This week we read "The Last Debate," during which Aragorn, Gandalf, and others discuss what to do, now that Sauron has been beaten back from Gondor's gates. They all agree he will return with even greater strength, and that there is no victory for them possible by fighting. Their only hope is Frodo - whom they hope is in Mordor. They decide, then, to bring the fight to Sauron's gates and challenge him to battle, not so that they might win, but so he might become distracted from the real threat within his own lands.
When they agree to this, Gandalf adds this to the conversation:
‘Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a
servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the
world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we
are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after
may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
I like this image of clean Earth contrasted against the weather. We can only do so much to provide for future generations. They will have to make their own choices and deal with problems we cannot forsee. But there are things we can do to give them the best start we can.
Of course, there is an obvious problem with this analogy. We are doing things to make the weather worse. As I write this we're entering a third week of an ongoing, if inconsistent, heatwave. It's been above 90 degrees for over half the days since this month began. Even with the small breaks it's been remarkably hot.
It remains an analogy, but the question is what can we do with unforeseen consequences. After all, people did not know what we know now back in the 60s, the 30s, the 1800s when industrialization took off. Some of them knew in the 80s, but people also used to think we'd overpopulated the planet and that's not going to happen. I find it hard to fault people for not deciding which of the predicted problems was going to be correct, although that some of those people were within oil companies reduces my leniency a little bit.
For future generations, we have an obligation to provide for them the best groundwork we can while also acknowledging - and reminding them - we cannot provide for everything. There are unlikely to be impossible problems, but there will be ones they were not ready for. Maybe we could have! But how were we to know Mexico was going to sink into the sea and thus a wall between America and Mexico would have prevented, or at least mitigated, the great Southern Flooding of 2143? For example, of course!
But maybe I've been focusing on the wrong part of the text. At the start Gandalf says Sauron is just a servant of evil. Destroying Sauron will not end evil. Perhaps nothing will. While is right to give our descendants clean Earth and to try to avoid unforeseen consequences, if that is possible, the best preparation we can provide is to remind them evil will endure, and spring anew. They will always have to fight - hopefully not every day, but within their lifetimes they should expect some kind of fight for good. They must expect it.
Recently I've been recalling a saying: There are those who think the world is bad, and all the joy a result of our labor, or the labors of others; and there are those who think the world is good, and all the pain a result of our labor, or labor of others. I don't think either is particularly better - one encourages striving, the other encourages simplicity. But both give you some sense of purpose and an expectation of where to focus your efforts.
While we should do all that we can to materially prepare the next generation, we should emotionally prepare them as well. Evil isn't an enemy to be conquered, but an enemy to struggle against forever. However much we wish it weren't the case.
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