All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
~ Gandalf, The Grey
The Eye of Sauron as portrayed in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy as Sauron's form in the Third Age. |
"The Lord of the Rings" is one of my all-time favorite movies. It was part of that great epic trilogy of fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, which he wrote between 1937-55. The movie version was directed by Peter Jackson in 2001. Here, I will endeavor to cite randomly some of the poignant episodes that were meaningful to me and draw an analogy about some lessons we might learn as Americans, as we struggle through our own battles with the forces of evil – Sauron, Saruman and the ever-present Orcs in the Age of Barack Obama.
The passage in question is from Part 1 of "Lord of the Rings," subtitled, "The Fellowship of the Ring." In this tender scene we see our reluctant hero-ringbearer, Frodo, confessing his fears over bearing such a great burden of the ring. His friend, the wise and good wizard Gandalf has come to The Shire to visit his hobbit companion and to further explain to him the awesome responsibility of which the carrier of the ring must be constantly aware.
TRENDING: 'Art of the Deal': How Trump turns COVID issue into 'win-win'
The dialogue is as follows:
"Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again."
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
In this sublime passage, the true literary genius of Tolkien comes to the fore. I will try to do him justice. First, Gandalf, the omniscient wizard, is perhaps the only one in the story that truly realizes the awesome power of the ring and the cataclysmic destructive force it can weld in the wrong hands, which is why Gandalf, though an old man, literally died battling the forces of evil in hell ("You shall not pass!") to prevent the ring from falling under Sauron's evil control. Gandalf's words delve into the treacherous abyss of the nature of evil, which Tolkien skillfully delineates so fully in so few words.
For example, take Gandalf's admonition to Frodo: "Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again." Just like Gandalf had to wage constant battles with the forces of evil in his day – Sauron, the equivalent of Satan, Saruman, a corrupt puppet of Sauron, the former mentor of Gandalf, and the legions of Sauron's foot soldiers, useful idiots Tolkien calls Orcs – so do we battle the fascist tactics of President Barack Obama in modern times.
Gandalf just as easily could have been discussing the decline of Western Civilization and America in the Age of Obama.
It amazes me that just 20 years after the great Ronald Reagan brought peace, economic stability and record prosperity to the United States as the tyrannical evil empire of Soviet communism began to crumple throughout the world, this diminutive Marxist professor, Barack Obama, is not only systematically deconstructing the fabled "Reagan Revolution" brick by brick, policy by policy, but he has arrogantly proclaimed FDR's "New Deal Part 2." Recall that it was these unconstitutional programs like Social Security, WPA and AFDC that first addicted Americans to the destructive narcotic of socialism as it plunged the United States, Europe and most of the civilized world into a self-destructive love affair with the welfare state.
Frodo replied to Gandalf: I wish it need not have happened in my time. Frodo is like most Americans today – good, hard-working people who want to believe that their president will not willfully lie to them, yet are they so willfully naïve to believe that a government that will soon control their entire lives from cradle to grave will not decide who lives and who dies? That's delusional thinking.
The Jewish people believed this Big Lie 80 years ago, and Hitler took their gold teeth from their mouths, cut the hair from their heads and made soap and lampshades out of their flesh for profit!
"So do I," said Gandalf tenderly, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." Gandalf understood Frodo's longing for "peace in our time," like Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and most Britishers foolishly believed after he signed the Munich Treaty with Hitler in 1938, yet all men of good will must be wise, vigilant and constantly aware that the fascists, the political Quislings and the social engineers will never slumber nor sleep. Always they will seek to take away more and more and more of your precious freedoms and liberties and rationalize their legalized thievery in the name of giving you something for free.
The only free thing a government can give its people are the chains on their wrists, the chains on their ankles and the chains on their minds to enslave them.
President Obama's only desire is a health care bill, any pretext to destroy the private health care and health insurance industries once and for all. Like it was in days of old with Sauron and his demonic lust for power and control, so it is in modern times with Chairman Obama who just the other day had the arrogance to proclaim before about 1,000 rabbis on a conference call: "We [the U.S. government] are God's partners in matters of life and death."
Outrageous!
What can all red-blooded Americans of good will do to fight these overwhelming forces of deceit, fascism, Marxism and tyranny?
Hear the words of the wise wizard Gandalf who said, All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.