“The elements of lust for power that Tolkien recognized then are even more prominent today-witness just about any leftist politician.”
With all due respect. I think that lust for power is a nearly absolute universal and is not significantly different anywhere along the political scale or at any point in human history. The very few who WEREN’T consumed by it are so extraordinary as to be of note thousands of years later. I think it’s implied at many points in the Old Testament. It’s more a force like hunger, thirst or sex drive - part of the basic human condition and one of the very things that civilization exists to deal with. Not that *currently* leftist political beliefs are more accommodating to those with a lust for power...
I disagree. Those who want power--control over the lives of others--are not that common. The only power that most people want is control over their own lives and destinies. There are some who have been consumed with a lust for power so extraordinary that history remembers them centuries after their deaths. Julius Caesar and Ghenggis Khan come quickly to mind, but what of their contemporaries, those who were content to live and let live? They are countless and unremembered. The term "sheeple" is used in a derogatory manner, but it is highly accurate.