2023-09-03 02:42:23
Posted on September 3, 2023
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By Jon Miltimore.
Un article de la Foundation of Economic Education
For many years when I was a child I didn’t like reading very much, but that changed when I was about 11 years old.
My father gave me JRR’s book Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ringand this book ignited my mind and imagination in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time.
I started devouring books, starting with Tolkien and then moving on to other fantasy novels written by Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan and Frank Herbert. Then came a phase of historical fiction – the masterpieces of James Clavell (Shogun, Tai-Pan et Noble House), THE Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, the series The Masters of Rome of Colleen McCullough, and even a bit of Gary Jennings. There followed a thirst for great authors: Twain, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Shakespeare, Nabokov, and so on.
My enjoyment of Tolkien has never waned over the years, however. I reread his books every five or ten years and immerse myself in Middle-earth as in a warm and familiar bath. One of the reasons I re-read Tolkien’s saga is that the books speak to me now in a way they didn’t speak to me when I was 11. Back then, my favorite scenes were watching Legolas and Gimli defeat the orcs at the Battle of Helm’s Deep (and keeping score).
While many say the main message of the story is love (the friendship and loyalty between Sam and Frodo is one of the most enduring relationships in literature), Tolkien’s philosophy is about danger and the corrupting influence of power.
Tolkien once said that the One Ring symbolized the futility of trying to improve the world by force. In 1947, he wrote to his publisher:
“You can make the Ring an allegory of our own time, if you wish, an allegory of the inevitable fate that awaits all attempts to defeat evil with power.”
That the One Ring is an allegory of the corrupting influence of power is no secret. It’s literally called the Ring of Power, and the allusion isn’t subtle. We see him corrupting Boromir, the Prince of Gondor, who will use the ring’s power to crush Sauron and his minions from Mordor.
With that, we would be invincible!
It had been a long time since I had thought of the Ring of Power, but this thought crossed my mind recently when I finished watching the Harry Potter movies with my family.
In many ways, JK Rowling’s story couldn’t be more different from Tolkien’s. It is a darker tale, whose main characters are children who commute between present-day England and a British magic boarding school in a parallel world. Tolkien, a Christian, would probably not have been comfortable with the emphasis on witchcraft and ” Allegorical Jesus from Harry Potter ».
However, Rowling and Tolkien seemed to agree on one important point.
At the very end of the Harry Potter films, once the villain is defeated, viewers learn that Harry is the master of the “Elder Wand”, the most powerful wand in existence, a weapon created by Death itself. Ron Weasley immediately puts himself in the shoes of a little Boromir when he learns that Harry has mastered the power of the Elder Wand.
Ron : « What do you think we should do with it? »
Hermione : « We ” ?
Ron Weasley : « I’m just saying it’s the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand in the world. With that, we would be invincible. »
Notice that Ron doesn’t ask Harry what he’s going to do with the wand. He asks what should we do with it. It’s clear that Ron wants the Elder Wand and implies that he should be able to decide how his power is used, even if it’s not his own.
The hero of the story takes a different approach. Without a word, Harry snaps the wand in half. Like George Washington, the American CincinnatusHarry is the one strong enough to walk away from power.
Rowling’s distrust of power is commendable, as is the current of anti-authoritarianism that runs through his stories. Yet Tolkien’s story suggests that he understood the pitfalls of power even better.
Unlike Harry Potter, Frodo fails the test of power. Our noble little hobbit cannot bring himself to throw the One Ring into the flames of Mount Doom, even though he has traveled hundreds of leagues to do so, risking death and suffering greatly along the journey. The Ring of Power defeats our humble hero. Frodo is saved only by the wretched creature Gollum, who violently (and gruesomely) takes the ring before collapsing.
What lesson about power?
The fear of power that pervades The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter stories was shared by the founders of the American system, who understood that no institution on Earth has more power than government.
In a speech of 1829 James Madison states:
The essence of government is power; and power, housed as it should be in human hands, will always be open to abuse
This is why Madison and the founders of the American system created checks and balances throughout the constitutional framework. The different branches of government would serve as checks and balances on each other, while the federal government would have limited and clearly defined responsibilities, and would be chained together by a series of amendments (the Bill of Rights) listing not what the government can do , but explicitly stating what the government cannot do. And they left few clues as to where the rest of the power came from.
Thus, according to the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution:
The powers which are not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Simple and obvious as Madison’s observation is, many fail to see the connection between government and power. Many dwell on the dangers and corrupting influence of power, but fully support the idea of always giving more to government.
Tolkien, it should be noted, was not one of them. In 1943, he writes to his son Christopher :
My political views lean more and more towards anarchy (in the philosophical sense of the term, ie the abolition of control, not bearded men with bombs). The most improper job of any man, even the saints (who were unwilling to take it on anyway), is to lead other men. Not one in a million is made for it, let alone those who seek the opportunity.
These are the words of someone who understood Madison’s observation. The essence of government is power, and power corrupts and destroys.
Translation for Counterpoints.
Originally published February 19, 2022
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