BLOG 10/31/17. OF POLITICAL ELVES AND ORCS

Those who are not aficionados of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy may find this blog a bit obscure, but hang in there and see if it makes some sense. That very popular fable is set in the context of Middle Earth, which is another age and place than ours, and is the setting for a great cosmic conflict in which the two prominent and opposing forces would be that of the elves, who are a race of creative, beauty-loving, benevolent, bold and just creatures who bring positive results wherever they abide. Their good wizard was Gandalf. Those kingdoms in Middle Earth who shared their character (such as Rohan and Gondor) became co-belligerents with them in the cosmic battle with the dehumanizing forces of evil of Mordor under the supernatural and evil dark lord Sauron. Sauron’s malevolent agents were known as orcs, and orcs were destructive, they were intent on befouling everything they touched—and they stunk.

Here’s the point: even when orcs tried to disguise themselves as agents of their opposition, they still smelled like orcs, and so were discernable whenever and wherever they appeared. The forces of Sauron were on a quest to reclaim a ring of power that Sauron had created by which to control everything in middle earth, and had lost it. The elven forces were on a quest to destroy that ring which had been discovered accidently by a hapless little creature, called a hobbit, and hobbits were a peace-loving, pipe-smoking, fun loving race who lived in their own peace-loving community. But it was one of them, named Frodo, that the elven lords drafted to take that destructive ring of power back to its source and destroy it. And that’s my attempt, perhaps, confusing, at spelling out the story line, and giving something of a description of orcs and elves.

Here’s the point: we are living in a very dangerous and confusing time also defined by the quest for power in all its negative economic, judicial, humanitarian, etc. dimensions. And we have those who are the very real political agents of that destructive quest: power, greed, unethical, untruthful, inhumane, and unjust behavior of darkness on center stage.

Ah! but those political orcs so often seek to cloak themselves in the identity as those, who should be the epitome of benevolence, justice, peacemaking, humane sensitivities. To do this they co-opt and totally distort for their alt-right agenda the noble designation of evangelical Christians—they try to pass themselves off as elves. This is not a matter of being democrat or republican, but of political elves and orcs. And the political orcs, just as those in middle-earth, always smell like orcs. Their behavior betrays them. They become the agents of those dehumanizing forces that ignore those who are helplessly poor and struggling to survive on an inadequate minimum wage, they mount major attempts to keep health-care from all citizens, they do not welcome strangers/immigrants, they turn a blind eye to tens of thousands of those imprisoned for minor offenses, they are willing to spend trillions on the military and to deploy them around the world, while there are 64 million refugees abroad in the world  (more than any time in human history) and yet let hunger and disease go unaided in those other nations.

My point: there is that need for those of good will, those who seek government programs that seek peace and order and justice, those who are political elves no matter what their party affiliation, to stand forth in the costly battle. We need to discern what politicians and people of public influence ‘smell like’, and reject the orcs and become co-belligerents with those who are the caring and benevolent agents of the light, i.e., political elves. Have I confused you? I hope that you discern the message. It is a dangerous moment in our history. The orcs are too much on display.

[Apropos: Tom Steyer and www.needtoimpeach.com.]