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The greatest seductress is the allure of power: “If only I had the power,” we think, “then I could do such good things!” I see it all around me, all the time. This instinct is deeply corrupting, especially in the realm of political power.
This is the temptation central to the Lord of the Rings – the One Ring is so powerful and seductive that every strong and good person, from the elves to Gandalf to Boromir, is cognizant of their instinctive lust for power, and the ways in which they could justify acquiring power for The Good. And how that power would, in the end, make them no better than Sauron himself.
This is the very same temptress in the world of politics and government. The One Ring is control of the Deep State and the comprehensive power that it wields.
In Lord of the Rings, the great weakness of Sauron is that he cannot imagine anyone choosing to destroy the Ring. Why would anyone act in such a self-destructive manner? It defies every instinct we have for the accumulation of power.
The vast majority of politicians and media figures today have the very same assumptions. They are entirely shocked that anyone would try to destroy the Deep State itself, as opposed to merely seeking to grasp its reins. They are so shocked that they continue to insist that somehow DOGE and Trump are indeed power-hungry fascists – because that is the position of any reasonable person that they know. They cannot wrap their heads around any other possibility.
This is why DOGE (and Trump) are so very important. It is not merely that our heroes seek to reduce government spending and waste and fraud. It is that they recognize (probably mostly thanks to Vivek Ramaswamy), that the Deep State is indeed analogous to the Ring of Power. Everyone thinks that they can be in charge and direct it to our end (by which we mean “good” ends). But the Ring has a mind of its own, and it only grows in one direction.
This is not inherently a battle between left and right. It is a struggle between freedom and control, decentralization and consolidation — between a future of dynamic, unpredictable liberty and one of static, suffocating bureaucracy. If we are to restore freedom, we must cast the Deep State into the fires of Mount Doom from whence it came.
Discussion (10)
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Alta civitas delenda est.
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And yet Trump and his supporting cast create a new Ring in the form of tariffs that will, given enough time, have so many carve-outs and special clauses that it has the real possibility to become its own One Ring. How good of them! (sorry for the sarcasm)
This question occurs to me: Do any government officials really believe in freedom, liberty, and responsibility? Do most citizens?
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Absolutely true, but with the caveat that the numbers of people committed to supporting both sides include both leaders and followers of good and evil nature. This is why free speech and agency and constantly vigilant attention to process in information dissemination, political campaigns, and voting (not to mention all of life endeavors) is necessary. Liars proliferate and discernment between truth and falsehood can be difficult.
I do wonder how much of the inclination or nature to fall into either of the categories, freedom or control, is genetically or environmentally influenced. In any event, the education process of the young is critical to the development of mental capabilities to address the matters raised in my initial paragraph.
Thanks for this post, @iWe.
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There is need for Emergancy Access to the One Ring to save us!
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That's how I see the battle between left and right. It's a struggle between freedom and control.
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