{"id":2319837,"date":"2024-08-06T07:24:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T11:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-surprise-david-french-completely-botches-lord-of-the-rings\/"},"modified":"2024-08-06T07:30:41","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T11:30:41","slug":"no-surprise-david-french-completely-botches-lord-of-the-rings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-surprise-david-french-completely-botches-lord-of-the-rings\/","title":{"rendered":"No Surprise, David French Completely Botches &#8216;Lord Of The Rings&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fno-surprise-david-french-completely-botches-lord-of-the-rings%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2319837&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The \u200barticle discusses David French&#8217;s interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien&#8217;s *The Lord of the Rings*, particularly his view on the themes of power and domination. \u2064French argues that the popularity of Tolkien\u2019s work among conservative &#8220;New Right&#8221; fans suggests a misunderstanding of its messages. He posits that the Ring symbolizes the temptation of power and that seeking power is the true villain of the story. However, the author of the summary critiques\u200c this perspective, asserting that Tolkien differentiates between power itself and the domination\u2062 that corrupts it. The characters in *The Lord of the Rings*, like Aragorn, Gandalf, and Galadriel, do not reject \u200dpower outright but rather\u2063 renounce a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tim-scott-shreds-joe-biden-in-rebuttal-speech-biden-is-tearing-us-apart-after-promising-to-unite-nation\/\" title=\"Tim Scott Shreds Joe Biden In Rebuttal Speech: Biden Is Tearing Us Apart After Promising To Unite Nation\">specific kind<\/a> of\u200c oppressive power. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bidens-bad-week-gets-worse-cnn-fact-checker-piles-on-by-thoroughly-debunking-major-claims\/\" title=\"CNN Fact Checker further debunks Biden&#039;s major claims, worsening his already bad week\">article \u2063emphasizes<\/a> that Tolkien&#8217;s worldview includes a Creator God and recognizes legitimate forms of power, countering the idea that all power is inherently evil. Ultimately, it argues for a more nuanced understanding of Tolkien&#8217;s themes that acknowledges the positive aspects of power in the right context.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The thing about <em>The Return of the King<\/em> is that the king, well, returns.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Despite his professed love for J.R.R. Tolkien&rsquo;s work, David French seems to have missed this aspect of Tolkien&rsquo;s conclusion to <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. Writing for The New York Times, French grandly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/01\/opinion\/maga-tolkien-lotr.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">declares<\/a> that &ldquo;the proper interpretation of [Tolkien&rsquo;s] work has geopolitical implications.&rdquo; The impetus for his assertion is that the left has noticed that Tolkien&rsquo;s books are popular on the right, especially among younger, post-liberal types. French is eager to show that these &ldquo;New Right&rdquo; Tolkien fans who &ldquo;embrace[] state power as a means of fighting and winning the culture war&rdquo; are &ldquo;getting Tolkien wrong, and the way in which they are getting Tolkien wrong matters for all of us.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>French is correct that Tolkien&rsquo;s tales are not just for the right. <em>The<\/em> <em>Lord of the Rings<\/em> is an exciting and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-dad-goggles-how-fatherhood-changed-the-way-i-experienced-final-fantasy-vii\/\" title=\"Fatherhood&#039;s Impact on My &#039;Final Fantasy VII&#039; Experience\">deep story<\/a> that has inspired and resonated with people from conservative intellectual Russell Kirk to rock stars such as Led Zeppelin and Rush. Tolkien&rsquo;s stories do have deep themes that can be drawn out and analyzed, and French is eager to do so to use them as ammunition against Tolkien-loving conservative adversaries. But his efforts miss the mark.<\/p>\n<p>He mistakenly equates the temptation of the Ring with power, asserting, &ldquo;Throughout the story the ring calls out to the heroes, speaking to their hearts, telling them that only by claiming power can they defeat power. In a very real way, the will to power is the true enemy in Tolkien&rsquo;s work. The identity of the villain &hellip; is less relevant than grasping after power.&rdquo; French is not the first to equate the Ring with power, and the claim suits his argument &mdash; Don&rsquo;t you see, the post-liberals who want to use government power in the culture war are just like the villains in the story? &mdash; but it is a false and lazy claim.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/critics-of-enlightenment-rationalism-revisited-gene-callahan\/1141322490\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">untenable<\/a> to equate the Ring simply with power. Tolkien did not write a story about why power is evil but about why domination is evil. To understand Tolkien, it is essential to distinguish between the two.