My recent post on the futility of obsessing about politics and using politics to fight evil led to some interesting comments and connections to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Romantic Christian approaches to “fighting the power” are frequently viewed as passive or delusional. The sternest criticisms declare them “do nothing” approaches because they eschew confronting the enemy on predetermined battlefields using the same weapons and tactics the enemy utilizes, i.e., politics.
For the sake of brevity, I will avoid wading into great detail as to why fighting the enemy through such conventional means is virtually pointless and futile in this time and place. One needs to look no further than the abysmal failures of the past decade to recognize that fighting on any political battlefield does little more than play into the enemy’s hands.
No political battle I have followed in the past ten years has succeeded at stopping or even slowing the advance of evil. On the contrary, most of the political battles in the past decade — the big ones that got many of us, yours truly included, so optimistic about potential victories and turning points, i.e., Trump, Brexit, Orbán — have only served to accelerate or exacerbate evil in the world.
Knowing this, why does anyone continue harboring any trace of optimism about Trump’s possible return, or the rise of some supposed right-wing party in Germany, or the appearance of a new, maverick, anti-woke, libertarian leader in some country somewhere, or a group of truckers or farmers taking to the streets to protest against some draconian regulation?
Moreover, why do people continue nurturing battlefield fantasies about fighting evil in the fields and streets? I mean, seriously. Who exactly do you plan to fight, and who will fight alongside you?
Many people remain convinced that the people will rise when things get bad enough. My response? How much worse do things have to get? Here’s a news flash. When things worsen, people will almost certainly become even more yielding, manipulable, governable, passive, and compliant! Either that, or they will be manipulated into taking to the streets by the same forces they purportedly oppose.
Still, for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that some viable and powerful political force does rise and engage the powers that should not be in open battle out on the field. Do you honestly believe the System has not prepared for such possibilities? That it would not ultimately use such an occasion to its advantage?
That aside, let’s go as far as to imagine that this political force engages the enemy in open battle and wins. Yay, us!
Okay, so the political force quickly takes control of the System. How do you think it will wield that power? How much different will its System actually be? Remember all the failed battles of the past decade because the kinds of people who lost those battles would presumably be the same kinds of people who would or could topple the current System.
Do these people strike you as the kind that could spark a spiritual reawakening among the masses? That’s important because a mass spiritual reawakening is the only thing that might turn the collective world in the right direction. Everything else is just chair rearrangement.
Think about all of that. Deeply.
To return to the main point about fighting the enemy through politics and its connection to The Lord of the Rings, I posit that there are ways of fighting that Sauron knows and ways of fighting that Sauron does not know, and I am firmly convinced that we must focus on the latter rather than the former in this time and place.
To support my point, I’ll turn to what Gandalf reveals to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli shortly after his reappearance in The Two Towers (bold added):
“The Enemy, of course, has long known that the Ring is abroad, and that it is borne by a hobbit. He knows now the number of our Company that set out from Rivendell, and the kind of each of us. But he does not yet perceive our purpose clearly.
He supposes that we were all going to Minas Tirith; for that is what he would himself have done in our place. And according to his wisdom it would have been a heavy stroke against his power. Indeed he is in great fear, not knowing what mighty one may suddenly appear, wielding the Ring, and assailing him with war, seeking to cast him down and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind.
That we should try to destroy the Ring itself has not entered into his darkest dream. In which you will see our good fortune and our hope.
For imagining war he has let loose war, believing he has no time to waste; for he that strikes the first blow, if he strikes hard enough, may need to strike no more. So the forces that he has long been preparing he is now setting in motion, sooner than he intended.
Wise fool. For if he had used all his power to guard Mordor, so that none could enter, and bent all his guile to the hunting of the Ring, then indeed hope would have faded: neither Ring nor bearer could long have eluded him."
Some vital points to consider concerning the passage above:
The analogy between The Lord of the Rings and our current situation has limits, but we can draw much wisdom from Tolkien's trilogy. However, it is wrong to assume that Tolkien believed only direct, physical battlefield confrontation could vanquish evil.
Although Romantic Christian approaches to fighting the spiritual war are individual and personal, they have one thing in common — they focus on fighting evil in ways that evil does not anticipate, cannot conceive of, and, ultimately, does not know, replete with the understanding that only such approaches can truly defeat evil.
Destroying the Ring is a deeply personal and spiritual matter in this time and place. It entails overcoming the temptation of wielding the Ring for the sake of power.
It entails not thinking like Sauron!
How delusional!
Romantic Christian approaches to “fighting the power” are frequently viewed as passive or delusional. The sternest criticisms declare them “do nothing” approaches because they eschew confronting the enemy on predetermined battlefields using the same weapons and tactics the enemy utilizes, i.e., politics.
