying to point this out too — that once humans character is corrupted by one or all of these negative aspects of orc personality, that they are lost. And they will destroy nature and beauty because they are indifferent to them — they just see them as resources to obtain and exploit. They can only be defeated by the rest of us unifying to overcome their destructive narcissism.
2. Are you a slave to the ring? Or can you bear its weight until you destroy it before it destroys you?
Gollum’s character is central to the theme of the ring of power. The Lord of the Rings really is his story. In the end, the ring is not willingly destroyed — Frodo the Hobbit just can’t bear to get rid of it. Gollum’s lust for it inadvertently destroys it as he falls into the pit of fire with it in his mouth.
I see Gollums everywhere. I remember seeing a news photo of Lindsey Graham, pale and hunched over a podium, and I thought “holy crap, he’s turned into Gollum!” Once you become enthralled with the ring, even if you were once benign, it will rot you from the inside out as your heart grows cold with the lust for the ring’s power.
3. Will you relinquish your leadership when the time comes?
At the end of the trilogy — after Frodo and his companions have survived and the ring is gone — the ruling class for all intents and purposes, the elves — must leave Middle Earth. They get in their boats and sail away never to be seen on Middle Earth again.
They do this reluctantly because they realize that the world has changed so much to render them relics. They can no longer be caretakers over this world.
I see our long serving legislative representatives as the elves. The have served so long as to appear immortal — we’ll never get rid of them. (Their intent of still governing perhaps makes them elves still, but they could very easily tip into being Gollum’s.)
As new generations age and see our planet and other beings being exploited and destroyed, I see many of the next gen’ needing, some wanting, to carry the burden to destroy the ring. However, the Council of Elrond is till reluctant to relinquish power. This hesitation to give up the burden of the quest to throw the ring of power into the fires endangers us all at the moment.
To be blunt, we need new laws, i.e. term limits, to get them to retire.
4. Fun with character analogies. During this time of economic shutdown and hardship, I’ve had lots of time to think this over. These are my favorite analogies from trilogy to reality:
— Council of Elrond/ Elves = Current DNC leadership and long serving benign representatives.
— Gandalf = Former President Obama maybe, though Obama might be too fallible to be this. He might just be head of the Council’.
— Dwarves = union / labor
— Hobbits = comfortable everyday people that care for their loved ones but not what’s happening around them/ the apathetic.
— Frodo and his hobbit friends/ Ring Fellowship = the people that finally recognize they have to participate to save the system/ civilization / planet.
— Grima Wormtongue = Fox News et al.
— GOP = Gollum’s and orc kings (Lincoln project/ never Trump GOP not included).
— Trumpees an any vampire capitalists = orcs
— Trump = Orc King or Saruman (this is a tough one, he’s not really smart enough to be Saruman).
— Sauron = Putin or Bezos or Zuckerberg. I can’t decide.
— Ring Wraiths = McConnell and his ilk.
— The Ring = Power that the elites just can’t give up until it destroys them and all the rest of us if the ring-bearer doesn’t make it.
Lord of the Rings fans, any other good analogies I’ve forgotten?
So, where is Frodo and the status of the ring? Who will bear its burden and finally get it close enough to Mordor to have it destroyed once and for all?
“Frodo: 'It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill Gollum when he had the chance.'
Gandalf: 'Pity? It's a pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play in it, for good or evil, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.' Frodo: 'I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.'
Gandalf: 'So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides that of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”
- JRR Tolkien, from Fellowship of the Ring
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