Posted on 02/01/2005 7:47:02 PM PST by quidnunc
The always eminent writer and historian Victor Davis Hanson compares modern Europe to the Middle Earth of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic “The Lord of the Rings”, recently turned into one of the most successful movie trilogies in history by New Zealand director Peter Jackson. Like the inhabitants of Tolkien’s imaginary world, Europeans are accustomed to living in peace and prosperity. But their sedate way of life is starting to come under threat, although not all of them have noticed it yet. The shadow of an ancient foe is rising in the East, an enemy that has not threatened us for so long that we had almost forgotten about it, and how dangerous it can be.
Memories of past battles have become dim, to the point where we treat them almost as Fairytales. The enemy was defeated last time, but not destroyed. It has been lying low since then, retreated into its heartland and waited for the next opportunity to strike. And now, it senses weakness.
The One Ring, the Ring of Power, which triggers a major war deciding the future of freedom in Middle Earth, is a great analogy for Islam. Many men have become enticed by the undeniable power of the Ring, hoping to use it for their own gain in the vain belief that they can control it. But the Ring of Power has a will of its own, and is inherently evil. It cannot be used for anything good. It will slowly corrupt the ones using it, replacing whatever was noble and positive with darkness, leaving nothing but an empty shell. Like the Nazgûl or Ring Wraiths, once great kings of men, now soulless tools at the hands of evil.
A long time ago, the area from Egypt via Syria to Iraq, Iran and Pakistan was the seat of the earliest civilizations known to man. Today, Islam has long since consumed these vibrant cultures, and replaced them with Islamic backwardness, terrorism and hate, with no other purpose in life than to be at the service of the Ummah. This is the fate of France, too, unless the French wake up and change their ways. The French elite are on an insane quest: The primary enemy for them is not Islam, but the Anglo-American rivals they have been fighting a losing battle for supremacy against since the age of Napoleon, if not before. They think they can ride the tiger, and “use” Islam to regain some of their former glory. The equivalent of Saruman, the traitorous wizard, would have to be Jacques Chirac and the French political elite behind the Eurabia project. They are the enemy within, pretending to be on our side while having joined the forces of darkness a long time ago, and they may drag others with them when they fall.
Outsiders have been puzzled that a fantasy tale such as the Lord of the Rings could spellbind generation after generation. Perhaps the answer to the riddle is that despite being full of Elves, Trolls and strange beasts, it is essentially a very human story, a tale of cowardice, treachery and death, but also of hope, new beginnings and unexpected courage. Above all, it is a story about the quiet people, the little people, like the Hobbits or the Ents, suddenly rising to the occasion and showing bravery and zeal nobody had expected from them, not the least themselves. People who are ripped out of their daily lives to face a mounting evil gathering outside the gates, threatening to destroy everything they hold dear. Many of the individuals who are there to protect us and our civilization shrink in front of the challenges facing them. Some, like Saruman or the Eurabian elites, hope to increase their own power. Others, like Denethor, Steward of Gondor, are paralyzed by indecisiveness, overcome by defeatism and their own personal delusions, leaving their nations defenseless while the enemy is about to attack. Yet some, like Théoden King of Rohan, have had blinders drawn before their eyes by the likes of Grima Wormtongue, the John Espositos, the Tariq Ramadans and the multicultural Islam-apologists of the world. They can still be redeemed in the 12th hour, and return to lead the defenses.
It is easy to watch many of our leaders fail in standing up to or even identifying our adversary, witness the sheer numerical size of the enemy, and conclude that we have lost the fight. It is also wrong. As Tolkien shows us, some of those in power will inevitably fail to handle their responsibilities. But others, who had not been taken into the calculation by either friend or foe, will rise up to the occasion at the last moment and tip the scales in favor of the forces of good. If the big people prove too small for the task at hand, then the little people will have to grow and carry the load. The real will to identify the Islamic enemy and his weak points today is not found in the media, in the overpaid think-tanks and certainly not in our “progressive” universities or among most of the politicians. It is found in small websites by ex-Muslims, such as SecularIslam.org, KnowIslam.info, FaithFreedom.org, ApostatesOfIslam.com and IslamReview.org, and some others by non-Muslims like JihadWatch.org. It is picked up and its message carried throughout the world by the blogosphere, the global community of weblogs and private websites that is increasingly asserting its influence and challenging the major networks. Big Media will have to follow their lead, or decline in trust and significance as more and more people contrast their apologist stance with better arguments and analyses given elsewhere.
It is not for us to decide the time we live in. All there is for us is to decide what to do with the time that is given to us. This task has been appointed to us. And if we do not find a way, than no one will. Perhaps it is time to throw evil back where it came from, be that the fires of Mordor or the glowing sands of Arabia. Much hangs in the balance, maybe even civilization itself. Only time will tell if we are up to the challenge.
