

Technically, the Palantiri weren’t the evil eye of the Sauron. Sauron and Saruman did use them (and that’s why you see Sauron’s eye in one of them), but the stones themselves were basically just communication and surveillance devices. They were, themselves, fairly neutral and not made by anyone especially evil (probably Feanor - flawed but not evil). But they were used for evil purposes during the time in the LOTR trilogy.


You would have had similar thoughts back then. Ever hear of the Gilded Age? The late 1800’s was that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age The parallels to today are striking - to the point that many think we’re in the second Gilded Age: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Gilded_Age . However, the late 1800’s/early 1900’s was also the beginning of the Progressive Era, which was the solution to many of the excesses of capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era We STILL benefit from many of the advances that occurred during that time. It may not seem like it, but we’re actually better off than they were back then, despite all the bad that has happened. The underlying ideology behind MAGA is to undo many of the reforms that happened during the progressive era. They won’t succeed, not entirely - the changes are too baked into the fabric of the country to fully undo. Some of the reforms are enshrined in Constitutional Amendments that they don’t have anywhere near the support to repeal.
But this should also be a source of hope. We’ve beat these people back once before, we can do it again. We can have a second Progressive Era. It’ll probably have alot of talk of socialism this time, but socialism and progressivism have alot in common. And we’re seeing support for this sort of thing rising in response to the excesses of capitalists, much like what was occurring in the late 1800’s. It takes time for these sorts of movements to gain traction. But it’s one of those slow then fast sorts of things.