The Horn of Helm Hammerhand

I watched the (extended) Lord of the Rings movie trilogy with daughter number 2 over the weekend. It must be close to the 20th time of viewing by now, and the impact still seems as, well erm, impactful.

Tolkien himself quite forcefully eschewed any notion that his works were meant to be some kind of allegory, but I think they do serve as a kind of partial allegory for today.

Sauron wasn’t some kind of Thanos-like figure who could wipe out half the universe with a snap of his fingers; his main powers seem to be focused more on mind control and the promotion of fear and despair.

Sound familiar?

It should do, because it describes our current Totalitarian Industrial Complex (TIC) rather well.

What else are these fuckers good for, except for propaganda and the promotion of excessive fear and despair?

These are the tools with which, like Sauron, they establish and maintain dominance.

It has always been thus. Those in power seek to maintain that power and when things start to go a bit wonky they do so largely by the application of force and fear. And maybe sometimes they deliberately make things go wonky in order to establish more severe control.

The difference is that today, the TIC has the equivalent of the One Ring; the technical capability to make their dominance almost complete.

There was an interesting article in The Daily Sceptic recently in which David McGrogan discusses the evolution of law. It sounds a bit dry, doesn’t it? But Dr McGrogan, an Associate Professor of Law, makes a very telling observation. Technology is rapidly becoming clever enough so that, in some cases, it will be impossible to break the law. This, he argues, removes moral agency from people - which may not be a good thing.

The example he first cites is that of golf carts being modded so that they can’t drive onto the green at a golf course. Sounds like a good idea if those rebellious golfers are messing up the greens too much. But what about if there were some law, or even some “guidance” on how much meat one was allowed in a week in order to “save the planet”? With something like the programmable cash they seek through things like CBDC, ensuring that people cannot break the law or guidance, at least as far as purchases go, now becomes a very easy thing to do.

Or if you live in Canazida and you rather like Truckers and bouncy castles you might get your entire account frozen if you want to financially support them. Going against any Government-Approved™ thinking in Trudeau’s Woke Paradise can have serious consequences. But Democracy™ needs to be saved from those people who disagree with the government.

If you’re in New Zealand - the place where they made the LOTR movies - then you will recognise your government as “the single source of truth”. Look, I know the missus is always right - but I think Jacinda took things a bit too far here.

Those of us who are old enough and fortunate enough to remember what a healthy relationship looks like, we know that you can relax with your partner and just “be yourself”. You don’t have to worry too much about saying the wrong thing - and you will probably not be facing divorce because you question some new and rushed ‘vaccine’, or think J.K. Rowling talks some sense.

We no longer have anything like a healthy relationship with our governments. And they have the technology to maintain this new normal abusive relationship in perpetuity; there’s no escape.

We might be able to hold on just a little bit longer, but the net is tightening. With AI-driven algorithms, that lovely critical Substack piece you’re crafting will be shadow-banned faster than you can type it. Followed by the goon squad the police coming round to “check your thinking”.

Here in the UK, the monstrous gibbering buffoons otherwise known as our police force have been at it again. Somebody indulged in a bit of graffiti. OK - that’s probably breaking some law. However, this particular bit of public protest was being singled out because it was a “hate crime”. The Northumberland Police asked for help on X/Twitter. Did anyone know who had written such an offensive and hateful thing?

Who was it who wrote “u can’t change your sex” on that bridge?

Such hate - and what can men do in the face of such reckless hate?

In no time at all we’re going to be in the walking on eggshells phase of an abusive relationship - and in many respects we’re almost there with a considerable degree of self-censorship going on. The fear of reprisal is sufficient to stifle free speech even before the great shiny new X, née Twitter, starts censoring you limiting your “reach”.

Unfortunately, Elon only played at being a champion of free speech for a little while. He wasn’t the Messiah - he turned out to be a very naughty boy. But in keeping with the LOTR theme, perhaps he’s more of a Grima Wormtongue character, keeping us on his leash whilst appearing to be working for the common good.

The totalitarian legislation to throttle free speech came into force in Europe last month. It’s framed in terms of protecting children because that’s a great framing to use to get people on board with it. But it’s also being positioned as a way of protecting “democracy” - because we protect democracy by stopping people from expressing counter opinions. This new normal Democracy™ is more like demon-cracy.

I’m not sure I like these new “European Values” - although I think they were quite popular in Germany and Italy at one point in the last century.

I’m probably being over-dramatic, at least I damn well hope so, but it really does seem like we’re at Helm’s Deep - only this time the bloody Elves have fucked off and the Dwarves are trying to get the new Snow White back to sleep. Eomer’s had to kill off all his horses because they emit too many greenhouse gases and he’s having to walk.

We need to let the Horn of Helm Hammerhand sound in the Deep one last time. I don’t think it’s a battle we’re going to win, but let’s go out with a bloody great noise.