This just digs Russia deeper into Lord of the Rings meme territory, particularly considering that their troops are already popularly referred to as 'orcs', and Russia itself as 'Mordor'.
So now we have nine rings of power, and one ring to rule them all...
I see a bunch of evil people murdering, raping, and pillaging (all extremely well-documented). And you're defending them, complaining about other people comparing them with fictional villains. I don't see how calling war criminals names is somehow dangerous. Maybe they should try not raping and murdering civilians and invading a sovereign country.
If you dehumanize an enemy, you can do anything to them without any moral consequences. Even genocide may be permissible if the enemy isn't human. It could even be virtuous.
> If I have been a little too punctual in describing these monsters in all their lineaments and colours, I hope mankind will know them, the better to avoid them, my treatise being both a satire against them, and a true character of them... — N Machiavelli (at least according to the frontispiece of Burnham's "The Managerial Revolution")
Not really, fear of the ruler has little to do with the longevity of dprk. Support and protection by China are the only reason that government still exists.
“Be useful to / shameful if you fail” to a much more powerful entity is more like it when it comes to “ways to power”.
Based on the title alone, I was shocked that a parody article made our to the HN front page, and that a .ru domain was hosting comedy at the expense of Putin.
Putin doesn't care one iota about the Lord of the Rings Western non-sense. In fact, most of the people around these parts of the continent (Eastern Europe) don't care about the novels themselves, apart from a very thin layer of the Westernised middle-class (I'm part of that Westernised middle-class layer and I don't care for the books, the movies were interesting for an one-time viewing 20 years ago).
But, yes, people from the West will always make everything be about them.
Later edit: If anything, it is Tolkien who has borrowed "the giving of expensive jewellery as an act of power" from Tsarist Russia, see articles like this one [1] about how 19th century Russian emperors were delighted in making such gifts. If anything, Putin wants to be a 19th century Russian emperor, again, he doesn't care at all about Western-created stupid memes.
Somehow I think that most of the people that were into that back then are now posting from Georgia, Belgrade or Kazakhstan, if not them, then their kids. That was my point, leaders like Putin don't focus on the thin layer of the Westernised middle class.
This is not reddit, but I can invite you to some of the most frequented old books stores in Bucharest where almost no-one purchases the Ring books. Yes, I do go there religiously two days out of three.
Fascinating. You have an anecdote. Which is about as convincing as any anecdote of my own. I know plenty of people in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia who all love Tolkien’s work.
They certainly aren't an invention of a geeky writer from mid 20th century England, like most of the comments in here would seem to suggest. So much Eurocentrism and geek-centrism that it hurts.
Unintentionally, this exemplifies why Russia will always be a second-rate power. For it's internal politicking it has to reference art (Tolkien) from the English speaking world. This is a self-own.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
War is baddy, but I feel like there's something above, something where any living being emitting 10 equivalent tonnes of CO2 per year or more is an accidental baddy
I said war is bad and harming the environment is worse, no relationships between the 2, but the western "good" people are not so good
Pollution is already causing 10 million deaths/year and this gets worse. I live near a road, and have snow-like dust in my apartment every day from pollution, this can't be good in the lungs. Most people in developed countries, including Russia, have a footprint way too high, over 6T CO2 year, and this is the reason we're all unfortunately heading into trouble and future environmental wars.
If there is no relation between the two, then what are you looking to achieve with your comment? Because what you're doing sounds an awful lot like whataboutism[0], which suggests tacit defence on your part of the russian federation's terrorism and genocide.
The initial comment is a reference to a comedy sketch by David Mitchell and Robert Webb. In the sketch, it is two Nazi soldiers discussing the idea that they might be on the wrong side of history.
So no, this is not are Westerners "baddies" compared to pro-russian people.
> I'm just saying it's not as simple as 0 or 1
Wow. Political topics have nuance. Thank you for your deep, invaluable insight. Where would we be without your Russell Brand-esque hey bro, open your mind because there are complexities in real life style ponderings.
> The Ring itself is a luxurious ornament, but powerless, crafted by the Nazgûl (a group of ancient scientists and philosophers who take turns as the Nine to guide Mordor through its industrialization) to distract Gandalf and the Elves while Mordor built up its army.
the Nazgûl (a group of ancient scientists and philosophers who take turns as the Nine to guide Mordor through its industrialization)
Wow, that sounds like fiction for readers who might have complained that Christopher Tolkien's nth collection of half-baked unfinished tales was not boring enough.
It's freely available and worth a read. While it's unlikely to see the average teen's heart on fire, most HN readers will definitely get a kick out of it.
You don't know your place and where you belong,
you mess with Poland, Finland, Czechoslovakia
Army of bandits and a band of orcs,
meanwhile your own country looks like Mordor
>One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
>In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
>One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
>One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
>In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.