Hobbits, Rebels, Death Stars and Home
A lesson in patriotism from Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings
Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings have two very similar moments. As a great threat makes itself known in each world, a band of potential heroes circle up to assess the danger and devise a plan.
In Star Wars: Rogue One this is the “rebellions are built on hope speech” delivered by Jyn Erso who has discovered the plans for the Death Star and wants to lead the fractured Rebel Alliance in stealing them. The Rebels are divided and hardly interested in risking everything over a rumor.
In The Lord of the Rings, what will soon become the “Fellowship of the Ring” is gathered in Rivendell under the hospitality of Lord Elrond. He has gathered the Elves, Men, and Dwarves all together with Gandalf and the Hobbits, to unveil the Ring of the Power and make it known — it must be destroyed.
In both stories, everyone learns of the threat with bated breath and in silence. Then fear and self-interest sink in. Argument erupts.
In Star Wars and Middle-earth, we see a confluence of civilizations and leaders with their own unique concerns. Mutual destruction is only part of their calculus. For almost all of these men and women, their will to fight and risk it all comes from something you and I know well — a love of home.
Before we continue, our new video, The School of Tywin Lannister, is out on YouTube in its entirety. This is a rundown of 3 Stoic lessons offered by the most powerful man in Westeros, a worthy villain in Game of Thrones. Check it out and be sure to leave a Like and Comment with your thoughts!
A love of home is sometimes made into a controversial thing, even though we all know it is not. The Rebels and Fellowship are not risking their lives for one another homes, that is quite clear. Elves don’t much care for Dwarves and vice versa. The Hobbits don’t give a damn about Gondor, nor does Gondor care what happens to the Shire. They only care about what happens in faraway lands so much as it will eventually harm them and their lands.
Jyn Erso reminds the Rebels of what the Empire did to Jedha just days before their meeting. The Empire tested the Death Star on a city called Jedha, which was completely wiped off the map. The Rebels know she’s right. They think of their homes.
Call this instinct patriotism or nationalism or whatever you want. I would prefer the former…patriotism, where you view your homeland as special, good, and worthy of defense. Nationalism is something else. It’s when you take that belief and decide to carry it like a torch into other people’s lands.
In C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves, he begins the book with a deep explanation of this love of home and why it matters to human beings.
With this love for the place there goes a love for the way of life; for beer and tea and open fires, trains with compartments in them and an unarmed police force and all the rest of it….a man’s reasons for not wanting his country to be ruled by foreigners are very like his reasons for not wanting his house to be burned down because he “could not even begin” to enumerate all the things he would miss.”
This love is what propels Sam and Frodo across all of Middle-earth. They think of the Shire. Frodo cries for it in his lowest moments, with the great irony being that he never feels comfortable there again after coming to its ultimate defense.
Lewis says “Patriotism is not in the least aggressive. It asks only to be left alone.” For any man with imagination, he says, “How can I love my home without coming to realize that other men, no less rightly, love theirs?”
In this sense, you get a perfectly reasonable take on self-interest as a motivating factor in the heroism of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Modern people love to talk a big game about being global citizens and tout their open-mindedness about cultures in corners of the globe they’ve never experienced or studied. It’s performative. The only thing tangible is loving your own garden and tending to it. A deep and gentle love leads you to wish no harm to other people’s gardens, for they must feel as strongly about them as you do yours.
This well of empathy is valuable and leads to beautiful outcomes in both Star Wars and Tolkien’s tale of Middle-earth. You can build it by investing in your own community, your own home, and local culture. You’ll see how it differs from the cultures around you. And that's okay. There is beauty in difference.
It would not be home unless it were different
-C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
This might be my favorite one yet. I am from Kentucky and while there are a great many things wrong with my state. I have cultivated a Hobbiton love of home. When I went to school out of state I would often stream local radio and streams of our local public television station to ground myself in home.