Mann cites research backing up his claim that fear doesn’t motivate people to action, while worry, interest, and hope - a supporting cast of Tolkien motifs - reliably do. Mann argues that the ‘too late, we’re screwed’ rhetoric has been co-opted by extraction industries to continue their work unhindered, and that we have an obligation to rail against the “doom and gloom that we increasingly encounter in today’s climate discourse.” The central problem, Mann says, is that “Doomism and the loss of hope can lead people down the very same path of inaction as outright denial.” (Later, Shadowfax boxes him up pretty good, too.) “Sometimes I feel that way about doomists who advocate surrender in the battle to avert catastrophic climate change,” he writes. In his book The New Climate War, Michael Mann, director of Pennsylvania State University’s Earth System Science Centre, quips that at least in the film adaption of Return Of The King, Gandalf was present to crack Denethor in the face and halt his campaign of surrender. So what can we and doomers, grappling with the twin-engine churning of late stage capitalism and imperialism under the shrouds of a global pandemic and climate crisis, learn from Denethor’s downfall? Despair, or folly? ![]() His commitment to despair and rejection of hope exacerbated his community’s situation and harmed his comrades. With many countries stumbling toward third wave case counts and deaths, and most of us forced to continue to work while foregoing personal care and pleasure, it’s easy to see why folks are being doompilled even with mass vaccination on the horizon and record levels of concern on climate change.īut Denethor was ultimately wrong in his suggestions, and his death (and attempted murder of his son) was in vain. It’s a legible response: White supremacist extraction capitalism had already battered the globe before a pandemic arrived to exacerbate its worst tendencies. ![]() The core belief is that since humans have irreparably damaged the earth, our lives will continue to get worse and worse until an extinction event mercifully wipes us out. Where Denethor was a man overcome with dread, the doomer movement - referred to or described as being “doompilled” - is one fueled by social media feeds filled with global horrors and news reports on the climate crisis rather than a magical speaking-stone. Imagine Frodo’s vision in the Fellowship Of The Ring, in which the Shire is burned and the hobbits enslaved and tortured - but that it was available for Denethor to gaze at whenever he felt compelled. Aside from the death of his beloved son Boromir, the movie doesn’t make explicit the reasons behind Denethor’s macabre jadedness, but the book offers a critical revelation: Denethor, using a palantir, has seen visions manipulated by Sauron that compel him to despair and hopelessness. All shall soon be endedĭenethor’s personal rationale is simple: The fight is doomed, evil will win, and survivors will endure worse than the slain. The Steward of Gondor shows us that despair can be even more destructive than apathy. Considered today, the arc gives us an operatic and useful glimpse into the social-media-driven Doomer movement: a millions-strong cohort driven by current-event horrors to believe that humanity is, uh, irrevocably doomed. The Steward’s submission offers a textbook guide for What Not To Do in a Siege, but the tragedy of Denethor transposes well onto modern conditions. It shall all go up in a great fire, and all shall be ended.” In the film and in the book, he encourages Pippin to piss off and die in whatever way seems best to him. In the book, his dialogue expands the vision behind this rhetoric: “Soon all shall be burned. “Better to burn sooner than late, for burn we must,” he mutters. ![]() So each Wednesday throughout the year, we'll go there and back again, examining how and why the films have endured as modern classics. 2021 marks The Lord of the Rings movies' 20th anniversary, and we couldn't imagine exploring the trilogy in just one story.
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