Our Sauron Has the Ring Firmly in His Possession -- Start There

2/15/2024

Some thoughts edited from a response to JM Smith at this post:

Unlike the Sauron in The Lord of the Rings, our Sauron has the Ring firmly in his possession and rules over all accordingly.

Our quest to destroy the Ring and create something better in its place failed a few centuries back. We now dwell in the consequences of that failure. Once again, our Sauron has the Ring in his possession and wields it accordingly:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

We don't have to worry much about destroying the Ring physically/materially. Sauron is taking care of that himself.

Our task involves destroying the Ring and its associated power spiritually within ourselves, which entails moving beyond all of Suaron's Ring machinations and recognizing that our only hope lies in our creative spiritual activity outwith the Ring-System, in Sauron not finding, bringing, and binding us in the darkness spiritually.

And since the material is just a subset of the spiritual, our spiritual activity does and will affect the Ring System, but not in the way Sauron expects or foresees.

You often use the term quietism here. I don't know why. I reject quietism, but its opposite is not "Hey, let's stay politically active in Sauron's totalitarian one-ring System so he can find us, bind us in the darkness, and keep us in the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie!"

"only a conviction that I want to leave my children and grandchildren a world in which they are free to be something like me. Not replicas, but showing a family resemblance."

Forget abstractions like "world." Focus on your children and grandchildren as beings you love. That is the world.

Motivate them to recognize that their freedom does not depend on Sauron and his Ring System.

Understand that you can't give your children or grandchildren a free world -- that must be won by each individual. Understand that without that freedom, no individual can pursue the good.

Understand that their future will inevitably differ from yours regardless of what you do -- because agency, motivation, causality, etc.

Have faith that God will always leave open paths to goodness, beauty, truth, and ultimately, salvation regardless of what Sauron does or doesn't do.

Sauron lost the Ring once. Who is to say he cannot lose it again?

9 Comments

bruce g charlton

2/15/2024 09:19:06

I think we are at another inflexion point, when the "test" is to recognize how bad things Really are.

So many of the attitudes *behind* the "what to do" arguments of the anti-left blogosphere make me want to comment: "No, no no! Things are Much worse than that!"

For instance; it seems that Many people are interpreting the recent rise of destructive Sorathic evil, as if it was instead a case of Good overcoming totalitarian Ahrimanic evil.

... As if it was a a change to a positive trend, rather than the intensification of evil.

Francis Berger

2/15/2024 10:00:38

@ Bruce - I agree. I don't think people understand the severity of the situation as a whole and that keeps them focused on things they can't influence or change rather than on things they can influence and change.

Laeth

2/15/2024 14:10:40

This is a very good way to think about it. Saruman-Ahriman used to have it but its very use led to Sauron-Sorath, as it always does. the political agitation on the right is like a debate about the shape of the bricks on the tower of babel.

2/15/2024 15:08:19

@ Laeth - Yes, that is an accurate way of putting it.

Incidentally, the similarities between Saruman/Ahriman and Sauron/Sorath (at least in terms of the names) struck me as I was writing this post, but I didn't make much of it because Sauron strikes me as Ahriman on supersteriods rather than a spiteful destroyer of everyone and everything, unless, of course, we consider spirit solely. Still, it seems evident that Sauron's evil reign would have eventually collapsed into chaotic destruction due to the absence of positive motivation.

An interesting line of thinking. I'll pursue it a bit more.

2/15/2024 15:22:40

Maybe I am reading too much into it, but Sauron always struck me as more interested in destruction than in control. the corruption of the users of the rings seemed to be the goal, the control grid only a means. whereas Saruman seemed to like the machine as such. but again, it might be my reading into it. still, the names Saurath and Sahriman do sound interesting.

william Wildblood

2/15/2024 16:29:41

You hit the nail on the head when you say that our task is to destroy the ring within ourselves. And, let's face it, that's the only thing we can do. To think we can put the world right is to misunderstand the inevitability of the downward trajectory. We can and should point it out but we cannot change it. This is not defeatism because the real field of battle is not here, not at this time. Maybe in the past but not now. The prince of this world will be defeated but not by us. We aid in his defeat by defeating him within ourselves, as you say.

lea

2/16/2024 09:00:06

A sudden turning of the tide is always possible but never something to be expected. As i discussed some fairly deep philosophy with a young man in my game acquiantance circles, all was well until i mentioned 2001 and he just locked up. Cognitive dissonance can overpower the brighest of minds. As Frank mentioned, usually there is more then just confusion going on there. Without a heartfelt drive towards succeeding at the quest, the strongest of us may get sidetracked, with the ring already disposessed. Calling upon every Samhein available.

All that said, im feeling more positive lately then i have for 2 decades
I think we will make this work within our lifetimes..
It will take some convincing of family and friends hopefully before things hit the proverbial fan, but that is actually on the cards.

Sauron is above all a signal for centralization and dumb system clumping. Definitely defeatable.

JMSmith link

2/18/2024 14:23:35

I think you are calling for spiritual resistance to social control. This is right but not at all easy. Most social control works with threats of pain and promises of pleasure, and we should not entertain illusions about our capacity for martyrdom or asceticism. We should not, but I know I do. I'm like St. Peter boasting of his fidelity and then failing when put to the test. C.S. Lewis somewhere writes about being brave until being brave "becomes risky."

Extreme martyrdom and asceticism may be in some ways easier to bear because the heretic on the stake and hermit in his cave can enjoy the drama. But the social controls that try to bind the likes of you and I are banal and, in my experience, ultimately depressing. Ostracism hurts and it affords no compensating drama.

As a practical matter, I think spiritual resistance to the power of the Ring comes down to accepting what Christ described as the hatred of the world, but also keeping that hatred at the fairly low level where one will not crack. Equally important is finding likeminded friends

2/18/2024 17:40:59

@ JM - Yes, good points. I would add that spiritual resistance to social control does not require escaping the control. What it does require is the recognition of that control and the sincere admission that one is unlikely to do anything against it. After that, repentance. Bruce has said it many times on his blog -- slaves can be Christians, but that requires the acceptance that one is indeed a slave.

I resisted the System in 2021. It cost me a job, which knocked my annual income down about 40%. Not small potatoes, especially when you consider the meagerness of my current pay. It hurt. it still hurts. There was no compensating drama. No one gave a rat's ass. Most people thought I was crazy, but I don't regret the decision at all. On top of that, I was ready to lose my other job as well. I don't say this to toot my own horn. I still support the System via taxes, work in a job where I assist in building the world they want, etc. I am still very much in their control materially...but not entirely... not all the time.

For me, it comes down to a matter of faith -- the belief that God will provide what is necessary for my continued spiritual growth and learning, regardless of the harships this may entail.

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Our Sauron Has the Ring Firmly in His Possession -- Start There

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