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Power.
In the Nineteenth Century, Lord Acton warned us that, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
In 1984, George Orwell observed that, "Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."
Mao Tse-Tung informed us in 1938 that, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
The historian Henry Brooks Adams said in 1907 that, in its effect on presidents, "Power is poison."
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, however, said simply that, "I love power."
Power.
While most politicians today would be reluctant to admit their secret lust, almost universally, "power" is precisely what they seek. Sometimes they chase after this dark mistress for crass reasons: obtaining (i.e., legally stealing) unearned wealth; gaining feigned respect and esteem and admiration from grasping sycophants; attracting illicit sexual partners. Others may venture into those deceptive waters with the best of intentions: to help poor people, to improve their neighbors' lives, to enhance the moral climate of their communities.
Whatever the case, not long passes before power seduces or drowns those who would wield it. None of these worshippers of power comprehends the reality of his situation before it is too late. They are not somehow "different"; the lessons of history do apply to them; they are delusional if they think that somehow, some way, they will "get it right" while all their sad and tragic predecessors got it horribly but unnecessarily wrong.
Given that there is never any shortage of apologists for the debased actions of the power-seekers, the well-worn paths trod by those who would dictate to others are rarely recognized or acknowledged until the inexorable damage is done. Once lives and property, rights and morality are trampled by the uncaring feet of the exploiters, once the extent of the destruction can no longer be denied, then, perhaps, the excuse-makers, the rationalizers, the absolvers will wring their hands and cry their sorrow as they beg forgiveness of any surviving victims.
But by then, the corrected course will come too late for those who died so young, those whose lives were ruined in the muck of greed or grandiose schemes of glory, those whose hopes for a decent existence, whose trust in their fellow citizens were crushed by a betrayal long ignored and never condemned. Compensation will never restore what is lost forever. Excuses and regrets cannot atone for vanished time or buried loved ones.
Yet the phantasmal quest for power never ceases.
Power.
The acquisition and use of power, of course, forms a major theme of one of the greatest works of modern fiction. J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) is fresh in the minds of many these days given its cinematic recreation in Peter Jackson's recently completed film trilogy. I took the occasion of the release of The Return of the King to read Tolkien's book for the first time in a quarter century.
In LOTR, Sauron seeks to recover the One Ring so he can subjugate Middle-earth to his will. Men, elves, dwarves, or wizards: the beings in question make no difference to Sauron. They exist merely to serve him as slaves or as extensions of his foul will. And for what? Destruction for its own sake. Wherever Sauron's power holds sway, death and devastation dominate. The realm of Mordor stretches as a parched and defiled land. Nothing wholesome or honorable or valuable can exist for long in the shadow of Orodruin -- the volcanic Mount Doom -- or beneath the eye of Barad-dur, the Dark Tower.
While Tolkien's novel and Jackson's movies often act as Rorschachs for various groups (e.g., some Christians see The Lord of the Rings as a celebration of religion; some Leftists see it as a warped justification for nationalism), no one can reasonably deny the centrality of Tolkien's focus on the problem of power and who is -- or is not -- worthy of holding that power.
The short answer is: no one.
The long answer, of course, is that no individual has the right to force others to act according to his will -- whether for "good" goals or bad. Nor does anyone have the ability to harness such power innocently and purely. The wise and mighty wizard Gandalf shrinks from the temptation the Ring presents to him, lest he foolishly try to use it for "good." Even Frodo the Ring-bearer is, in the end, broken down and overtaken by the strength of the Ring's warped influence when he claims that circle of gold for his own. Gollum/Smeagol is likewise unable to resist what he is convinced is his "precious." After the long years of his existence, he pays for his all-consuming avarice with his life in the fires of Mount Doom.
While Tolkien carries his readers across the vast canvas that is his story with tales of great battles and noble lords and vile armies marching towards world domination, he also contracts his lens after the unalloyed evil that is Sauron is defeated to remind us that power can afflict society on even the most modest scale.
In the chapter, "The Scouring of the Shire," Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry find that the tendrils of Sauron have infiltrated their beloved and formerly secure home via the diminished yet still unrepentant wizard Saruman. In conjunction with an arrogant relative of Frodo's who inherited Bag End, "ruffians" and "highway-robbers" have taken over the Shire. Those few who initially resisted were jailed, beaten, "disappeared." While resentment smolders, most of the Hobbits are afraid to move against their oppressors...
...until the armed remnants of the Fellowship return.
Gates and guardhouses have been constructed to control the movement of the citizens. Curfews have been established. Lodging and feeding travelers is forbidden. "Pipe weed" (tobacco), wood, and food is "gathered" by official "sharers" for "fair distribution" then hidden from those who produced it or sold for the gain of the rationers. Beer is prohibited...except for the favored few. Arbitrary rules proliferate and are posted everywhere. Spies betray their fellows. Censorship stifles conversation. Officious shirrifs (sheriffs) expand in number to enforce the "orders" from the "Chief" (who hides behind his title and forbids use of his name).
As Samwise Gamgee says, "If I hear not allowed much oftener, I'm going to get angry."
Those who "...like minding other folk's business and talking big" are merely smaller, twisted versions of their distant role-model, Sauron, hiding behind the power to destroy, unwittingly waiting to be replaced, in turn, by "a bigger Boss," the disgraced yet still-malevolent Saruman.
In rallying the populace and using their weapons and battle-won knowledge to defeat the usurpers, the four Hobbits demonstrate the practical application of an admonition made by the Lady Eowyn of Rohan: "...those who have not swords can still die upon them."
Unfortunately for us, more than a handful of Hobbits would be required to chase the villains in our modern drama back into the wastelands. Frodo and Company had only to arouse a population generally opposed to their oppressors. Americans today, however, clamor for more rules, more restrictions, more "fair distribution." For such beliefs, they deserve greater condemnation than do those Hobbits who felt trapped by the Chief and his cohorts and so cooperated with them for a time.
"Evil" is that which is destructive of human life. Little controversy arises regarding such a judgment when we stare into the black eyes of the Saurons of the world. But one point of "The Scouring of the Shire" is that degrees of evil exist and should not be ignored or excused or tolerated simply because of their limited reach. The "small" destruction wrought by the few hundred thugs in the Shire was no more acceptable or endurable than was the widespread devastation visited upon the lands of Mordor by Sauron and his tens-of-thousands of human and non-human soldiers.
Power.
The power decried here, of course, is coercive power. All those who thirst for that brand of power deserve our disdain, our opposition, our denunciation.
Every person today who seeks to disarm his neighbor; who relishes banning peaceful behavior; who works to take what belongs to others; who hides behind the violence of his kindred spirits; all people who to whatever degree push these ideas and actions are to that degree evil. Such attitudes, such behavior, such anti-life arrogance must be destroyed. Their existence and use can be accepted no more than could those of the One Ring.
Gollum's Precious shared nothing in common with the kinds of power that are desirable and necessary for a human existence. Each person has the right to hold power over his own life. Each person has the right to practice the power of his (nonviolent) moral code. Each person has the right to exercise the power that arises from keeping the fruits of his actions.
Each person has the right to the power of freedom.
That power is, indeed, My Precious. Perhaps one day everyone will cherish that power as much as they now do the other.
