Bringing Together the Threads...
"Even Mordor ain't looking so good anymore! Have you noticed?" Link (h/t JM Greer)
I've been trying to cipher out who, just who, benefits from all this. Cui bono? The Dark Globocap Lord(s) of the globe? No, when the economy tanks like a bird hit by Randy Johnson's fastball, they won't be making much money, after that, will they? The Illuminati? It's doubtful. They've got an ideal set up the way things are. Edgy, troubled, and mysterious, they can thrive on the margins of an otherwise sane, healthy, normal state of affairs. Who needs illumined ones, if Satan is literally present on planet earth? They'd have to come out of the shadows and go through the motions of legitimacy. What a buzzkiller. The CCP? China, for all its stupidities and faults, understands it is foolish to try and rule the world - just look at the dog's breakfast we've made of it! JHK spent an interesting article on just this subject. He happens to reach the same conclusion.
Like World War I's commencement, all the "Bad Stuff" is happening against the express wishes and desires of all the pertinent heads of state (or deep state) involved. No one wanted that war. It's just that, well, they didn't mind the fervor that lead to it, they hoped to gain a little bit more with maneuvering, and failed to find the character to confess their faults in time enough to dodge the inevitable. Given particular choices, and particular failure to make better choices, it was a foregone conclusion. It was undetermined by character, and overdetermined by physical causes. The equation should have been much the reverse. The fact that it was not is confirmed as the ordinary state of man in History. Men do not repent, when they have the time.
Look, this is bad, even for Mordor. The easiest explanation for all the corruption, incompetence, and evil is simply this - they got in "too deep", and now they are trapped in lies and webs of their own devisement. They toil within the machinations of their own devious plot devices. They have painted themselves into a corner. And now, they have to try to hold the beach ball underwater and sit on it.
We really need no other "theory". History shows us countless examples of just this sort of thing. We've reviewed many of them here. Whether it is the Aztec Empire and its Metaphysic of Violence (coupled with the degradation of the soil, and the failure of the corn crops), or the collapse of overly complex societies detailed in Joseph Tainter, or the hubristic suicide of Great Cultures at their peak (eg., World War I & II), or the multi-factor Mycenaean implosion (which also included an eroded soil plume on the body of the Mediterranean), it's a common cautionary tale:
I think it is important to study when what happens when the climate is favourable, since it is clear that the Mycenaeans overstretched what was possible when they had it good, so that when the bad times came they struggled to deal with the continual stress, leading, with other factors, to the collapse of the palaces. Human interventions in landscape show that humans know that their exploitation of the natural environment can have benefits which will make life easier for them, and show the complex relationship that humans in the Bronze Age had with the environment, that they were aware that changes needed to be made, but not understanding that every action has a consequence.
Sound familar? Human history teaches the faithful student that humans do not learn (collectively) from history. The world stays what it is - A Vale of Soul-Making. It's probably doing that for a very good reason. Cycles in History are inevitable, and can only be "overcome" with temporary adjustments, accomodations, efforts, etc. These are possible, but not very common. And, eventually, they fail, too, or have to be renewed or replaced. Science can rant and roar like true Irish rovers all they want - History is the only science we need to accurately predict human collective behaviour, since it is both unique (particular) and universal (abstract), and it is what actually happens in the human world. "Time," said Plato, "is a moving picture of Eternity". Study History, and you will find out how people actually behave. I do not say that History is our only source of Knowledge, simply that it is King of the Empirical Sciences. The stories, myths, sagas, narratives, and ideologies which humans tell themselves, is what allows them to function in the world, as they find it. Therefore, knowing how that interaction unfolds will allow you to forecast (to the extent possible) the Future, accurately.
We can also notice the presence, in History, of elements which are not strictly speaking purely biological, natural, man-made, or even "human" (in a lower sense). For example, Christianity's renovation of the human heart has done more for the standard of living than any amount of Utopian schemes, political action, or technological inventions. This is because the renovation of the heart is operant outside the cycles of History, and not entirely subject to them. Thus we have the spectacle of the Irish Saving Civilization (the Hibernian Mission), or John Wesley preventing revolution in England. These are the kind of temporary "modifications" which stave off disaster and make Humanity possible, rather than a descent into complete animality and chaos. Man is an animal-angel, who (if he makes a supreme effort after the better angels of his nature), can begin to learn or progress spiritually as an individual.
One of the Irish monks who helped stablize Europe, St. Columbanus
Dmitri Orlov said he was cured of his depression over politics by reading Suetonius' Lives of the Twelve Caesars. (According to him, things haven't changed that much.) John Stuart Mill famously was cured of his depression by the verse of William Wordsworth. Truth, it turns out, cures Depression, whether the negative facts about Humanity, or the positive ones concerning Nature.
Since I know the Brittanic annals better than the Continental (or the world annals), I can point to examples like this quite easily. I am certain that there are corresponding examples, elsewhere. Humans make impressive, coordinated, even supreme efforts to stave off disaster, and have been doing this since the dawn of time. Unfortunately, what usually precedes such efforts, is failure and potential disaster, enough to "get our attention".
The Mycenaeans and the Shang were intelligent observers of their ecology. It can be assumed that no natural (or supernatural) phenomenon, regular or exceptional, was ignored. These occurrences grouped ecological phenomena and societal and spiritual beliefs, which blended into convictions about the triangular influence between deities on nature, nature, and humans (nature–humans–deities) and the ideological legitimacy of archaic rulership. The feats of the Mycenaean and Shang engineers and architects are impressive. Their resilience to floods, droughts, earthquakes, and other catastrophic natural phenomena is understood through practical, intellectual, emotive, ideological, and spiritual engagements with perennial threats.
