Current Events > Italy's far right PM uses Lord of the Rings as propaganda

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/03/the-lord-of-the-rings-italy-giorgia-meloni-tolkien

As a longtime fan of JRR Tolkien, Ive long felt put out by Giorgia Melonis bizarre obsession with The Lord of the Rings. Over the years, Italys ultra-conservative prime minister has quoted passages in interviews, shared photos of herself reading the novel and even posed with a statue of the wizard Gandalf as part of a campaign. In her autobiography-slash-manifesto, she dedicates several pages to her favourite book, which she refers to at one point as being a sacred text. When I read the news this week that Italys culture ministry is spending 250,000 to organise a Tolkien show at Romes National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, and that Meloni will attend the opening, I couldnt help wondering: why? What is this government trying to achieve by stamping its mark so aggressively on one of the worlds most loved fantasy sagas?

My Italian friends dont get the fuss. This is everyday politics, they say, a simple branding exercise to soften Melonis image. Perhaps. But theres a deeper, and frankly stranger, side to this story. When The Lord of the Rings first hit Italian shelves in the 1970s, the academic Elmire Zolla wrote a short introductionin which he interpreted the book as an allegory about pure ethnic groups defending themselves against contamination from foreign invaders. Fascist sympathisers in the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) quickly jumped on the provocation. Inspired by Zollas words, they saw in Tolkiens world a space where they could explore their ideology in socially acceptable terms, free from the taboos of the past. Meloni, an MSI youth wing member, developed her political consciousness in that environment. As a teenager she even attended a Hobbit Camp, a summer retreat organised by the MSI in which participants dressed up in cosplay outfits, sang along to folk ballads and discussed how Tolkienian mythologies could help the post-fascist right find credibility in a new era.

Obviously, were talking about a fringe movement here. But its worth recognising that, with a little imagination, the sagas of Middle-earth do fit pretty neatly into the logic of contemporary rightwing populism. The Lord of the Rings follows the logic of a zero-sum game, rooted in Catholic metaphysics. There are good hobbits and elves who fight off evil orcs. Theres little space for nuance. While most of us probably read the good characters in apolitical terms, it doesnt take much effort to bend that definition to nationalist purposes. In her book, Meloni does just that. One moment she tells us her favourite character is the peace-loving everyman Samwise Gamgee, just a hobbit. A few pages later shes implicitly likening Italy to the lost kingdom of Nmenor and citing the character Faramirs call to arms in The Two Towers. Ultimately, she seems to view Tolkiens work as a didactic anti-globalisation fable, a hyper-conservative epic that advocates a full-blown war against the modern world in the name of traditional values.

As an expert on propaganda yourself, which fantasy book series would you recommend they use instead?

Tolkien would think she's a ____. He was anti-fascist and was against his works being used for such bullshit.

To be fair it's not that far off other country's far right extremists using the bible as propaganda, and purposefully misconstruing the messaging to fit their agenda.

As a lover of Tolkien's work though, I'm personally pissed off it's being used like this.

Alt right has been using LotR as their propaganda tool for years.
Remember "evil cannot create" BS?

You can't stop evil people from liking the things you like.

JRR Tolkien would roll over in his grave.

This the woman that used anime too right?

We need more people like Ilona Staller instead.

JRR Tolkien is about to rise from his grave and kick her ass

Sauron did nothing wrong!

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Beats me. Not only were the media they say went woke already like that for ages, the media they do worship has been like that for ages as well. He-Man? Written by diversity team in the eighties. Sailor Moon was so gay it was censored here. Marvel did social justice since they came into being. Beyond good and evil 1 is literally leftist agendas the videogame so why are the trailers for 2 so surprising to them? Nearly every art is leftist in nature.

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Tolkien was far from liberal even at the time wdym? He supported the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War

Fascists think they're Gondor or Rohan, but in actuality fascists are the orcs. They even do the same petty infighting that orcs do.

LeCh0nk posted...

To be fair it's not that far off other country's far right extremists using the bible as propaganda, and purposefully misconstruing the messaging to fit their agenda.

As a lover of Tolkien's work though, I'm personally pissed off it's being used like this.

The difference is religion was created in part to manipulate and control society through propaganda. That was not the point of Tolkein writing.

In the past, Tolkien wrote to tell such people to go fuck themselves and that they didnt have his approval.