[The Saucepan Man]

That's a very good question indeed.

My take on it is that JRRT wanted to depict the humans in ME as akin to humans in our society. Not inherently evil, but more open to corruption to evil ways, maybe, than the other races of ME. In our society, there are very few (if any) who might be said to be truly evil. They are generally victims of their circumstances. For example, most crime in our society is the result of poverty or social exclusion.

And this, I think, is the way of the humans in ME. They are corruptible by the truly evil (non-human) characters that we are presented with, by the promise of that which they most desire, whether it be power or perhaps more worthy goals.

Boromir is a fine example. A noble man brought low by the corrupting influence of the Ring working on his lofty desire to defend his people. Wormtongue's corruption by Saruman is brought about by his desire for Eowyn and also his desire to rise above his fellows.

The Dunlendings are also a good example. Not evil people. But Saruman was able to use their grievances against the Rohirrim to his own ends.

So yes, I agree, I cannot think of an example of a human character or "nation" that is portrayed by JRRT as inherently evil, although I stand to be corrected. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]