The title of a human weakness, morality, and absolute power is very bluff at first glance, and almost every topic is heavyweight. What I want to say, however, is that this is the only question I can think of when reviewing certain plots in The Lord of the Rings.
"These nine... These nine Lords of the Rings were given to the kings of mankind... Because their hearts are the easiest to be deceived..."
This is the first paragraph that appeared in the Lord of the Rings movie. It’s easy to ignore it before you see the following story. However, after watching the entire movie or the entire book, and then looking back, you will find that it is just like Jeremiah, that tragedy. The Israeli prophet of Israel predicted the whole story and the whole tragedy surrounding the Lord of the Rings.
At the very beginning, when the son of the human king, Esidor, accidentally got the supreme lord of the ring, he stood in the crater of the flames, that is to say, he only needs to walk a few steps forward, and he will be able to do it once and for all. Annihilated the forces of darkness. But the Lord of the Rings began to confuse him. He took the ring and said to his former friend, Elron, the Elf King, "It's mine! No one wants to take it away!" So the Lord of the Rings was preserved and turned against the black The alliance also declared disintegration.
As the leader of the anti-black alliance, his father was killed by Sauron. Whether out of morality or personal feelings, he should destroy the Lord of the Rings and completely defeat the forces of darkness. However, at the moment of victory, his human weakness was exposed-he was shaken in the face of the absolute power brought by the Lord of the Rings. Because of its supernatural power, the Lord of the Rings brings an absolute power that can break through all restrictions. Then the moral constraints at that time, as the ultimate limit to the limit, also become invalid, because the Lord of the Rings can Breaking through its limitations-everything comes from the almost irresistible yearning for absolute power in human nature. From this, Eric Katz came to the most true and cruel conclusion: people can hardly resist the yearning for absolute power, so they can’t control themselves to remain within the scope of morality after they have absolute power—because they desire What is unconstrained is that morality must be the last constraint at this time. We can imagine that he has no power to stop people's desires. (1)
Nietzsche almost unabashedly expressed his yearning for absolute will and absolute power in Superman. If we can regard this as human beings' performance towards surpassing themselves, perfecting themselves, and improving themselves, then how should we deal with the possible moral violations that result from this? Another tragic character in the Lord of the Rings, Boromir, initially fought for the Lord of the Rings with the idea of strengthening his power and playing the Dark Lord Saron, but in the end the Lord of the Rings once again bewitched him. He and his friends became enemies, but eventually he woke up and died in order to protect his friends. The author Tolkien seems to want to convey to us such a meaning when writing these two characters-in the process of pursuing stronger power, human morality is diluted, but instead is the yearning for power. And possessive desires, and they are all instinctive responses of human nature. Human instinct overcomes morality.
What I think needs to be pointed out here is that the two tragic figures mentioned above are the best among mankind, spiritual leaders, and sons of the king, and they are also moral examples of a country. In other words, they should be more morally conscious than ordinary people, and they should be more able to restrain their desires. However, when faced with the ultimate power of the Lord of the Rings, they fell. Ordinary people are more susceptible to temptation, even if it is not the supreme power similar to the Lord of the Rings. In another epic in the West---King Arthur, Knight Gawain accepted the challenge of the Green Knight, but at first he could not resist the temptation from the Green Knight’s wife and accepted her belt that symbolizes love. The knight found that when Gawain went to his death disheartenedly, the green knight did not kill him in the end, but left a scar on his cheek---but this also meant that the perfect personality was shattered and no longer existed. Similarly, the noble knight Lancelot fell in love with Queen Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur, which led to a dispute within the Knights of the Round Table. Many excellent Knights of the Round Table were sacrificed as a result. The kingdom was severely damaged, and its prosperity symbolized the great spirit of the knight. The samurai tradition of the round table also disappeared. I can seem to hear the sigh of the troubadour---the weakness in human nature, which eventually ruined an era.
