Tolkien's political views

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Tolkien was an educated man, but one shaped by hardship, who bettered himself and pulled himself up by the bootstraps. Would he really have liked a decadent Royal class who worked half as hard as he, and reaped twice the benefits?

That is a question we know he was not blind to.

There is the quote he made that "touching your cap to the Squire may be damn bad for the Squire, but it's damn good for you."

While he might not have liked all the aspects of the situation very much, my reading of Tolkien's comments taken as a whole, to my eyes seem to indicate a preference for inherited leadership.

At the very least, there is a distinct distaste for the self-seeking elected official who does nothing in life other than try to advance their own status and power.

[Marwhini]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

That is a question we know he was not blind to.

There is the quote he made that "touching your cap to the Squire may be damn bad for the Squire, but it's damn good for you."

While he might not have liked all the aspects of the situation very much, my reading of Tolkien's comments taken as a whole, to my eyes seem to indicate a preference for inherited leadership.

At the very least, there is a distinct distaste for the self-seeking elected official who does nothing in life other than try to advance their own status and power.

Not only does Tolkien "indicate a preference for inherited leadership," in the BBC Interview I posted, he comes right out and EXPLICITLY SAYS he has a preference for inherited leadership.

But he seems to have a bias for a Traditional English sense of Propriety, and people "knowing their place." And as such, he is overly optimistic about such things working out quite as he likely believes they would.

MB