“‘There is something very big going on, that I can see, and what it is maybe I shall learn in good time, or in bad time . . . . Hoom, hm, I have not troubled about the Great Wars,’ said Treebeard; ‘they mostly concern the business of Wizards: Wizards are always troubled about the future. I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether on my side, if you understand me.”
J.R.R. Tolkein, The Two Towers (1954), chap. 4.
George Washington famously warned Americans against “foreign entanglements,” drawing their attention to the possibilities of their “detached and distant situations” and exhorting them not to “forgo the advantages of so peculiar a situation.” Parents should give similar advice to their children, and should not, as so many do, extoll the life of boundless concern and bottomless solicitude for other people’s troubles. Jesus told his disciples “to take . . . no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” He might have added that the same can be said for strangers and their “things.”
Those strangers shall take thought for the things of themselves (not your things), so you had better take thought for the things that are yours.
There is at my university a great deal of fatuous blather about “selfless service,” this mostly from ruthless careerists who have elbowed their way into the high offices where fatuous blather is expected. I am in my dotage more inclined to follow the example of Treebeard, since a man who does not take his own side will have on his side nobody at all. Everyone should remember what happens to the workhorse Boxer, that exemplar of selfless service in Orwell’s Animal Farm. He works and works for the great cause of the Animal Farm, and when his health is finally broken,
“Sure enough, there in the yard was a large closed van, drawn by two horses, with lettering on its side and a sly-looking man in a low-crowned bowler hat sitting on the driver’s seat . . . .‘Fools! Fools! Shouted Benjamin . . . do you not see what is written on the side of that van . . . . ‘Alfred Simmons, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler . . . Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied.’”*
This is precisely how those who live by the motto “Selfless Service” will be served. They will be exploited until they are broken, and then they will be sold for parts.
* * * *
“What is not supposed to be my concern! First and foremost, the Good Cause, then God’s cause, the cause of mankind, of truth, of freedom, of humanity, of justice; further, the cause of my people, my prince, my fatherland; finally, even the cause of Mind, and a thousand other causes. Only my cause is never to be my concern. ‘Shame on the egoist who thinks only of himself!’”
Max Stirner The Ego and His Own (1885)
Stirner is today largely forgotten, but he was in his day a philosopher of some note. His point here is that every cause under the sun makes claims on my attention, my concern, my time, my pocketbook, even my body and blood. And yet those causes recognize no reciprocal claim on my part. My part, so far as every cause is concerned, is to play Boxer, not Treebeard—to slave and at last be slaughtered in the “Great Wars” of some wizards or some pigs.
*) Chap. 9
**) Max Stirner The Ego and His Own, trans. Steven T. Byington (New York: Benj. R. Tucker, 1907 [1882]), p. 3.
The Orthosphere 
Horseflop. The ents got completely entangled, and Beechbone paid a terrible price.
But it’s ironic that a Jew hater would cite my beloved fellow rugger for anything.
25 July 1938
20 Northmoor Road, Oxford
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject — which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.
Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.
I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and
remain yours faithfully,
J. R. R. Tolkien
(with my zaydeh, himself a scrumhalf of long ago)
The ents clearly settled their own score with Saruman and were done with it. This certainly aided the cause of the Great War of the Ring, but the ents did not overthrow Saruman to aid the Great War of the Ring. Treebeard and the ents are not concerned with the affairs of wizards, men, or elves, either as enemies or allies. They are like Tom Bombadil in that respect.
I’ve read Tolkien’s correspondence and remember that letter. I’m not sure what purpose it serves here. If anything, I read it as endorsement of the notion that people should mind their own business and see to their own affairs. Tolkien is telling the correspondent not to mix him up in the correspondent’s filthy business.
“Jew hater” – well that escalated quickly.
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Are you being rhetorical or merely threatening graver defamations? I’d rather discuss the geopolitics of Fangorn Forest.
One must remember that the real meaning of terms like “Jew hater”, “anti-Semite”, etc. is “anyone who criticizes the Jews, however slightly”.
We get it. You want to fuck horses like those weirdo degenerate whore women on pornhub.
O-oo-kay.
What is it about two bands of Semites fighting over too little land that tripped your trigger?
Xvideos and Xhamster are much classier.
How original! Did you think that up all by yourself?
No, you’d rather make snide insinuations without consequence.
But your poor wounded sensibilities! I hope you can forgive me, because I’ll never forgive myself.
Though in what way are they geopolitics? Aren’t they arboreal politics? After all, you’re supposed to be some sort of academic.
Anyhow, maybe mere defamations won’t be your main concern.
This website certainly has progressed from prior years!
Islam Delendam Esse – The Orthosphere (wordpress.com)
A particular commenter, posting back then as “TheOldOne,” (Guess who!) is with us yet. As are others.
So in what way will your school be reacting to the discussions here?
You seem to be rather proving the point of my previous post. Kristor got a lot of comments on that anti-Islam post, but a cursory scan of the comments does not unearth any veiled threats from bloodthirsty jihadis like, “maybe mere defamation won’t be your main concern.” What will be my main concern? The penalties for lèse-majesté? Let’s have more arguments and less bluster.
Can wwell agree that Roger Peter Glass is a Gamma male who knows nothing and should be banned so that he can save himself from further embarrassment?
And typos!