DEMOCRATIC ORCS: Tolkien's Critique of Democracies

DEMOCRATIC ORCS:

TOLKIEN'S CRITIQUE OF DEMOCRACIES

Election seasons are filled with hot takes. People on the left and the right are eager to express their thoughts on who should win, why they should win, and whether or not they will win. But in this storm of opinions and predictions, it is easy to lose sight of those insights which go beyond the superficial level of an election. It is easy to think that, just because we happen to live in a democratic state, that there is nothing wrong with democracy or that the critics of democracy are just ignorant fools. But this is precisely what we should avoid this year and, for that reason, I believe it would help us to remember the wise words of J. R. R. Tolkien with regards to democracy.
"Really? What can Tolkien tell us that is so important?"

Tolkien is best known for being the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but this is only the surface level of his achievements. He was also an excellent scholar and a profound thinker on many of the issues affecting the world to this day. Hence, I believe his insights to be immensely valuable, especially when the circumstances surrounding us at this moment are so turbulent and uncertain. So with all of that said, here are his words:

“I am not a 'democrat' only because 'humility' and equality are spiritual principles corrupted by the attempt to mechanize and formalize them, with the result that we get not universal smallness and humility, but universal greatness and pride, till some Orc gets hold of a ring of power--and then we get and are getting slavery.”

Now, I realize that this quote might be rather confusing for some, let's unpack it a bit.

First of all, we must recall what the promises of democracy are. Democracy promises a state where all men are equally free and powerful, where power resides not in one Divinely-appointed ruler but rather in the "will of the people". It is the people who, supposedly, hold power in a democracy, and that is its main promise. Eat this fruit and you shall have the power to determine what laws, customs and order your society will follow.

This is, however, only an illusion and facade that serves to attract people. The actual spiritual reality of democracy is much darker and sinister. Democracy promises the masses power, power to change at will anything. But this power, instead of being for our good, is for our ill because it is the start of a deep descent into the dark pits of pride. Hence, by promising us power, we increase in pride. We begin to be prideful precisely because we feel like we can rule the whole world based on the mere criteria of our whims. And thus, by increasing in pride (the first of the deadly sins), we ultimately arrive at the worst part of this affair: spiritual sickness.

But why? Why should pride lead us down the road of spiritual death? The answer to this objection is rather simple: because pride is the exaltation of the self over the exaltation of God. And that is a grave spiritual crime. God alone is worthy of all exaltation for He is King of all of us. But by engaging, we forget our rightful place as stewards and are snared into believing that we are actually our own petty little kings. We become egotists, and by extension, rebels of the Kingdom of God. That is why pride is so spiritually destructive. It makes us think we are gods when in fact we are not. Pride is the essence of the serpent's temptation at Eden: you shall be as gods.

Therefore, if democracy leads to pride and pride leads to spiritual sickness, it follows that democracy has a great tendency to makes us spiritually sick. But what exactly does this spiritual sickness constitute? That is an important question to ask because we can never forget what it means to be spiritually sick.

To be spiritually sick means that we are enslaved, enslaved specifically to sin. When we are spiritually sick, we are in such a state of depravity that we struggle to seek the True, the Good, and the Beautiful and are instead attracted more by the false, the evil, and the ugly. In other words, unless we receive the Grace of Absolution, we tend to go not towards virtue and order but instead towards sin and chaos. And this tendency is slavish precisely because it does not want us to seek something better. This sin at the core of our sickness is so despotic that it will not allow us to do anything except sin, and that is how it enslaves us.

Having said all this, it is not hard to see why Tolkien used the motif of the orc to describe the dynamics of democracy. Orcs are essentially beings who have been so spiritually corrupted that they have become minions to evil. The state of their deathly sick souls is made manifest in their horrid appearance and savage behavior. They are no longer free; they are slaves to their sin. And that is precisely what democracy does to the soul. It turns it into an orc. The pride of the illusion of power is so great that it corrupts the soul to the core, and leaves it as slavish to sin as the soul of an orc

So what are we to do about this? Should those of us who by the Wisdom of Divine Providence ended up living in democratic states avoid voting altogether? Should we proceed to overthrow our governments and install a monarchy in their stead? Or is there an alternative way to deal with politics in democratic states?

I believe there is indeed an alternative that does not involve violence, the overthrow of governments, or abandonment of politics altogether. And that solution is rather simple: remember who you are. That's it. We only have to remember that we are servants of our King, Christ the King, not kings in our own right. Therefore, when we go into the ballot box and cast our vote, we should cast it not with our interests in mind, but with God's Interests in mind. Whatever it is that Our Lord wants is what we shall vote for. His Laws should be our laws, His desires should be our desires, His Order should be our order. In short, the best antidote to the corrupting evils of democracy is to not allow its temptations of power and pride to go over our heads. We merely have to remind ourselves we are subjects of the Kingdom, not its kings.

That is the insight that Tolkien can bring us for this election season. To remember what the orcish dangers of the democratic system are and how we can best avoid it by always serving Christ.