Tolkien’s work in the first half of The Two Towers discusses in a more realistic form the nature of tyranny, compared to the rest of The Lord of the Rings. While Sauron has hordes of minions that want to beat everyone into submission, and forces people to obey his command with sheer will power, Saruman’s story is quite different. As we see in “The Voice of Saruman,” he is a powerful orator. While Tolkien casts this as a kind of wizardry, it really isn’t so different from any modern day politician.
Saruman’s rise to power was largely the result of his voice. While he did have his Uruk-hai, he also stirred up anger at the Rohirrim among the nearby Dunlendings. These are the men that Merry notes marched to battle out of Isengard when the Ents were watching and waiting to attack, and he says they were not particularly evil-looking. Tolkien writes specifically about some of the lies Saruman used to sway them. After Helm’s Deep the Rohirrim make the captured Dunlendings help repair the wall and then allow them to return to their land, taking an oath never to attack Rohan. The Dunlendings are surprised because Saruman told them that the cruel Rohirrim would burn them alive if they were captured.
Later on in the chapter “The Voice of Saruman,” Saruman’s words sound reasonable to all who listen. Tolkien wrote, “When others spoke they seemed harsh and uncouth by contrast; and if they gainsaid the voice, anger was kindled in the hearts of those under the spell.” Saruman makes people angry at others to gain political power. The Dunlendings followed his commands when he made them angry at the Rohirrim, and this allowed him to control them. Later on he tried to stir up anger between the members of the company to sway them to his will.
This is an important insight about the nature of dictators. They stir up anger among their subjects. When people are angry they behave rashly and irrationally, and that behavior can be controlled to facilitate a rise in power. Consider Nazi Germany. Hitler’s rise to power was fueled by the growing anger against the Jews, which Hitler fed. Events such as the Kristallnacht were the direct result of that anger.
The key takeaway here is to watch out for anyone who stirs up anger for political gain. This is a major problem in our country today; both sides of the political spectrum are heavily guilty of doing so. This anger only increases the destructive polarization of our country.
~Ulmo
3 comments:
An insightful post! One thing to note is that this is exactly how Sauron rose to power. He convinced the Númenóreans to worship Morgoth and persecute those who didn't by steadily convincing them orally. The Númenóreans were stirred to anger against the faithful. Saruman in The Two Towers is at this stage of his rise to power. We are able to see both the stage of persuading the populous orally in Saruman and also the stage of total dictatorship and domination in Sauron.
I loved reading your post! But I want to address a different view for a moment. I liked how you focused on Sauron as a dictator, and you supported your claim by comparing him to Hitler because it is incredibly fitting and tangible. But, I always wonder how someone could be so convincing or so smooth in their actions to persuade someone else to do something anyone would normally claim as wrong. Vairë points out that Sauron rose to power via convincing the Númenóreans to worship Morgoth and persecute those who didn't by steadily convincing them, but is it always the speaker who convinces the audience to buy in or does the audience already have a foot in the door? I think it is very important to be aware of others who are stirring up any trouble or reaction, but I also think that the biases we hold can cause just as much disorder as someone stirring up anger. Do you think that we are able to be convinced by someone else alone, or do we have to plant a seed by ourselves? And if we can be fully convinced by someone else, is that always something you need to guard against/how would you know?
I really appreciate this post and the message behind it that pertains to the current political climate in our nation. Alongside hateful dictators who are incredibly charismatic and good and getting people involved, we tend to witness a lot of dehumanization and a lot of stereotyping going on. If you are on one end or the other, you MUST ALWAYS be on that end. If you vote for so and so, you must support every single thing that they have done or stood for. Never is a country more vulnerable than when it is divided. Never is it easier to take any given group down than when they are on their own, polarized, and dehumanized. Tolkien, I think, would have looked down his nose at the type of society that we currently have and would have called for a little more appreciation and open-mindedness on either side of the political conflict we have here.
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