[Morthoron]

There is an excellent BBC documentary entitled 'Brief History of Disbelief' by Jonathan Miller, which regards the foundations of atheism and explores disbelief in general back to the Greek Philosophers like Democritus and Aristophanes. Have you seen it? It came to mind as I was reading your well-reasoned rant on role-calls.

Labels, it seems, are still a basic requirement in pigeonholing society in their proper places. Governments and corporations are still taking pages from William the Bastard's Domesday Book, and requiring us to regurgitate racial, religious and politicial affiliations (as well as our eating habits, musical preferences, and naughty proclivities) for the implicit purpose of catering to our every need; but, of course, we cynically realize that the actual purpose is to control us (I am feeling rather conspiratorial today).

As far as a Tolkienesque response, I am not sure exactly what you wish me to express in that regard. It seems Tolkien's societies were rather lax on commerce and taxation; ergo, I don't see a country like Gondor expending its energy on a census (I can't recall Tolkien mentioning taxation at all). Middle-earth was certainly segmented along racial lines; after all, there were significantly little mixing of the races (half-elves being rare in the extreme), and there was certainly distinct and pronounced political/geographic designations (either you belonged to the Shire or you were a durn for'ner).