We are living through the Swan Song of the dying Elite caste of the modern West. They have an impressive track record: every choice they make is infallibly wrong, calculated to worsen the crisis. The crisis is actually a Polycrisis. The more intelligent observers within that System are waking up to the fact that "the safeties are gone" and there isn't a way to prevent the doom cycle - we are circling our own toilet bowl at roughly the speed of light. It is certainly heartening when these insiders notice, but it will be too little, too late, overall (though it's worth while pointing it out). Folks, the people saying these things ought to know, and they are not Bible Thumping radicals. They are people that until very recently, thought that things were "going as planned".
The human mind is not particularly well-adapted to polycrisis: We struggle to adapt to the drought, then the earthquake knocks down the village walls, then the tsunami pounds what was left, followed by the epic flooding, then the hurricane batters the survivors, who witness the volcano erupting and wonder what they did to anger the gods and goddesses so mightily.... The sacrifice-free “solutions” approved by the self-serving status quo elites end up generating self-reinforcing dynamics that generate new crises. Borrowing or printing money is every elites’ favorite “solution.” But if “free money” doesn’t solve the crisis in short order, the excess of “free money” becomes its own problem...Everyone believes they’ll have plenty of time to craft a response, but time is what becomes scarce in rapidly delaminating nonlinear crises. We’re prepared for discrete events that occurred in the recent past, but not for self-reinforcing/mutually reinforcing dynamics. The system is designed to handle one challenge at a time, but not a long-term multiplicity of challenges. (Charles Hugh Smith)
A few more years like the last ones, and it will dawn with increasing horror on people that the Elites Really Are Stupid. We do not need Conspiracy Theories. Crime, Stupidity, and Ignorance (mostly of God) can account for every Iota of what is happening. The old Southern political rule is, you can be a Big Dummy or a Jackass, but not both at the same time. And this qualifies. What can you say when their High Tech future turns out to actively hurt Mankind? And then they argue, well, we just need to work out the bugs?
How many times, in History, do you suppose that the Elites have argued in this obtuse and purblind fashion, trying to save their own skins and their lifestyles, at the same time? I would imagine it happens every time. Here's a recent example.
“A leading academic at New York University wants amnesty for people who pushed lockdown policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marketing professor Scott Galloway made the comment during an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher this week. He claims those who supported lockdown protocols did not fully understand the consequences of such decisions. ‘I wanted a harsher lockdown policy. In retrospect, I was wrong,’ Galloway said. ‘The damage to kids from keeping them out of school longer was greater than the risk.’…Galloway continued, saying that policymakers were ill-informed about the coronavirus. Therefore, he said, these individuals should not be held accountable for the outcomes of their decisions. ‘We were all operating with imperfect information and we were doing our best,’ Galloway said, eliciting applause from the studio audience. ‘Let’s bring a little bit of grace and forgiveness amid the s--- show that was Covid.’”
Elite Logic is, Well, you should be held accountable, but not Us. Where was his charity when he had power and authority? Where is his charity now? It is only for him, after the fact, now that he is standing tall before the Man. According to him, their ignorance is an excuse (for them, the Elites). You can expect much more of this, as the Black Tower comes down in sections. Why? Because what else have they got to say? The fact that this is Translucent, and will further anger people, is beside the point, for them. That is what they will do. Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.
Sauron's Tower and Eye and Ring, then are not literally real. They are literally real in Tolkien's world, which offers a way to fight it - you can make war on Mordor. In our world, that is impossible. Rather, the relics of Sauron stand for the crystallized will of Evil at a given moment, acting as the Zeitgeist, swaying weak men to its will. Memory is partly state-dependent, so these people under the sway are not going to understand why everyone is angry at them, for blowing up the World. They won't remember their Mass Formation Psychosis. But according to them, it's all a conspiracy theory!
See what I mean?
So we can identify the Eucatastrophe and the Fall of Sauron as both inevitable and multi-dimensional. This is why I have recommended meditating on Tolkien's True Myths, and achieving one's own inner understanding of them. That's what this series has tried to do. So maybe there IS a way to fight Mordor directly! But the point would be to penetrate the text in such a way, that one reaches "closure", and "sees" the external world more lucidly.
We are at the very end, where Tolkien brings his master work to a close. We left off our meditation with Sam and Frodo at the lip of Mount Doom, and the enemy at the gates of Gondor. If you've followed me thus far, we've walked through how the mythopoeic vision of Tolkien can offer us an artistic way to view our predicaments, our History, and our choices. Having walked it up to the edge of Mount Doom, we are forced to leave it there, in a way, since this brings us up-to-date with the "News".
After this, comes the collapse of Sauron and the Black Tower, and then (Oh Joy!) THE SCOURING OF THE SHIRE (H/T Keenan Williams). At this point, I would have to do some Ecbatic Prophecy, since these "big endings" are still to come, in Time and Space. We are paused on the cusp of the demise of Sauron. But if you’ve followed along, you can probably do your own prophecy (ecbatic). Once it “happens” in Time and Space, it’s no longer prophecy, we will be Scouring the Shire, and dealing with the aftermath. But then, you can just look even further down the road, and apply what you have learned from meditation and subsequent events.
From here, we will consider "What Will Come After".
What will the world look like, when Sauron is gone?
Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, Mock on, ’tis all in vain.
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.And every sand becomes a Gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back, they blind the mocking Eye,
But still in Israel’s paths they shine.The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton’s Particles of light
Are sands upon the Red sea shore
Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright.