Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair

When I started reading Lord of the RingsI didn’t look for spiritual trips. I was after a little escapism – the chance to stop the escalation of the nightmares of our reality to the fantastic sites of my childhood.

But the middle ground is not an easy rest. It is a world that overcomes the strength of evil. The same can be said about the many fantasy worlds; This is that genre literature is the conditions for future stories. But the younger Tolkien remains unique to the extent that his great work is focused not only on the overwhelming threat of a powerful villain, but also from a desperation that creates such a threat.

Without reading the books for a decade, I was surprised how to give up the hopes that work as a central organization in the Tolkien universe and the basis around which the whole story.

In Lord of the RingsSauron, a great bad story, does not want to destroy all the peoples of the Mediterranean land. Rather, he seeks to break his will to resist him (as he did with people of the East and Oliphaunt-Roboronic Horadram from the south). For this purpose, despair is its most effective weapon. Chief Lieutenant Saurona, Nazgûlnot very powerful in the physical sense; As Tolkien describes, “their danger is almost entirely related to the unreasonable fear they inspire.” The priority of Sauron, when he launched an attack on Gondar, is sending “a big cloud flow (ing) slowly west of the black earth, devouring light” to “all hearts in the city are oppressed.” And when sauron finds a way to communicate with the steward of Gondor, Denethor, Through A Palantir (YES, Peter Thiel Associates Himself with Middle-Earth’s Forces Those escalating notmares mentioned abave), Sauron’s strategy is to convince its “against the power that now is no victory,” a despair in denethor’s minds.

Yes, yes, in the world of Tolkien there is a deep despair that was a veteran of the First World War, who lost almost all his boys in the Soma. And yet, for those who are fighting at this point, I strongly recommend picking up these books. Because inherent in any discussion of despair is a discussion about its opposite, hope. And reading Lord of the Rings Helped to restore my commitment to the practice of hope that it often feels relentless hopeless age.

The mid -land universe of Tolkien consists of both seen (material) world and invisible (spiritual) world. In the seen world, regular laws of physics are mainly applied. But in the invisible world it is first and foremost the moral value of our decisions that act and cause consequences for the universe. Between them is an invisible world true and more fundamental; In Tolkien’s legend, there is always the last word in spiritual power. In The lord of the rings, Thus, the choice of a person to do the right thing, to continue fighting for good, to resist the evil, despite the seemingly insurmountable chances – in words to hope – causes the material results of their struggle.

As a single example, we can contrast the end of the denomination, desperate and alone, with Theoden, King Rohirim. Because Theoden makes his people withdraw the siege of the mini -tirita, there is a moment – as the rifle riders seem to be too late, mourning the huge armies of Mardor, who are breaking through the gates of the city. Merry, Hobbit, watches as Theoden leads this internal battle. Tolkien writes:

The king sat motionless, looking at the agony of the mini -thitis, as if suddenly suffered from longing or fear. It seemed to be reduced, cows by age. He himself felt as if he was a lot of horror and doubted. Perhaps Theoden glued, bowed to his old head, turned, hid to hide on the hills. Then suddenly she felt fun, no doubt: change. The wind was in his face! The light sparkled. … The bent form of the king suddenly sprayed. He seemed tall and proud again. He grabbed a big horn in Gutlaf, and he blew up a blast on him that he broke out. And at once all the horn from the owner were lifted into music.

Unlike the denet, Theoden overcame his despair, inspired his people to the same thing and led them in the victorious accusation, which in turn instilled terror among Mordor’s forces. Leading Saurona, who would endure the day, if they had just continued to fight – exceeding the victory in the pelonora’s fields with a good guy. The side that was holding on Hope won; The side that succumbed to fear lost.

Of course, there is an obvious answer to any attempt to attract life lessons Lord of the RingsWhich I put myself, realizing, with some embarrassment that I begin to absorb the internal logic of the fantastic series: we do not live in the magical universe; We live in this garbage fire of the real world, where, making a choice to hope, does not guarantee victory.

The longer I was thinking about it, the more I came to mind that this connection – between the spiritual choice for the fight and the physical results of this struggle – actually exists in our world. Just like in Lord of the RingsThe war in the real world often comes down to freedom; How many times – in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Ukraine – we saw how the weak forces beat much stronger, simply because they supported the great will to continue fighting? This also happens in politics. Indeed, this is probably the story of Trump. After he lost the 2020 election, he had to be defeated, defeated, not having a chance to return to the White House. But he refused to refuse, and – as a sauna, who re -restored his power – in fact, wished him a terrible return to his existence.

This connection also helps explain why Trump’s second term was so catastrophic – because unlike his first term, most elite institutions choose no fight. While Theoden overcame his fear and led his people to victory, large law firms, elite universities, major media companies and too often the leadership of the alleged opposition party tore to hide on the hills, or pulled Saruman, and immediately joined the forces of darkness. The largest triumphs of Trump are these preventive surrender because – as in the moral universe of Tolkien, where spiritual choice is often more important than physical results that produce this election – every time when these cowards are given by Trump’s authoritarian success, he actualizing more authoritarian reality, enhanced Despair.

Unlike this, when the Americans decided to fight off, we regularly succeeded, at least in the weakening of the regime, making their final victory seemingly much less inevitable. We have seen this recently with Jimmy Kimmel’s return to ABC after a large -scale and sustainable public impact. We’ve seen this with Sandwich boy with a pink T-shirt And the refusal of the great jury of the DC foresees to charge him. And we saw this, unfortunately, too rare cases where the Democrats have understood, courageous stand-up when, for example, in mid-April Senator Chris Van Halena in Salvador to visit Kilmar Abreg (which remains prisoner At the ICE detention center) Immediately a serious drop in Trump’s rating on immigration.

If the only way if Trump can finally win, it convinced us not to fight in the first place, then every act of resistance matters. It sounds corny, but it doesn’t make it less true. Whenever we choose hope for despair and give this choice to practice, our decision echoes the invisible world with real consequences for the seen. (Either if you’re not yet Ring-And and want more materialistic translation: every time you see in the opposition, you are facilitating and most likely that others will join next time.)

In this era, nightmares the song of despair is tempted, and resisting it to work. But Lord of the Rings It reminds us that in every way, a matter for hope – maintaining the necessary (if insufficient) victory in itself is a more pragmatic option.

So let’s finish the discussion like my favorite Lord of the Rings The character – and, I strongly suspect, the favorite Tolkien too – Gamga himself did during the last and the last Frodo, a desperate impetus through the depth of the muzzle to the cracks of the mountain doom.

Sam couldn’t sleep, and he had a discussion with himself. “It’s all completely useless. You are a fool, going hoping and movements. You could lie and go to sleep together a few days ago if you weren’t as killed. But you will die just worse. You can just like now and give up. You will never get to the top.”

“I’ll come there if I leave everything except the bones behind,” Sam said. “And I will carry Mr. Frodo up when he breaks my back and heart. So stop arguing! ‘…

No more discussions bothered his mind. He knew all the arguments of despair and would not listen to them. His will was established, and only death would break it.

We may have several dark years ahead. And whether we let them despair them too is a choice – our choice. We need to set our will.