Nothing Will Remain the Same

This week we read "The Field of Cormallen".  The parallel narratives of our text are brought back together as we see what happens to Aragorn, et al, the moment the Ring plunges into Mount Doom.  The Nazgûl fade away, their existence being tied to the Ring.  The orcs flee, for the fear of Sauron no longer drives them to fight.  Many of the men who fought for Sauron see "the ruin of their war and the great majesty and glory of the Captains of the West," and throw their weapons down in surrender.  But some of the men continue to fight: Those who were "deepest and longest in evil servitude" and also "proud and bold."

Though we usually believe orcs are an evil race (largely because of the Elves), consider that as soon as Sauron fell, they ceased to serve him.  Though we can see their flight as cowardice, isn't it really pragmatic?  They were Sauron.  If Sauron is defeated, why continue to fight?

It is the humans who obey him beyond his own existence.  Their pride had become so tied up with his cause they couldn't see any way forward without him.  They preferred to die fighting for a lost cause than find a new cause to which to pledge themselves.  For this lack of vision, they are destroyed.

Later in the chapter we find Sam and Frodo safely in Ithilien.  Gandalf has summoned the Eagles to take him to Mount Doom to rescue them from the eruption.  Sam wakes up in a bed and wonders if he's just been having a dream.  But then he sees Gandalf standing at the foot of his bed, and:

Sam stared with open mouth, and for a moment, between
bewilderment and great joy, he could not answer. At last he gasped: ‘Gandalf!
I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself.
Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?’

Sam is in awe at his situation.  Not only has he and Frodo survived their Quest, but Gandalf has survived, too.  Things are better than he expected.  But imperfections persist.  Frodo still has lost a finger.  Theoden and Boromir are still dead.  Though there is victory, there is also cost.

I have a new job.  It pays very well, and it has excellent benefits, and it is with a good organization, and it has good hours, and the people are very good.  I've been able to enjoy this summer in a way I've rarely been able to enjoy a summer since I was a child.  It's been a real treat.

But this job has me working with adults.  And I miss working with kids.  And as the school year begins I expect to miss it more acutely.  Though I am thriving in a way that is beyond my greatest hopes, personally and professionally, it is not without cost.  Hell, my job doesn't use ANY of the education I have.  It's a little wild when I consider I could have gotten this job a few years ago before all that grad school.  Like I wasted all that time and money.

Progress is not 'everything sad coming untrue'.  What's done is done, and it cannot be undone.  Progress is learning what we can from 'everything sad' that happened to us, and applying it to the future.  An unrequited relationship, a bad friend, a bad job, whatever.  Whether or not I could have gotten this job before isn't helpful to think about.  I ought to consider what I learned from those late nights and early mornings and lack of paid time off.  I may not have been as appreciative of this job as I am if I didn't know the hell of my other options.  Working in education remains a dream of mine, but the fact is twice I've lost jobs because the school needed to cut costs and I was the most recent hire.  There isn't much I can do about that, except hope that next time I work at a school it happens to somebody else.  And that's terrible.

The past is a key aspect of progress.  Without one, there's no way to measure the other.  But the past is also worth letting go of, at least collectively.  The future is coming.  Nostalgia is inherently unethical because it suggests the past, which is unattainable, was better.  Any school of thought that necessitates the future must be worse and looks to the past for comfort should be banished from our mind.  It will badly impede progress and make us sound like fools.  But most damningly, it provides solace without providing solutions.

Recall what happened when Sauron was defeated.  There were four reactions.

1.  The Nazgûl, whose very existence had become tied to the Ring, ceased to exist.

2.  The orcs, who fought out of fear of punishment, fled.  Finally given a choice, they turned away from battle.

3.  Many of the humans, who suddenly saw the error of their ways, surrendered.

4.  "Those that were deepest and longest in evil servitude" fought to the death.

And from these we can see four ways to respond to change

1.  Obsolescence.  The Nazgul are gone.

2.  Retreat.  The Orcs will be back, eventually.

3.  Acquiescence.  Those who surrendered accepted their loss and are willing to change with the times.

4.  Stubbornness.  Those who fought back even when all was lost.  We are not told, but surely some soldiers on Gondor fell defeating them.

We can deal with 1-3.  When things are obsolete it is because they are replaced.  They are rarely missed.  Retreating from progress can be problematic, but we must accept that not everyone will accept progress.  As long as they retreat from the mainstream, their enduring presence is little more than a radar blip.  Consider the Amish, or Texan Separatists.  However, they can become a problem if, in their retreat, they gain strength and return to the mainstream (consider modern NAZIs and Confederate Apologists).  But most of the time those who retreat remain in retreat.  Acquiescence is of course the best response.  Minds and labor are resources and the more people who are involved in society the more of those resources we have.

#4 is the most dangerous one, a stubborn and active refusal not only to progress, but to allow others to, also.  Those who had become so involved in Sauron's plan that taking it away was like taking away their identity.  They stood for a last battle so inevitably hopeless it isn't even in the narrative.  And yet it's inconceivable they inflicted no losses to Gondor.  Those are lives lost needlessly.  That soldier could have come home and become a baker or a mason or a teacher - not to mention also a parent and member of their community.  Instead, they are dead - killed defeating the defeated. 

The changes that occur to our world in the name of progress - and in spite of it - are permanent.  Both the revolutionary ones and the counter-revolutionary ones.  Victory does not undo the bad things, it just allows us to address them. 

Sooner or later, the Trump administration, the very embodiment of stubborn resistance to progress, will end. The right-wing governments sweeping the globe will not last forever.  They will replaced by something else: Whether better or worse is yet to be seen.  But the scars they leave behind will remain with us.  We must be prepared to look forward.  We must strive to make the world a better place, even if we lose a finger in the effort.

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