Who are you listening to?

King Theodon and Wormtongue

by Greg & Tim Hildebrandt 1978

Today I've been thinking about two characters from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. One is Wormtongue who uses flattery and lies to manipulate the King of Rohan, and the other is the Hobbit, Frodo. Wormtongue's intent is to weaken the King so that he loses confidence in himself and succumbs to despair so that the evil Saruman would be able to take over the land.  Opposed to this great force is a simple Hobbit, Frodo. Hobbits' strength lie in their basic goodness. They value kindness, the good things of life, and have little interest in power and fame. 

You might be wondering what this story has to do with our challenges today. Well, I believe that Americans are a lot like Hobbits.  Our strength has always come from our goodness, our hope, and our faith in God, and from our ability to solve problems and work together in our democratic form of government. 

Some are forgetting the legacy of our forebears who "braved the unknown", "tamed a wilderness", and who made many great discoveries and inventions. They are listening to the soul-poisoning words of too many political, advertising, and entertainment "Wormtongues" around them. They sink down, overcome by the relentless barrage of distorted "reality" images which assault them daily in tweets, ads, posts, "reality shows", violent movies, and sickening sitcoms. Over and over they are told that they are inadequate, the world is evil, and that they must not only accept this "reality", but that it is hopeless to oppose this force. In fact, they are told that they should even embrace it, for it is really the "good".  Morality, helping others, fidelity in marriage, and integrity in business are "not how it really is, or should be". They are also paradoxically warned that living "such unrealistic standards" will result in "mental illness and depression".

People are also encouraged to accept mere cardboard images as "reality" where people and institutions are defined by one word; "Crooked", "Evil", "Senile", "Liars", or "Corrupt".  Catchy slogans, whether originating from ads or politics, supposedly define "reality". For many people "researching an issue" means nothing more than reading some post from "someone" on social media. People are lumped into stereotyped groups based on color, religion, or country of origin. Opposing political parties view each other as enemies to be defeated.  They fearfully characterize Democrats as "Socialists" which they equate with Communists "who will take our freedom away from us", while Republicans are seen as "heartless" people "who will give all power to big business and oppress the poor and middle class". 

The time has come for us, "Hobbits", to quit listening to all these "Wormtongues".  We need to stop allowing ourselves to be manipulated by all this emotional "illogic" and remember who we really are. The United States is the most powerful country in the world. We are about the size of all of Europe put together, and we are one of the top producers of food and resources in the world. Besides that, we are a well educated, and basically good, technologically savvy people who are noted for our problem solving as shown by our many advances and discoveries. United with each other and with God, Americans are, as we have always been, certainly capable of not only meeting our present challenges, but of helping others.