It is easy to cast aspersions and criticism at those who have suffered without having suffered yourself. This all-too-common phenomenon, known more broadly as virtue signaling, allows for the easiest path towards projecting sound morals and/or decency of character. On a similar vein, it is also rather simple to imagine yourself worthy of power and grand status, wholly ignorant of the corrupting ability that power entails, convinced of your own ethical purity.
Even Samwise Gamgee, the Shire’s own embodiment of good nature, humility, and loyalty, is privy to this reality. “Wild fantasies arose in his mind” (Tolkien 901) upon first bearing the ring — which should come to no one’s surprise at this point in the series. Sam, a simple yet brave gardener, begins to have visions of becoming “Samwise the Strong,” a noble hero worthy of inclusion into the legendarium of Middle Earth.
So, the question arises: could even a hearty soul like that of Samwise be capable of “substituting a number [for a] prisoner’s name” (Solzhenitsyn 346). If the pervasive concept of universal fallibility is to be believed, then perhaps. Remember, every member of the Soviet secret police establishment, every camp guard perched in a watchtower, and every callous cog within these repressive societies began as an impressionable child blessed with nascent innocence…
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