HI
Sadly yes, I can attest that office chairs DO count

Though we may be taking this chapter's themes to a philosophical level unintended by the author, I second everyone's Saruman's point. We have had a Saruman with us since we harnessed fire, Im afraid.
But it does lead me to ponder.... The struggle you guys have eloquently expressed causes me to look at the ent/entwife struggle. Isnt their rift similar to the struggle described afore here? One side embracing the Sheparding of the land, the other embracing Nature, unmolested. The inevitability that those camps would part ways, never to join as one again... how sad....