Wolfgang Bruno is a European author, writing a book about the Internet movement of ex-Muslims. All of Bruno's essays can be republished and reproduced for free by anybody who wants to.
"Glowing sands" may be poetic, but "glassy plains" may be prophetic....
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If the ents were like the Europe of today, they would already be dead due to contention over limit amounts of water, rotting from the inside out, and rapidly getting wiped out due to the introduction of various foreign tree diseases and wildfires. That and bending too much with every breeze that blows.
The French are being conservative when they seem so damned liberal. They are used to state authoritarianism, centralized control, serfdom, mistresses, the diplomacy of corruption, international alliances, etc. Bush to them is the wild-eyed liberal. What we call conservativers here are classic liberals.
But there is one voice which used to rule France and which began to fade into oblivion in the 14th century, and seemed dead by time of the horrors of Napoleon: France was once a Christian nation. In fact, it was the elder daughter of Christianity. Its secularism is a terrified retreat, away from sectarian violence, into the safety of holding nothing worth fighting for.
Napoleon didn't rouse it, Hitler didn't rouse it. They were both Europeans. But it is there.
The forest will awaken; the same theme of the forest awakening is also in C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia."
I'm sure that Peter Jackson never intended this to be, but the analogy is ineluctable.
Especially when you scrutinize some of the final scenes from The Return of the King.
The bald eagles, which are symbolic of America, who swoop down to assist Gandalf and buttress his noble cause against the Pterodactyl-like creatures that are enlisted in the service of Sauron.
The nomadic tribesman (Riding elephants, no less!), who align themselves with the forces of evil.
This motion picture is a fable that illustrates the stark choices we face in our WOT, even if the people who conceived of this story had no idea how much their script would dovetail with reality.
I can't believe Peter Jackson didn't intend the analogy! He turned the brief "Men of the West, fight!" speech into the dramatic climax of the series.
From reading about him and reading his books, I became convinced C.S. Lewis was a prophet. If he was a prophet, what does that make his converter and intellectual sire?
Though, wasn't Tolkien pretty adamant about his Protestantism?
Tolkien was a lifelong and devout Roman Catholic.
I know that there was some sort of religious schism between the two men, even though they both observed an orthodox form of Christianity.
I'm just curious as to what the bone of contention was between these two dear friends.
I am not sure, but I believe Lewis was an atheist or something of the sort before becoming friends with Tolkien. Tolkien converted him, or saved him if you will.
The French will come to the rescue, somewhat like the Huorns, eh? One hopes so.
Seems to me that the biggest single villain in the story is Richeleau. Though certainly the rot was far along with Abelard.
That was fun to read. :)
It wasn't religious...as a matter of fact C.S.Lewis credits his friendship with Tolkien as removing his innate prejudice against Catholicism (Lewis was Irish Ulster Protestant).
I do believe there was a bit of a rift over their respective works believe it or not. Tolkien was not very pleased at C.S.Lewis' Narnia series--he thought it was a mythological mish-mash (which it is, though a brilliant one IMHO), and may have even felt that Lewis borrowed too heavily from his own Lord of the Rings.
The main weakness of most secularists is their belief that, for them, the universe ends with their death. If none of their actions have consequences that will affect them past their death, then it's OK to sacrifice the future in exchange for a few more years of personal safety and prosperity
This was the bargain that Saruman sought to make with Sauron -- an old man who would help hand Sauron the world for all eternity, in exchange for being allowed temporary power over his own little piece of it. And why not such a bargain? Saruman had nothing to fear as to his fate after his death.
Bruno, the article's author, is correct: Chirac IS Saruman. He dares to think he can make a deal with Evil and survive
Tolkien frequently denied that LotR was allegory. He referred to its lessons as "the truth of myth." This denial amuses me because the allegory in LotR is so obvious. How could he deny it? Was he too close to the work to see it?
Tolkien was brilliant and he labored over his work. LotR is epic and unparalleled. It is, in fact, biblical in scope. Perhaps the same Hand that guided Tolkien's translation of the Bible guided his creation of LotR.
I'm reluctant to believe that any movie personality has a clue as to the Present Reality and its great danger. There are just too many forces in the industry arrayed against wisdom--a celebrity must toe the radical-left line. I can't believe a multimillionaire artist from NZ would make any intentional pro-Western statement.
However--"Men of the West, fight!"--we have been fortunate that one loyalty this movie producer maintained was to Tolkien himself. Being so loyal to the original text meant that the universality of the book would emerge. We draw continual analogies to the LOTR not because JRRT wrote an allegory, but because of the relevant applicability of JRRT's thoroughly Christian moral foundation.
Although Tolkien always hoped that Lewis would become a Catholic, the two remained great friends throughout their lives.
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