Tolkien: an enemy of progress?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Fordim

In fact, I would go so far as to say that Tolkien was himself as progressive as they come, in his ability to anticipate a world view and a value system in which human beings see themselves as parts of an organic whole (be that the ecosystem or human society) rather than as individual participants in some kind of competitive race with and against each other and the natural world.

Very well put! Firstly, there's another related thread about Tolkien's machine here. It's a very good question to raise as at first glance we might think that Tolkien was entirely opposed to progress in any way with his immortal Elves, the bucolic lifestyle of the Hobbits and the horrors of industrial Mordor. However, Tolkien is no simple Luddite, he's going deeper into the philosophies and effects of what is termed 'progress'.

Yes, Tolkien takes a strong view on ecological issues with the Ents leading their trees to war, to take a deeply symbolic act of revenge upon the factories of Saruman. He also shows us Elves working with nature, and revering it, and there is a general sense of a landscape very much 'alive' in Middle Earth. It can't be doubted that Tolkien was something of a proto-environmentalist, though as a conservative (with a small c) how he would react to Swampy setting up camp near his house I'm not sure!

Where Tolkien does go deeper into the issue is in regard to the mechanisation of humanity and society. A good contrast between an ideal society and a regulated society can be seen in the difference in The Shire both before and after Saruman. Before it appears to have a co-operative system of regulation, while afterwards it is regulated with officials, guards and what appears to be the beginnings of a factory. Tolkien also shows us the armies of Sauron's orcs; these are highly organised and the orcs have been brutalised to the point of acceptance to their way of life, even to cruelty amongst one another. You cannot imagine Hobbits behaving in this way. In The Battle of Bywater the combatants are 'roused' into action, but they are not forced or coerced into action, whereas the orcs are. It has become their culture to accept the grasping, Darwinian struggle to win at all costs.

Out of Tolkien's world we can see this taking place through history but particularly following the Industrial Revolution with the creation of factories, where people were grouped together and regulated for purely economic benefit. This intensified with Ford's production line concepts and has now got to the point where not only offices but also schools are assimilating concepts of the production line idea. Few products now are hand crafted; we have the 'things' made in Saruman's factories rather than the objects made by hand by the Elves. Even schools are geared to producing adults ready equipped to feed the greedy mouth of the business world's needs.

Maybe I'm a cynic, but when I read of Orcs, Saruman's machinery, the control exercised by Sauron over his 'people', I am reminded of the regulation we face every day.

Tolkien was most definitely an idealist and dreamed of a harmonious and beautiful world; his hatred of progress was where it harmed that world and brutalised its people.