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Comment by fractallyte | Hacker News Reader

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...

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Calling Russians orcs makes me uncomfortable. That echos a world view that should be avoided to the greatest extend possible.

I don't see the problem. They really are acting like orcs, maybe worse even.

Please try to figure out on your own why it is a dangerous idea. If I would try to argue my point, you would just argue me back.

All I will tell you is that there were 4 upvotes for my comment so you can be confident that the idea is not entirely unreasonable.

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.

I am not defending them. I also don't mind calling them names in general. You don't have to figure it out right now.

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.

"When the concept of 'otherness' takes root, the unimaginable becomes possible."

Slavenka Drakulić wrote that during the war in Croatia in the 1990s.

Being feared isn't as nice as being loved, but its a lot more reliable if your goal is power.

Eh, for a while, but clearly long term it seems to tend to not work out.

Working pretty good in North Korea.

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”.

> 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")

> particularly considering that their troops are already popularly referred to as 'orcs', and Russia itself as 'Mordor'.

The first source I found: https://archive.vn/q3VVx

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.

The truth was even stranger...

Putin so far forged only 8 Rings of Power + the Ruling Ring.

Yes, you're right - I meant nine rings altogether, with one of being the ruling ring.

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.

[1] https://www.thejewelleryeditor.com/jewellery/article/as-the-...

> most of the people around these parts of the continent (Eastern Europe) don't care about the novels themselves

[Citation needed]

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.

Does my anecdote trump yours, do you think?

You think tributes and gifts of this sort are an invention of Tsarist Russia?

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.

Surely Last Ringbearer got some PR there

> most of the people around these parts of the continent (Eastern Europe) don't care about the novels themselves

That’s false. The Tolkien novels are very well known in Russia. There was a huge role playing subculture in 90s and 00s, probably still is.

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.

Nobody is claiming he does. The article is merely pointing out the irony of the situation.

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