Whether You Would Risk it or Not
Finding Courage on the Doorstep of Doom
In one of the great, quiet scenes in Peter Jackson’s epic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings—an adaptation that will very likely stand the test of time in a much more significant way than Amazon’s upcoming dumpster fire that is The Rings of Power—King Theoden of Rohan, freshly awakened from being freed of the mind virus that is Saruman the Betrayer, is struggling to come to grips with how best to protect his people in the face of what seems like certain death.
Saruman’s armies are on the move. Ten thousand mighty Uruks have amassed beyond the plains, and are headed for the homes and villages of the horsemasters, who have few allies remaining, and whose greatest warriors are at least five days hard ride away from the inflection point in the war for Middle Earth.
As Aragorn says when he returns from a near-death experience, this army has been bred for a single purpose: to rid the world of men.
When confronted with this sobering news, Theoden is uncertain. Though resolute to survive, his recent trials—largely of the psychological and even spiritual variety—have wrung him dry. He is not the warrior he once was, and his greatest swords are far from home. He faces doom, and disgrace. More so, he faces bitterness, and, against the council of the few allies he has on the eve of annihilation, he rejects a call to arms, and chooses instead to retreat, so that he and his folk may live to fight another day.
The plan is folly. Gandalf the Wise knows it. Gimli, the son of warrior bloodlines knows it. Legolas, warrior prince of the woodland realm knows it.
Theoden himself likely knows it, though the words that escape his lips seek to bury it.
“I will not bring further death to my people,” the weary King says. “I will not risk open war.”
But Aragorn, ever the reluctant leader in the series, is the one who gives voice to the knowing.
“Open war is upon you,” Aragorn says, calm and direct. “Whether you would risk it or not.”
Theoden’s reply is not as restrained or kingly as one might expect. “Last I looked, Theoden, not Aragorn was King of Rohan.”
The response carries venom because Theoden has felt the weight of Aragorn’s proclamation, and knows, deep down, that in seeking to protect his people from harm, he may doom them all to die in a ravine at the edge of the world.
Now, you may be wondering why I’m using The Lord of the Rings to further a point in the Mind War, the Soul War or any number of names we’ve given to this strange, shifting Fifth Generational battlefront we’ve endured for years, aside from the fact that I will ever and always take any excuse I can to wax poetic in honor of the late Professor.
Last week, we hit one of many inflection points with the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s personal quarters. There were plenty of early takes, and plenty who waited a few days to provide their own. No doubt many of them hold water, with anons and researchers in the Truth community positing everything from a flawed and desperate attack on the part of the Deep State and its puppet in the White House, to an ingenious and foreshadowed sting operation engineered by the Great MAGA King himself.
Others, such as myself, argued that, no matter which side of the proverbial fence you fall on in this particular case, in the end, the optics of the situation—and thus, the story the collective mind of society is likely to absorb—can only be a good thing for Trump, and a bad thing for [them.] If you want my more detailed thoughts on the matter, revisit last week’s piece on Combat Tactics.
Still, for all the takes on the FBI raid, its origins and its fallout, and all the consequences that have yet to surface as a result of it, none of us has the whole truth. Some are closer than others, and yet, we are all projecting shadows against the wall in a war that could be named for them. We are guessing. They may be educated guesses by sharpened, keen minds, but they are guesses nonetheless.
And yet, this piece is not meant to discourage you from doing so. In fact, I would beseech you to do the opposite. Just as Aragorn implored Theoden to send out riders, to call for aid, or even to meet Saruman’s forces in the open field, where the Riders of Rohan might have a better chance, Theoden recoiled and fled into the dusky deep of the mountain hold that had served former masters in more glorious times.
Aragorn’s plea was not to win the war in a night, it was merely to fight it, and in so doing, to give them a chance to win.
Kyle of Just Human fame, a man I have never met, and yet who has grown to be someone I consider a friend in recent months, put forth similar sentiments the other night, amidst the flurry of news, real, imagined and both at once.
And I responded in kind.
None of us can pretend to know what effect we’re having in the Mind War, the Shadow War, or even WW3, as some have taken to calling it. Generally-speaking, I see the current war as one of stories, of narratives, which I write about extensively around these parts. And yet, some of us continue to engage in … whatever it is we’re engaging in, not because we think we will win on any given day, but because, in fighting in the first place, we have already made a fool of defeat.
“I wish the ring had never come to me,” Frodo says in another quiet moment between crisis in The Fellowship of the Ring. “I wish none of this had happened.”
“So do all who live to see such times,” Gandalf says to him. “But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
While the war we are waging is difficult to define, we are in a psychological theater. A battle for the collective mind of society itself.
But you are here for a reason. You are reading these words for a reason. You are engaging for a reason. And in engaging, you have resisted the call to retreat, to ‘fight another day,’ or any other such reconciliation with defeat.
And if I can leave you with something broad, something pertinent to the events of last week and many to come in these troubled, glorious times, and something true, it is that, in reading these words and in considering the thoughts of others who seek the truth, and in seeking it yourself, you have given the enemy something to fear.
And that is an encouraging thought.
Until next time … stay Positive, stay Based and most importantly, stay Bright.
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We were made for these times. Esther 4:14
“Courage, Merry; courage for our friends “. Tolkien.
I love these LOTR references - they are books very near and dear to my heart, since childhood. As Frodo's mind control took him over (the Ring), it was Sam who saved him, and everyone else too. He kept watch over Frodo's mental condition, protected him. People forget that Sam is the only person who ever possessed the Ring who was able to give it away - back to Frodo in this case. No one else was able to do that, not Kings, not even Frodo himself. Sam was a gardener, he remembered to bring salt from the Shire, he reminded Frodo of the taste of strawberries as they sat in the middle of Hell itself. It IS those things that make life worth living, worth fighting for. And in the end, Sam carried Frodo on his back up the mountain too.