His Libertarian Worldview
“A thinker far out of step with the rank and file intellectuals of his time and ours, the intellectual establishment of his day hated god and loved big brother. Tolkien loved god and hated big brother. Unlike many self appointed “radicals” in lockstep with spirit of the age, he was the true radical- the round peg in the square hole of modernity”
-Jonathan Witt and Jay W The Hobbit Party: The vision of freedom that Tolkien got and the west forgot.
Tolkien was an old-time catholic conservative and a libertarian monarchist of the medieval time period. Medieval Europe offered the longest lasting decentralized libertarian society that has been known. Medieval monarchies [before the modern idea of the state] of the medial period could not make laws, they just enforced them. As the American John Taylor said elections simply are us choosing what master [political party] will rule over us. And of course not all kings were good and many abused their power and this is portrayed in Middle earth on Tolkiens proper kingship.
“Tolkien was a lifelong enemy of big government in every form, not just the harsher forms we find in soviet communism, German Nazism, or Italian fascism, but also as it manifested itself in British democratic socialism and the mongol state capitalism in other parts of the west. Where central governments collude with big business to squeeze out the up-and-comer and reward special interests. The novelist who described himself as a hobbit “in all but size” was socially and politically conservative even by hobbit standards, and his conservatism was closely bound up in his deeply christian, and specifically catholic, vision of man and creation””
-Jonathan Witt and Jay W The Hobbit Party: The vision of freedom that Tolkien got and the west forgot.
His political leanings were toward anarchy (abolition of control). He said, “The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it and least of all those who seek the opportunity.” He hated socialism, communism, and progressivism; he thought totalitarian governments and control were evil. Tolkien said that the evils of the world are mechanism, scientific materialism, and socialism. “It goes by many names but always ends in greater centralization political authority at the expense of individuals, families and the church.” He warned that if England and others were to adopt the up and coming socialism “It would reduce each nation to nothing more than a flock of timid and hardworking animals with the government as shepherds.” Tolkien viewed all men as fallen, including politicians we might elect and hope to bring about a better society. Tolkien said that in contrast to the politicians, “I am not a socialist in any sense....most of all because the planners when they acquire power become so bad.” He felt that as a devout traditional catholic, the lust for ultimate power in government was to try and place oneself in gods place. Tolkien was a strong advocate of creation care and a lover of God’s green earth; this is just part of the reason he hated totalitarian governments.
“Diluting their followers with images of paradise in the future, a modernist utopia, but what one often gets... are the blasted landscapes of eastern Europe (Eastern European socialist countries that tried to obliterate private property), strip-mined, polluted, and even radioactive.”
-Tom Shippy, author of “J.R.R Tolkien: Author of the Century
In communist Russia as LOTR was banned as an anti-communist tract, [illegal copies were made and spread around] 1991 in Moscow anti-communist Russians held up a banner that read, “Frodo is with us” as Russian tanks closed in. Tolkien, his son said, “could not speak of income taxed without boiling over.” He was a strong supporter of private property. He agreed with the American founders that the need for moral culture to maintain freedom; believing only moral Christians could maintain freedom. He liked limited government and free society. He thought sin is the main reason we need government, yet also the reason to limit government. Tolkien did not like newspapers because they print false info. He was however, a former liberal. He said of his early life, “liberal darkness out of which I came knowing more about bloody Mary than the mother of Jesus.” However, starting in his 20's and until his death, he “was socially and politically conservative even by hobbit standards, and his conservatism was closely bound up in his deeply Christian and specifically catholic vision of man and creation.”
“English Roman Catholics tended to distrust liberals and liberalism not only as anti-clerical but also as conformist and statist.”
