Thanks to Jo March, here's a debate topic. It's simple, brief, understandable, and best of all, provocative. Ready?
rumble rumble rumbmle
Was Tolkien an Environmentalist? Peter Kreeft says yes.
The World as seen from the eyes of the great Tolkien
9 comments:
NOOOOOOO!!!!!! I don't even want to think about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We haven't even defined environmentalist yet! Tolkien would not like it that you are so hasty.
Sorry, I have not been on here in ages...is this debate still going?
Um, not really. Feel free to start it up again. :-)
Yes, do. Or I might publish something slightly offensive to Harry Potter fans.
Why do you think Tolkien was an environmentalist? Personally, I think environmentalism is a good thing. We should protect God's creation in any way we can. Of course there are some people who take environmentalism to the extreme. It's ridiculous when the government spends millions of dollars to rescue a whale that is stuck in the ice, or to fund another anti-global warming project.
Tolkien does seem to be anti-technology. He refused to drive a car or use a tape recorder! The good characters in LOTR never really advance beyond mideval technology level, while the evil characters seem to use all sorts of machines and chemistries. The "idyllic life" in LOTR seems to be the Shire, a life that's somewhat magic and technology-free.
I don't know if this amounts to environmentalism or not. You'll definitely be closer to an environmentalist if you're anti-technology. Sauron is definitely anti-environmentalist.
LOTR never has a technology that helps people. So we don't know what Tolkein thinks of such things. Saruman's "improvements" both uglify and ruin. Real factories, etc, don't always do that, so it's not wise to judge Tolkien's views on factories by what Saruman does to the Shire.
I would propose defining environmentalis thus
"Insofar as a person believes that the natural world has claims on human economic or technological progress, they are an environementailst."
And I think that Tolkien probably fits that definition. What do you think? And does he fit it to an undesirable degree?
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