<\/p>\n<p>For example, at the end of the story, Aragorn does not renounce power and wander off into the wilderness to smoke pipeweed. He claims the throne and with it the power that is rightfully his &mdash; and he does so with none of the reluctance that Peter Jackson added to the film adaptation. Likewise, characters such as Gandalf and Galadriel do not renounce power as such &mdash; indeed, they have and use great power &mdash; but they do renounce a certain sort and use of power.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What they reject is the domination that makes people into thralls and slaves. This evil, totalizing power is seen in how Sauron&rsquo;s armies of orcs and monsters hesitate when their master&rsquo;s will turns away from them and then collapse when he is defeated as the Ring is destroyed. The Dark Lord&rsquo;s monstrous minions have been subsumed by his will, with only the evil men in his service appearing to have retained any real free will of their own.<\/p>\n<p>The essence of domination is the attempt to elevate oneself to a godlike position and then impose one&rsquo;s will to the point of obliterating the personhood of others. This is the sort of power the Ring offers and why it cannot be used for good, even by those who otherwise possess and deploy great power of their own.<\/p>\n<p>Tolkien&rsquo;s distinction between power and domination is clearly seen in God (known in Tolkien&rsquo;s work as Eru Il&uacute;vatar) being the ultimate power in Tolkien&rsquo;s stories. God is, to be sure, only dimly seen in <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em> but is explicitly present in the <em>The Silmarillion<\/em>, which French has read (and which Tolkien had wanted to publish alongside <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em>). To simply say that power as such is evil and should be renounced would be blasphemy, implying that God is evil.<\/p>\n<p>Tolkien invented a world with a Creator God, under whom there are many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-spending-bill-includes-20-billion-in-new-energy-taxes-that-will-drive-prices-higher\/\" title=\"Democrats\u2019 Spending Bill Includes  Billion In New Energy Taxes That Will Drive Prices Higher\">legitimate powers<\/a>, from angels (Valar and Maiar) to kings with a divine right to rule, such as Aragorn. French appeals to this ordered cosmos in his insistence that we trust in more than ourselves, writing, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s where Tolkien&rsquo;s Christian faith is most evident. We are to reject the will to power because our triumph does not depend on our strength.&rdquo; This is true but carries with it a multitude of implications that French has not reckoned with.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After all, we can trust in something beyond our own strength only if there is something beyond our own strength. We can resist the call to do evil only if we can tell the difference between good and evil. Thus, Tolkien presents not only a world with a Creator but also a world with natural law, in which men (and elves and hobbits) are capable of discerning right from wrong and are accountable for their choices even without specific divine revelation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If this is also true of our world &mdash; and Tolkien certainly believed it was &mdash; then it is a vindication of the New Right Tolkien lovers whom French disdains. There is an intelligible moral order to our world too, even if we sometimes apprehend it imperfectly and partially. Furthermore, there are legitimate powers that have a duty to enforce this moral order, encouraging good and punishing evil. There are prudential limits, of course, due to human finitude and fallibility, but French does not want to debate where they should be, preferring instead to try to disqualify his opponents by accusing them of craving power (which, as Tolkien lovers, we are all supposed to agree is bad).<\/p>\n<p>But French misunderstands Tolkien. Indeed, if anyone is disqualified on Tolkien&rsquo;s terms, it is those such as French who reject natural law and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/if-the-supreme-court-is-illegitimate-so-is-abortion-gay-marriage-and-taking-prayer-out-of-schools\/\" title=\"If The Supreme Court Is \u2018Illegitimate,\u2019 So Is Abortion, Gay Marriage, and Taking Prayer Out Of Schools\">legitimate power<\/a> of governments to make and enforce laws in accord with it. Unlike French, Tolkien did not urge us to embrace a relativistic legal pluralism that cannot distinguish between good and evil, beautiful and ugly, God and Satan.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Put simply, Aragorn would not have tolerated Uruk-hai <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/the-political-scene\/david-french-sohrab-ahmari-and-the-battle-for-the-future-of-conservatism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">story hour<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Nathanael Blake is a senior contributor to The Federalist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The key point of The Return of the King is that the king indeed returns. However, David French, despite claiming to appreciate J.R.R. Tolkien&#8217;s work, appears to overlook this crucial element in Tolkien&#8217;s conclusion to The Lord of the Rings. In his article for The New York Times, French asserts that &#8220;the proper interpretation of [Tolkien\u2019s] work has geopolitical implications.