So morality follows. When morality was first shaped, I believed that it was to suppress some of the weaknesses in human nature, such as jealousy, desire for control, and greed. Even if they are not entirely weaknesses-such as eros. As early as the beginning of the Bible, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden because of greed and curiosity for stealing the forbidden fruit. Their son, the third human, Cain, killed his brother due to jealousy, thus becoming the first human to commit murder. It can be seen from the religious sense that the insurmountable weaknesses of human beings have already been predicted, and all of these have become the origin of tragedy. So mankind began to establish a moral view, trying to suppress the weakness in human nature through the universal acceptance and acquiescence of moral sense. However, since the establishment of morality, it has been accepting human challenges at all times. The power of human nature is so powerful that moral constraints are constantly being challenged.
Save the laws of nature and destroy the desires of human beings. Zhu Xi said. So the Southern Song Confucian said, but the laws of nature are fixed, and the desires of human beings can be destroyed? In the end, Wang Yangming founded Xinxue, which directly confronted the theory of destroying human desires, emphasizing "the movement of the heart" and "whatever you want". Human desires cannot be ignored, and they can never be eliminated. They can only be accepted or used.
I like watching Western movies about human nature, because they almost always involve thinking about the weaknesses of human nature. And most of them hold a pessimistic argument (this is also my favorite argument)---thinking that the weakness of human nature cannot be overcome, even in the face of strong moral constraints. Just like at the final moment of the Ring Trilogy, Fromm, the messenger of the ring, holding the Lord of the Rings, standing in the crater of the flames --- exactly the same scene as before. As a simple and kind hobbit, Fromm is a simple and kind hobbit. It was indisputable in the world, almost spotless, but he was also inevitably tempted by the Lord of the Rings, ready to take the Lord of the Rings, and from then on to the darkness. However, (this is a very metaphorical plot), Grum suddenly appeared, snatched the Lord of the Rings, and finally fell into the abyss of the flaming volcano with it, and the Lord of the Rings was finally wiped out. The emergence of victory is due to chance, not the subjective will of the protagonist. For example, fromm, no matter how pure and flawless in nature, he will inevitably be contaminated by the Lord of the Rings, and will eventually become a major failure in his personal history (forgive me for saying that)---as mentioned earlier, the perfect personality no longer exists. , The moral constraints fell apart.
However, the author seemed unwilling to succumb to this pessimistic argument, so he arranged for Groom’s sudden appearance, and finally declared Gao’s ring of success, and the other protagonist, Frodo’s friend, Sam, used him A sincere and kind heart and great friendship moved Fromm, and finally saved him from regret and despair of self. Morality returns at the last moment and guides people to find themselves. Can this also be regarded as a human salvation?
From here we can at least sum up two points: 1. Human nature is insurmountable, and moral constraints are limited
. 2. Even so, human beings will still return to morality at some point as their social side.
2. Farming civilization vs. industrial civilization---the metaphor of the Doomsday Volcano and the Dark Lord
Every time I watch a movie of The Lord of the Rings, I always think of this topic---because it is so obvious: once Middle-earth, It symbolizes the civilization of the farming era-natural farming methods, simple rural life, simple and friendly relations between people-just like pastoral songs. The Dark Age under the rule of the Dark Lord Sauron represents the modern industrial civilization---large-scale deforestation to forge steel, construction of factories, full-blown production, and industrialized assembly lines—everything is around Based on interest. The difference between the two is projected into the real society, and the metaphorical meaning is even more obvious.
The anti-black alliances of Middle-earth are still using bows and spears against Sauron's dark legion, but Sauron's army has begun to use more advanced siege weapons, gunpowder and other weapons. Although still in the age of cold weapons, Sauron’s factory that produces bows and artillery in the Doomsday Volcano indicates the arrival of an industrial age; the hobbits of Middle-earth respect and love nature, while the elves are friends with nature. He regarded him as a partner, but Sauron did not hesitate to grab resources and wealth from nature. Pieces of ancient forest were cut down for smelting, leaving only bare tree stumps...Is this scene a bit familiar? That's right, it appeared in various countries with rapid industrialization in the last century. Human beings began to become their masters (to a certain extent) from the original citizens of nature, arbitrarily taking and destroying them.
