On Orcs

This week is another double-portion.  We read "The Uruk-Hai" and "Treebeard."  In the first chapter we see how Merry and Pippin survive their capture of the Orcs, and how they escape into Fangorn forest.  In the next chapter we meet Treebeard, who helps Merry and Pippin after finding them in Fangorn.  Throughout this chapter we learn a lot about Orcs, which will be the focus on today's discussion.  The first two excerpts are from "The Uruk-Hai."

An Orc stooped over [Pippin], and flung him some bread and a strip of raw dried flesh.
He ate the stale grey bread hungrily, but not the meat.
He was famished but not yet so famished as to eat flesh flung to him by
an Orc, the flesh of he dared not guess what creature.

And then, later

‘Maggots!’ jeered the Isengarders [as they run past the Orcs of Mordor]. ‘You’re cooked.
The Whiteskins will catch you and eat you. They’re coming!’

And then, in our second chapter, Treebeard says:

But Trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the

Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as Orcs were of Elves. 

"Why has the Creative Wizard made villains who were so clearly awful?  It's hard to have much sympathy for Orcs."
"Why must we sympathize with Orcs at all?"
"It makes a story more interesting, I think, to have two reasonable sides.  But in these chapters Merry and Pippin are just victims to cruelty, though they endure surprisingly well."
"The Orcs are not-Elves.  They were not created to do anything."
"But even the Elves, as we are aware, are an imperfect race."
"But one is of course worse."
"Absolutely."
"I wonder if Orcs are meant as a reminder of the existence of evil.  There's a lot in our text to examine of the Free Peoples, as we have seen over the years.  Good people may disagree about what to do, but there is a certain point beyond all can say: This is evil."
"What is that line here?"
"In this text, they nourish themselves in unwholesome ways, and they see themselves in all others.  And because they somehow know they are evil, they must resist those who are like them."
"Somehow?"
"I don't know how else to explain it.  But the Orcs eat whatever - thus they think the Rohirrim will eat them, too.  There is no persuasion and no points of view to examine - it is purely a power struggle, and the defeated one will be vanquished.  They know, or at least believe, no persuasion is possible."
"So we should beware those who say such things?"
"Those who claim righteousness are to be cautioned against.  And those who believe their enemies will stoop to any level will, themselves, justify any such stooping.  But the means and ends must both be justified on their own.  There are no evil races in our world comparable to Orcs (and beware anyone who says otherwise), but there are evil ideologies.  But, as they depend on belief, we should always first seek to undermine the ideology before we decide our only choice is destruction of the people.  They must be given a choice."
"I have found a way to sympathize with Orcs, I think."
"Go on."
"Orcs are like our 'useful idiots.'  They were created as mockery of Elves, but had no choice in that process.  So while they are altogether evil, they are not exactly at fault.  They must be destroyed, but deserve some pity.  Similarly, a useful idiot spouts terrible ideas, and maybe commits terrible deeds, and while they have more agency than the orcs do, they deserve some pity."
"Why should we pity those who bring suffering into the world?  Even if all of Hitler's underlings were  just following orders, those orders led to many deaths."
"We should pity them because they are acting as we may have acted in that situation.  If there was such a race on Earth as evil as Hitler considered the Jews, their destruction could be called for.  That's a reach, I understand.  Let me take a better example:  January 6th occured because many Americans believed the election process had been undermined, that the rightfully elected candidate was denied.  That latter half of that sentence is wrong, but if one believes the election process has been undermined, how should one respond?"
"Lawsuits.  Redistricting.  Protest.  There is all manner of better response."
"But if you think the courts are bias, if you think redistricting is all political, if you think protests will do nothing (there had been protests for weeks before January 6th)?  If there really were some kind of deep-state, as they believed, storming by force may have been the right option.  There are some cases, when faced with evil, when extreme options are justified."
"I litereally just said I JUST SAID that the means and the ends must both be justified on their own."
"Would you let democracy die because you refuse to spill any blood at all?   Would you condemn the lives of millions in your nation to tyranny for the sake of one life? We believe in ethics, and that is choosing the harder way. Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right. Rules were meant to be broken, when the time calls for it.  The difficulty is knowing when that time is."
"Who makes that decision?"
"No one, I think.  When the time comes, it will be apparant.  If you plan and plot it, you're just scheming."
"Is it unethical to plan?"
"It is unethical to make a plan which justifies something usually off-limits, yes."
"So sometimes - maybe - extraordinary means are justified.  But we usually should value persuasion over destruction."
"Of course."
"Useful idiots, at least many of them, want to do what is right.  But they are so wrong.  We don't necessarily need to persuade them to our side of a given argument, but we do need to persuade them to our side of the line separating good and evil.  Potential wasted is heartbreaking, and we should strive to help those who so obviously want to make a positive impact on the world.   "
"Who doesn't want to make a positive impact on the world?"
"Exactly.  Exactly.  However, not everyone is reachable.  Maybe some people do want to watch the world burn.  We shouldn't waste our time on those truly who are lost, not to spite them but because we should seek out those who will listen.  We must save as many as possible.  Maybe we will learn some people - not races, but individual people - are like Orcs: Beyond saving.  But those discoveries will be rare, and they will merely illuminate for us where to focus our attention."

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