Tolkien-Orwell: Appealing to the Human Nature.

[Boromir88]

The people of the reformation believed that we, as humans are born with the capability to do evil. Not that we are evil, but we have the capability to become evil. It is society, laws, government, that keeps us in line, and keeps us from becoming that "evil."

A few years later there's a drastic change, we have romanticism. Where the people believed we are born good, but it is society, government, laws, that turn us evil.

One author that comes to mind is famous satiric-dystopian writer George Orwell. In his bookt 1984 (written in 1949) creates a world of total government control, where everything could very well be a lie, and the government controls your everyday lifestyle. In order to overthrow this government one must commit horrible acts of murder, rape, adultry...etc, so one most commit horrible acts but for the good reason of overthrowing a powerful government that has brainwashed almost it's entire population.

Also, it is believed that we have animal instincts. We obey orders, we aren't good decision makers we always look to the one above us for an answer, we do what we are told. A study of this was taken by a psychologist (who I can't remember at this minute, and it was actually made into a movie), where they hooked up a man to this electric machine. The psychologist asked him questions, if the guy got one wrong they would send a minor shock through his body. However, each time he got one wrong they would turn up the voltage. It got to the point where the man was screaming, saying he was done with the test, done with the experiment, but the psychologist said no, we have to continue, those are the orders. The point is we as humans are trained to listen to the guys above us, we aren't good at making decisions, obey the people above you, and again we as humans aren't good decision makers. Even some who can decide things for themselves may not necessarily be the "right" decision.

Now, done with my senseless ramblings, does Tolkien appeal to this kind of nature in his writings? I think an interesting debate for this would be the Shire Government system. Where there are virtually no laws, the shiriffs aren't really police folk, a relatively peaceful place, everyone is happy. Or is it, is the Shire a form of dystopia? Life looks good on the top, but really underneath it's rotten. Or maybe the Shire is really a good place through and through. Also, does Tolkien appeal to our animal nature of decision making? That we humans (Aragorn, Boromir, Theoden...etc) aren't good at making our own decisions, we must look to the guys above us (counsel), and then they look above them. They aren't sure of their decisions and they doubt their decisions.