In addition, the theme of the novel, the Lord of the Rings, is obviously also given a realistic color. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov saw the Lord of the Rings as a symbol of industrial technology. He wrote:
One day, my wife Janet and I were driving past an oil refinery on the highway to New Jersey. It was really a filthy land: there was no grass, and there were ugly pipeline buildings for oil refining everywhere. Waste oil gurgled from the top of the tall chimney, and the air was filled with the peculiar smell of gasoline products.
The wife looked at the scene with solemn eyes and said: "That is the magic capital." I
believe Tolkien thinks so too. In his eyes, the ring represents industrial technology, uprooting green and replacing it with an ugly factory shrouded in chemical pollution. (2)
I don’t know whether Tolkien himself agrees with this kind of mass production at the expense of nature. However, in this book, he clearly expresses his yearning for the once idyllic farming civilization. The evidence is that he inhabited the elves. The place is almost depicted as a paradise-it represents the ultimate state of farming civilization. But at the same time, he is also clearly aware of the changes of the times and the irreversibility of industrialization, so even if the Middle-earth Anti-Black Alliance, which symbolizes agricultural civilization, finally defeats the industrial civilization represented by Sauron, it is impossible for Middle-earth to restore it. The original appearance. Its pure nature is still polluted and can no longer be restored. The elves began to move westward, symbolizing a negative escape, while more people and other creatures in Middle-earth chose to stay and accept this destroyed and reborn world---just like us. Although the dark age of Sauron has passed, a brand new age will come. And that will be an era of industrialization.
3. Tragic heroism and personal heroism
There seems to be no shortage of tragic heroes in Western history and culture. From the earliest fire-thief god Prometheus, to later Agamemnon, to later Othello, Jeremiah, and John Christopher. In the Lord of the Rings, the most profound manifestation is the group of members of the Fellowship. As early as the beginning of the ring, Boromir (the tragic figure) proposed that this is an almost impossible task. They have to fight against the entire Dark Legion of Sauron with their own weak power-they are doomed to fail. However, at a critical moment, a seemingly small figure stood up, Fromm of the Hobbit. He finally led the guardian team to overcome the obstacles of returning to the Doomsday Volcano and completed this impossible. Task.
But no one expected the subsequent successful ending. At the beginning of the ring, everyone was a gloomy mist, no one had any hope, but Fromm and his friends still insisted on moving forward. Flam also went through several hardships in the middle, and even had a moment of frustration and trying to give up. It was Sam who saved him in the end--"...there's some good in this world ,Frodo, and it's worth fighting for. "The
tragedy heroes are tragedy because they fight almost with the belief that they will lose, and the reason why they become heroes is also because the reason they fought for it stems from their own beliefs. I think of what Mr. Lu Xun once said. I can't remember the specific content. In short, there are few warriors who fight alone and few failed heroes in China. I think this probably has something to do with the nation and the national conditions. But although few, there are still some, such as Jing Ke, such as Shang Yang, such as the Seven Gentlemen of the Wuxu Movement, and the Seventy-two Martyrs of Huanghuagang.
Tragic heroes have a common feature. They are fighting for a certain spiritual victory, not for the material-they are doomed to fail in material. Some are for fame—such as Jing Ke (although he is gone, he has a lingering affection for thousands of years), some are for honor, some are for fraternity, such as Prometheus, and some are for faith, such as Fromm and Sam, such as Wuxu Seven gentlemen. This immense sense of tragedy produced by powerless but struggling in confrontation with reality has brought unparalleled spiritual wealth and beauty-this is particularly prominent in Western philosophy. Jaspers believes that transcendence is the philosophical meaning of tragedy. The true tragedy is ontological. The greatness of tragic heroes is reflected in the resistance and struggle against the fate of tragedy. (3)
In any case, such tragic heroes have been praised and eulogized by people in all ages, because they have accomplished something that other people subconsciously wanted to do but failed to accomplish. Who doesn't want to die generously for ideals? Who wouldn't want to fight for honor? But that comes at a price, probably life, so most people quit. But the reason why people become human is to constantly surpass themselves. The meaning of tragic heroism, as Jasper said, is in and beyond reality, and rises to the spiritual level. In this materialized age, where are the true tragic heroes? If they disappear, can human beings surpass themselves again and again?
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