For the sake of brevity, I will avoid wading into great detail as to why fighting the enemy through such conventional means is virtually pointless and futile in this time and place. One needs to look no further than the abysmal failures of the past decade to recognize that fighting on any political battlefield does little more than play into the enemy’s hands.
No political battle I have followed in the past ten years has succeeded at stopping or even slowing the advance of evil. On the contrary, most of the political battles in the past decade — the big ones that got many of us, yours truly included, so optimistic about potential victories and turning points, i.e., Trump, Brexit, Orbán — have only served to accelerate or exacerbate evil in the world.
Knowing this, why does anyone continue harboring any trace of optimism about Trump’s possible return, or the rise of some supposed right-wing party in Germany, or the appearance of a new, maverick, anti-woke, libertarian leader in some country somewhere, or a group of truckers or farmers taking to the streets to protest against some draconian regulation?
Moreover, why do people continue nurturing battlefield fantasies about fighting evil in the fields and streets? I mean, seriously. Who exactly do you plan to fight, and who will fight alongside you?
Many people remain convinced that the people will rise when things get bad enough. My response? How much worse do things have to get? Here’s a news flash. When things worsen, people will almost certainly become even more yielding, manipulable, governable, passive, and compliant! Either that, or they will be manipulated into taking to the streets by the same forces they purportedly oppose.
Still, for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that some viable and powerful political force does rise and engage the powers that should not be in open battle out on the field. Do you honestly believe the System has not prepared for such possibilities? That it would not ultimately use such an occasion to its advantage?
That aside, let’s go as far as to imagine that this political force engages the enemy in open battle and wins. Yay, us!
Okay, so the political force quickly takes control of the System. How do you think it will wield that power? How much different will its System actually be? Remember all the failed battles of the past decade because the kinds of people who lost those battles would presumably be the same kinds of people who would or could topple the current System.
Do these people strike you as the kind that could spark a spiritual reawakening among the masses? That’s important because a mass spiritual reawakening is the only thing that might turn the collective world in the right direction. Everything else is just chair rearrangement.
Think about all of that. Deeply.
To return to the main point about fighting the enemy through politics and its connection to The Lord of the Rings, I posit that there are ways of fighting that Sauron knows and ways of fighting that Sauron does not know, and I am firmly convinced that we must focus on the latter rather than the former in this time and place.
To support my point, I’ll turn to what Gandalf reveals to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli shortly after his reappearance in The Two Towers (bold added):
“The Enemy, of course, has long known that the Ring is abroad, and that it is borne by a hobbit. He knows now the number of our Company that set out from Rivendell, and the kind of each of us. But he does not yet perceive our purpose clearly.
He supposes that we were all going to Minas Tirith; for that is what he would himself have done in our place. And according to his wisdom it would have been a heavy stroke against his power. Indeed he is in great fear, not knowing what mighty one may suddenly appear, wielding the Ring, and assailing him with war, seeking to cast him down and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind.
That we should try to destroy the Ring itself has not entered into his darkest dream. In which you will see our good fortune and our hope.
For imagining war he has let loose war, believing he has no time to waste; for he that strikes the first blow, if he strikes hard enough, may need to strike no more. So the forces that he has long been preparing he is now setting in motion, sooner than he intended.
Wise fool. For if he had used all his power to guard Mordor, so that none could enter, and bent all his guile to the hunting of the Ring, then indeed hope would have faded: neither Ring nor bearer could long have eluded him."
Some vital points to consider concerning the passage above:
- Sauron thinks everyone else thinks like him, implying that the only way to outwit Sauron is to not think like Sauron!
- Sauron assumes everyone has gone to Minas Tirith because that is what he would have done. He cannot conceive of anyone doing otherwise.
- Sauron fears the appearance of a strong battlefield enemy that might strip him of his power, but he cannot conceive of any other kind of enemy that could be equally detrimental to his power.
- Sauron cannot imagine anyone wanting to destroy the Ring. He is convinced that anyone who possesses the Ring would want to rule. This is the foundation of Sauron’s worldview and metaphysical assumptions. It is also his greatest weakness.
- There’s much Sauron knows, but he doesn’t know everything. When it comes to creative, spiritual thinkers, he’s clueless.
The analogy between The Lord of the Rings and our current situation has limits, but we can draw much wisdom from Tolkien's trilogy. However, it is wrong to assume that Tolkien believed only direct, physical battlefield confrontation could vanquish evil.
Although Romantic Christian approaches to fighting the spiritual war are individual and personal, they have one thing in common — they focus on fighting evil in ways that evil does not anticipate, cannot conceive of, and, ultimately, does not know, replete with the understanding that only such approaches can truly defeat evil.
Destroying the Ring is a deeply personal and spiritual matter in this time and place. It entails overcoming the temptation of wielding the Ring for the sake of power.
It entails not thinking like Sauron!
How delusional!
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