&#8221; His statement stems from the observation that Tolkien&#8217;s books have gained popularity among right-leaning individuals, particularly younger post-liberal fans. French aims to demonstrate that these &#8220;New Right&#8221; admirers who advocate for using state power in cultural conflicts are misinterpreting Tolkien\u2019s messages and that this misinterpretation is significant for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>While French is correct in noting that Tolkien&#8217;s narratives resonate with a diverse audience beyond just conservatives\u2014having inspired figures ranging from conservative thinker Russell Kirk to rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Rush\u2014his analysis falls short. He inaccurately equates the Ring with power itself, claiming throughout the narrative it beckons heroes by suggesting they must seize power to overcome it. This perspective leads him to argue that those on the post-liberal right seeking governmental authority in cultural battles resemble villains from Tolkien\u2019s tales; however, this comparison is flawed and simplistic.<\/p>\n<p>It is misguided to reduce the Ring solely to a symbol of power; rather than portraying power as inherently evil, Tolkien critiques domination as evil. To grasp his work fully requires recognizing this distinction. For instance, at story\u2019s end, Aragorn does not reject power but embraces it by claiming his rightful throne without hesitation\u2014a contrast heightened by Peter Jackson&#8217;s film adaptation which added reluctance he did not possess in the text. Similarly, characters like Gandalf and Galadriel wield significant power but renounce specific forms or uses of it.<\/p>\n<p>What they oppose is a form of domination that reduces individuals into subservience or slavery\u2014a totalizing evil exemplified by Sauron\u2019s forces who falter when their master turns away and collapse upon his defeat with the destruction of the Ring. This type of domination seeks godlike status over others\u2019 willpower until their individuality vanishes entirely; hence why such powers cannot be wielded for good\u2014even by those already possessing great authority.<\/p>\n<p>Tolkien illustrates this distinction through Eru Il\u00favatar (God), who embodies ultimate goodness within his universe\u2014though only subtly referenced in The Lord of the Rings itself but more explicitly detailed in The Silmarillion (which French has read). To claim all forms of power are evil would imply blasphemy against God himself.<\/p>\n<p>In creating a world governed by a Creator God alongside various legitimate authorities\u2014from divine angels (Valar and Maiar) down through kings like Aragorn\u2014Tolkien emphasizes reliance on something greater than oneself while also acknowledging moral order exists within creation itself: humans can discern right from wrong even without direct divine guidance.<\/p>\n<p>If we accept this view applies equally outside fiction\u2014as Tolkien believed\u2014it supports those New Right fans whom French criticizes since there exists an intelligible moral framework even if our understanding may be imperfect at times. Moreover, legitimate authorities bear responsibility for upholding this moral order through promoting good actions while punishing wrongdoing; although human limitations necessitate prudential boundaries regarding enforcement methods\u2014which French avoids discussing instead opting merely to label opponents as seeking unjustified control over others (a notion all true fans should reject).<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately though it seems clear: if anyone fails under Tolkien\u2019s standards regarding natural law or lawful governance aligned with morality\u2014it would be critics like David French who dismiss both concepts outright while advocating relativism incapable distinguishing between good versus bad or beautiful versus ugly principles guiding society today.<br \/>\nIn essence: Aragorn would never condone Uruk-hai story hour.<br \/>\nNathanael Blake serves as a senior contributor at The Federalist along with being a postdoctoral fellow affiliated with Ethics &amp; Public Policy Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":538,"featured_media":2319838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Ring-Lord-of-the-Rings.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[36659,37305,37307,37306,36660],"class_list":["post-2319837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-david-french","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-misinterpretation","tag-movie-critique","tag-pop-culture"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Ring-Lord-of-the-Rings.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/538"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2319837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2319838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2319837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2319837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2319837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}