You think you've read drivel? You haven't read drivel until you've read this

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

There are also certainly instances where the gold-heads don't behave very nobly.

Hador showed a remarkable lack of wisdom when, upon being released by Morgoth, he went to the area of Gondolin knowing he was being watched.

King Helm of Rohan fanned the flames of war with the dark-haired Dunlendings by first insulting, then murdering Freca, one of their lords. All Freca did was ask if his son could marry Helm's daughter.
That led to dark times for Rohan, with Freca's son eventually capturing Edoras itself.

I think a lot of those instances of the gold-heads not behaving nobly comes down to how Tolkien defined ofermod

In an essay, Exploring Theme and Vision in JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth, by Rico Marcel Abrahamsen. A part of the essay discusses Heroism, and "Ofermod as Tragic Motif"

Apparently, Tolkien was preoccupied also with defining the limitations of heroism. His translation of ofermod clearly implies a distinction between the bold and the foolhardy, high spirit and excessive spirit.

How Tolkien translated ofermod, distinguishes between this "good pride" (heroic) and "negative pride" (foolish).

Bold/high spirit = positive
Foolhardy/excessive = negative

And I think most of Tolkien's heroes, whether gold-hair and fair skinned or swarthier and darker hair, fall because of ofermod. We see it in the decisions that Inzil points out and many others (I think of Oropher's foolish charge during the Last Alliance which got his people slaughtered). I'm not sure if this says anything about Tolkien's racial biases or not, I usually don't engage in these topics, because nothing has stood out as being racist intent.

I think were the critics looking for racism in The Lord of the Rings stumble is they think the theme is about good vs. evil. "All these fair-skinned westerners are good guys" the "black-robed Ringwraiths, swarthy Easterlings are bad guys" must mean Tolkien's racist. The central theme has always been, to me, Hope vs. Despair. The heroes who hold on to hope, even if it's just a fool's hope. And the villains (despair) who efforts to destroy hope (Saruman and Denethor come to mind as 2 who fall to despair). But also reminded of Galadriel's words about "fighting the long defeat."