The Middle Earth Popularity Cup

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

While I enjoyed reading Groin's thoughts on how Frodo became the epitome of mercy, I have mixed feelings on that sort of blanket pacifism. It's easy to show Frodo in a noble light for acting this way because, after all, he was the central character and Tolkien crafted the story the way he wanted. However, in real life, the luxury of embracing pacifism generally only works when it's done from behind the safety of a bulwark, which says something poignantly ironic about the nature of pacifism, itself.

I've also found through the years, both in real life and in studying history (at university and subsequently) that the old adage of "Mercy to the wolf is cruelty to the sheep" has a lot of truth in it. I suppose it depends on what you consider to be a wolf. My threshold for wolflike behavior is pretty low.

Standing watching when let's say somebody attacks your friend, such kind of pacifism will be surely immoral. But have you for example read anything about Mahatma Gandhi? He was just a man like everybody else, but his concepts of non-aggression I find actually pretty nice, and he proved them himself with quite good outcome several times...