I was watching The Fellowship of the Ring last night(I often do when I have trouble falling asleep, great movies and the music is very relaxing).
The main reason I love the Fellowship of the Ring movie and the book is because of The Shire.
The book goes into more details about it, but The Shire in LotR is a very libertarian/anarcho-capitalist society. They have no organized government. All they really have is a Mayor whom they all elect who pretty much officiates parties and such.
The only services the "government" offered was the post-service and the Sherrifs whom were volunteers whom wandered the land and protected the hobbits from natural dangers(such as wolves) and mediated disputes, in total for the entire Shire there were 12 of them. The Bounders were also an unofficial border control of militia volunteers whom protect the Shire from outside dangers such as gangs and ruffians, and many years ago: goblins.
There is also the Thain and the Master of Buckland, but these are rather hereditary titles granted to the heads of two families(the Tooks and the Brandybucks respectively) by the King of the North many years ago. They exercise little, if any power beyond ceremonial.
The Hobbits live in a completely voluntaryist society, where private property is respected and so is the rights of every individual.
At the end of the Return of the King it goes into great detail about how a bunch of ruffians and bandits took over the Shire(lead by Sauruman) and made tons of laws. It's hilarious how blunt Tolkien is when laws such as "redistribution for the poor" are introduced, one of the hobbits says "All they mean is that they take more food from us and redistribute it amongst themselves." The hobbits then muster a voluntary militia force in which they fight back the occupiers.
The rest of the books have a very libertarian message as well, I'll see if I can go over them more later.
But, definitely the best message is that of the One Ring. Even the most powerful of beings that are beyond mortal(Gandalf, Elrond, Galadrial) and even powerful mortals (Aragorn) know they cannot resist the ultimate power of the One Ring and must destroy it. A very good damnation of Big Government.
Site Information
About Us
- RonPaulForums.com is an independent grassroots outfit not officially connected to Ron Paul but dedicated to his mission. For more information see our Mission Statement.
Connect With Us