When the Homily is about Immunology

JRR Tolkien - Enemy of Progress

Rade (who at this point is no longer in Serbia) posted this interesting (albeit old) article to the LOG.

It is somewhat haunting to me because in no small way it sums up my adult lifetime of arguments with my beloved atheist, who has always been a big sci-fi fan, but has always held fantasy in disdain.

Brin in this article argues (methinks he dost protest too much) that Tolkien's fantasy was a powerful salvo in the growing growing rift and intellectual war between the Romantic movement and the Enlightenment Movement.

I have a lot to say and have even found myself taking notes and jotting down numerous thoughts. In a nutshell, I count myself to be firmly entrenched in the Romantic camp (though my wife may disagree), but this does not mean I am an enemy of progress - rather I am an enemy of some forms of progress and some particular notions of progress.

One all too common one is that we have a tendency to hold the past under a veil of enlightened criticism such that we utterly fail to come to grips with the fact that our ancestors might teach us anything. We stand in moral and intellectual judgment, to the point where kids today routinely ask: Why study history? Why listen to Great Grandma tell sotries about her life? BOOOOOOORRRRRRING! In a sense, we send oursleves out into the ocean of life without a chart - figuring that we can make better charts from our own wisdom and experiences - since the old charts are OBVIOUSLY flawed.

Another notion is that progress is always a good thing. As a river rafter and a driftboat fisherman, I can tell you that progressing unprepared into a class 4 rapid can be pretty stinking dangerous.

Orthodox bloggers (including me) are often known to show a certain disdain for the enlightenment (and it really cracks me up to hear Brin singing the praises of the Reformation - what the snot does he know about it????), but to be fair lets keep in mind that as I type here I am bathing in numerous - and GOOD - luxuries given to me by the enlightenment. I mean, who doesn't like modern medicine as compared to unanesthetized skull drilling to let the demons out?

You've no doubt heard the old adage: Wherever you go, there you are. On a human-wide scale, I think this is a point that Brin is missing. Sure we have all these great democratic forms of government, and modern medicine, and greater freedoms etc...but we still have good old fashioned romantic and sinful people. Maybe with some genetic tinkering we can tone sin down...but I suspect by this time we'll have forgotten what sin is.

We have democracy, but we also have corruption. Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather have what we have today than the fuedal system of say 500 years ago...BUT....Brin twice challenges us to name some ruler who was in essence a good person who looked out for his people like a father (or something to this effect.)Basically he asks us to show him a righteous despot. It is an impossible task, I think - and Brin knows it. NOT because there could not have possibly have ever been such a King or Queen, but because the criteria for proof of a benevolant dictator is simply not possible. And frankly his notion that we cannot historically reinvision the Nazi's because the holocaust deniers cannot provide enough evidence is patently absurd. If the Romantic Kings and Queens of old generated false stories of their enemies, does he really imagine that we cannot and yet get away with it? (This is precisely why I refuse to say that GW Bush was lying...becuase if he was lying about WMD's, do you think we would have ever found out? Think about it...surely some of the advanced special forces could have planted PLENTY of evidence for the regulars to find.) And besides, if there were evil Nazis in 1940, why not other evil groups in 1204 or 1453? (hehehehe - random examples, I assure you)

There is too much cynicism in Brin...for my part I give the benefit of the doubt to those saintly rulers of the Chruch. There are good people and there are bad people in the world...and no doubt there were good kings and there were bad kings. (And of course, like most of us: a profound mixture of both good and bad). Which leads me on to the next point...

Our children get enough preaching about moral ambiguity. It is all but rammed down their throats at school and in the media (God between us and evil!). And this is precisely WHY we need grand epics like Tolkien's LOTR. Because whether Brin wishes to admit it or not, there is evil in the world! Often it is in my own heart (and therefore in the quest of combatting evil...well here lies the closest enemy to pound into oblivion: offer no quarter!), but it is also often found in ideologies and religions and governments and in the selfish desires of others.

Orcs and Trolls and Goblins and Sauron look ugly, because evil is ugly if you have the eyes to see it so. While Brin sees this as simplistic...to my daughter (with whom I am reading LOTR) it is a reminder that evil makes us ugly...amen. Furthermore, LOTR teaches us that there is some good in the world and that it is worth fighting for. (Didn't Samwise say precisely this in the movie? LOL!) And, by the way, just as an "IN YOUR FACE", the Army of the Dead were pretty stinking ugly and yet they did good...neyner neyner neyner!

Well, I am greatly encouraged by the success of the film series...it gives me hope for our society in that they have perhaps not completely bought into the idea that believing in good and evil automatically rates you as being unsophisticated and unenlightened.

Christianity, is in many ways an amazing and true fantasy. Consider that many of the progressive attacks laid against Tolkien, may also be laid out upon our Lord, our Chruch, and our Scriptures. And I'll take a "The Princess Bride" over some lofty independant morally ambiguous film in the drop of a hat...to do otherwise is simply inconceivable!

Mr. Brin can sit back in the Hornburg and fashion HIS fantasies for the future, while I'll ride out and face the reckless hate with Aragorn and Theodan! I still think we have stuff to learn from the fantastic past.