Domination vs Investment

Enoch_Arden_5

New Member
Reading LOTR I have always had difficulty understanding why the power of evil people like Morgoth and Sauron weakens them long-term while the power of good people like Gandalf, and even elves, seem to maintain their "power". But it struck me recently that there is actually a significant difference between the two applications of power. When people like Morgoth, Sauron, and others use their power to dominate others, their power is spent, and they are permanently weakened because of it. It seems to me that the difference between the two is like the difference between controlling and investing. To use leadership as an example, one could almost say it's like the difference between a micromanager and a mentor (I realize it's a crude comparison, but I think it at least helps to clarify the difference between the two).

Morgoth and Sauron expend their wills by controlling and dominating others, much like a manager who controls and micromanages employees. When they dominate like this, they are expending energy, but they only seem to be gaining extensions of their own will; they are not allowing anything to grow around them unless they expend their own will and power to control it. It's a net loss for them. They invest power to reach a desired end; but, as with everyone whose goal is to dominate, they lose something in the process that they do not get back. It's almost like someone walking several dogs at the same time; if he has them all leashed he may be getting pulled from multiple directions all at once and have to exert a significant amount of power to control them all. He's trying to assert his will and power in order to dominate them, but his energy is now tied by the leashes to controlling his pets and keeping them from chasing the nearest squirrel.

Gandalf, the Valar, and elves (to an extent) seem to do very much the opposite. They create, they inspire, they invest, and (to a degree) they appear to have a net gain on that investment. Like a mentor, or any leader who invests in the people around him or under him, Gandalf plants seeds - seeds of hope, courage, love, and beauty - in the people and objects around him. You can also see this with Haldir and the cloaks of Lorien; the elves invest their love and their thoughts of nature and beauty into the cloaks, and they receive something back because of it. It's more like a relationship than anything else. Those who use power for good do no seek to dominate, but to give something, and they reap dividends in return. Almost like a gardener or a farmer who invests into the land around him, and as a result reaps greater rewards than he sowed. He exerts energy in the process, but he does not continually exert the same energy continually. He gives and gains even more in return.

This seems to apply to the elves and the three rings as well. When it comes to something elven like lembas, or the cloaks of Lorien, the elves invest beauty, love, and strength into what they do or make, and those objects are better for it, and not by some continued exertion of will on the object by its creator. When the Celebrimbor creates the three rings, it seems that (in addition to healing) one of the main powers of the rings is preservation. While preservation is not in and of itself bad, the extent to which the elves attempt to preserve the world around them seems questionable at least. They now seem very close to "dominating" and controlling the world around them to make it stay the same, instead of investing in the world around them to make it better in the long run.
 
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