Nowhere is Safe; No One is Trustworthy

While J.R.R. Tolkien often stressed the applicability of his work (rather than its allegorical quality), one fitting application arises: the parallels regarding erosion of trust and community between Middle Earth during Sauron’s attempted resurgence, and the totalitarian governments of past and present. A pillar of any healthy society is implied trust in your fellow community members, and the internal assurance that your neighbor isn’t harboring sinister intention. In Book One of Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring, Middle Earth’s very same pillar is being chiseled away, as Sauron attempts to consolidate power and reclaim “his” beloved Ring of Power by any means necessary. This is demonstrated during Frodo’s tumultuous stay in Bree, after he accidentally slips on the ring (consequently becoming invisible) in front of the suspicious town folk. Soonafter, Strider warns him that there are “some folk in Bree who are not to be trusted” (Tolkien 165). This blistering reality has clear impact on Frodo, because it forces him to shed his pre-existent naivete. 

Such harrowing scenarios make for good fiction, and disturbing reality. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a man all-too-experienced in the suffering that accompanies Communist oppression, would posit Strider’s same wisdom. He notes that in the former Soviet Union, the Marxist leadership invoked the same Sauron-esque tactics, eroding decency and social capital in the pursuit of power. They were successful in fostering isolation and terror, aware of its detriment but even more aware of its conduciveness towards maximizing totalitarian sentiment. During any of the countless “waves” that Solzhenitsyn mentions, it was entirely possible to be “arrested by a bicyclist… a savings bank teller… a taxi driver… the manager of a movie theater… etc” (Solzhenitsyn 8). Public spaces were no guarantee from corruption, or unwarranted arrest. Like the Black Riders, the Chekist officers were granted immense power, reinforced through a subservient network of normal people acting out of cowardice.