-Bradley Birzer J.R.R Tolkien s Sanctifying Myth
The Shire a Libertarian Paradise
“They have no written laws, no police [except a sheriff or two] nor any civil officers except for the mayor....this last little corner of unspoiled life within middle earth....they enjoy a virtually edenic exsistance...the life of the shire constitutes, in fact, Tolkien s vision of life as it is suppose to be”
-Ralph C Wood The Gospel According to Tolkien
Tolkien said that the importance of the political significance of LOTR was second only to the religious significance. The Shire was portrayed as being a favored form of government and of old time England when interviewed by the guardian on his childhood agrarian town of Sarehole mill [inspiration for the shire] he said “it was a kind of lost paradise.” As a libertarian, he created the Shire with “hardly any government.” The only police force would be volunteer sheriffs, who carried no weapons, and wore regular clothes. They did not police the shire, but guarded boarders; mostly returning stray animals and protecting private property. In the shire’s government “families for the most part managed their own affairs.” The Hobbits enjoyed total freedom from any authoritarian government control. There were no banks or bankers, stock markets or industry It was an libertarians dream system of an agrarian society led by country gentlemen like Bilbo, This is one of the main reasons for the attractiveness of the shire to modern readers and watchers of the movie.
“No department of un-motorized vehicles, no internal revenue service, no government officials telling people who may and may not have laying hens in their backyards, no government schools lining up hobbit children in geometric rows to teach regimental behavior and group think, no government controlled currency, and no political institution even capable of collecting tariffs or foreign goods”
-Jonathan Witt and Jay W The Hobbit Party: The vision of freedom that Tolkien got and the west forgot
Scourge of the Shire Government Gone bad
“Whereas before the shire enjoyed an easy going laissez faire regime, with maximum freedom and minimum government interference, the new regime operates through monstrous expanded restrictive rules, enforced by equally monstrously expanded military and par-military forces.... the purpose of government is plainly to maintain, consolidate, and expand its own power.”
-Robert Plank
Left out of the movie is the last section of the LOTR, the scourging of the Shire. It contains much on Tolkien’s view of government. It is a section that “conservatives and progressives alike have recognized this final portion of LOTR as a critique of modern socialism.” When the hobbits return, they find there libertarian paradise controlled by an oppressive socialist government led by Saruman, with Orcs and local evil men to help. No longer is it a peaceful happy paradise, the Shire and Hobbits are under government control. Those now controlling the Shire are referred to as “sharkey and the ruffians.”
“The character of government is totally altered while its forms are not markedly changed. Before, the shire enjoyed easy going with max freedom and min government interference, the new regime operates through expanded restrictive rules, enforced by equally monstrously expanded military and para-military forces…the purpose of government is plainly to maintain, consolidate, and expand its own power.”
-Robert Plank, author of “The Scouring of the Shire: Tolkien’s view of fascism”
During the scourge there are groups of “gatherers and sharers...going around counting and measuring and taking off to storage, supposedly for “fair distribution.”” Yet it just ends with, as one hobbit says, “Them getting more and we get less.” The local farming community is gone as the ruffians take and store the food, pipe weed, and beer for themselves and turn the shire into an export agribusiness industrial public land owned economy. Few know own the and it is the ruffians and those hobbits who work with them such as Pimpe who buys up local small family farms. Tolkien, the lover of all things green, showed that when liberty and private property were secure in the Shire, the landscape was beautiful and gardened. But that was “all gone” due to “The gatherers and sharers.” The new government in the Shire controlled more and more; land, taxes, and regulations. The government killed off the hobbit farming community and replaced it with industry. Tolkien also condemned the greed driven government subsidies of modern capitalist nations. With examples such as lake town where
“Overly cozy relationship between politicians and capitalist, we we call this cronyism” such arrangements diminish economic freedom for the many by expanding monopoly power and special access to the privileged few...undermines local economic patters by uniformity favoring big corporations”
-Jonathan Witt and Jay W The Hobbit Party: The vision of freedom that Tolkien got and the west forgot
“Three characters...that illustrate the greed, destructive side of capitalism...Thorin Oakenshield, the money grubbing master of lake town and Smaug.... members of the powerful and privileged classes regularity have exploited those Benet them.”
-Jonathan Witt and Jay W The Hobbit Party: The vision of freedom that Tolkien got and the west forgot
