The Fellowship of the Ring - ‘Bend Not Break’
Frankly #58
Long time listeners of this podcast will know that some of my favorite books are the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien - and I’ve made numerous metaphors linking today’s human challenges from these works. For today’s Frankly, I’d like to speculate on what archetypes in today’s world might comprise “The Fellowship of the Nine”, grouped by various timelines.
The eventual reduction in energy and material accessibility near the peak of the Carbon Pulse will likely alter the archetypes that we’re familiar and comfortable with today - and in the process, our modern archetypes may morph to something not helpful to the future we’ll be facing. What categories of human archetypes in the future will have the potential to best influence their communities and the Earth? What will the most powerful among us choose when it comes to protecting their (monetary, temporary) wealth vs using it towards prosocial collective responses? Finally, and most importantly - what archetypes might comprise a new Fellowship of humans to ‘bring the ring to Mordor’ during humanity’s ‘Bend not Break’ moment?
Which archetype do you resonate with?
Are there others?
In case you missed it…
In this week’s episode, Riane and I discussed the relational dynamics undergirding our current societies and what it might mean to transition to healthier and more sustainable ones in the future. What we value at the individual and family level directly translates to the way we frame our governance systems - societies that emphasize empathy and caring also implement the same types of policies and values. Is it possible to move away from violence and control-oriented systems and into ones that value wide boundaries of empathy and understand the vital nature of care work?
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