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The result of this ignorance that we see, is that instead of dangerous policies becoming scrapped, they are being more intensely carried out. By this trend society becomes self-destructive. Tolkien has laid before humanity an exploration of choices that need to be made for civilization to survive.
For instance, LaRouche has warned many times that Israel is presently embarked on a course that it cannot survive, that no 'empire' in history has survived, by which it will destroy itself unless the course is changed. The USA is on a similar course. These two potential calamities all by themselves, with unimaginable consequences, might me large enough to reset the clock for us, back to the dark ages. In that case, one of the greatest treasures in the history of humanity would become lost forever, which is the American republic, the United States of America, that was build on the highest ideals of the Renaissance, fought for by the greatest humanist pioneers of the age in which the republic was born. If that were to happen, humanity would loose something exceedingly precious. Unfortunately, this precious gem is already being torn apart to the point that its own constitution and its principles no longer mean anything.
The sad fact is, society presently doesn't care about its civilization, even its future existence. The support that LaRouche should have to be effective in fulfilling his mission to protect civilization and save humanity from its own folly, presently isn't forthcoming. This lack of commitment may yet be our Achilles Heel. Fortunately, we have not yet reached the point of no return, beyond which the rescue of society can no longer be accomplished. We are getting close, though. Tolkien cautions us that the balance could swing either way if cannot achieve the required commitment to life, beauty, and sublimity, that turns the balance in the direction we want to go.
The unanswered question is; What shall our response be? Will death have dominion?
The epic saga in three parts, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, deals with the issues of a world torn by war. But more that this, Tolkien deals in the saga with the deeper questions of what constitutes our humanity, and where the horrors of war come from that are the total opposite of our humanity as human beings.
As a setting for exploring these questions, he stages a mythical world that he calls Middle Earth, the setting of a 'primitive' age where the deeds of men stand out for what they are; where individual human qualities are the profound factors that are all too often hidden in today's world.
In his tale, Tolkien deals in metaphor with a humanity that has numerous attributes. These are represented by numerous types of people who all inhabit his Middle Earth. It becomes a tale about elves, men, wizards, dwarves, hobbits, beast-men armies, ghosts, and a lone single creature called the Gollum. With their stories Tolkien tells us a tale about ourselves and about the challenges that we face today. In this way, the saga still continues.
Our humanity in metaphor
In Tolkien's mythical world the elves represent the domain of science, culture, and immortality.The wizards, in turn, evidently represent in metaphor the human intellect and its great power, both for good as we find it reflected in the wizard Gandalf, but also for evil as it comes to light in the corrupted wizard Saruman.
The dwarves, on the other hand, apparently represent the 'little' people of our humanity, the small minded, who grope in the dirt of the earth searching for riches, who all too often find themselves boxed in, in the 'caves' of their own creating.The hobbits are small people too, but in a different way. They are simple, honorable, and compassionate people. They live by the riches of their labor, the very fruits of their life. Their focus in life, however, is mainly on themselves, centered exclusively on their small idyllic world called the Shire. The Shire ends at clearly delineated boundaries. Beyond, that lies a world that they say is not their concern. Does this sound familiar? Most of humanity has lived in that 'small world' in some fashion and still does.
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