Is That an Orc in Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Happy to Be Evil? - Page 6
© Michael Martinez
So why do some people want to be Orcs? What is the fascination with the bully-boys of Middle-earth? Is it, perhaps, the simplicity that the Orcs convey? True evil is sophisticated, intricate. Orcs are little more than thugs. Even the Noldor at their most evil don't approach the low achievments of Men. Elves speak of their kinslayings with horror. Men plot new kinslayings every day.
Maybe Tolkien's real message wasn't so much that these other races are all that good or bad, as it was that there are aspects to being human which can be exaggerated and enhanced. But for us to appreciate the beauty and the good, it already has to be in us. And for us to feel any fascination for the brutality and evil of Middle-earth, those things, too, must also be in us. All that distinguishes between good and evil, then, are the choices we make.
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