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\t\t\t\t\t\t Perhaps most notoriously, Palantir is the name for seeing eye stones in Middle-earth used by powerful beings to communicate with each other \u2014 often to their own detriment. Palantir Technologies Inc. is a software company founded by Thiel in 2003, which has faced criticism for its role in expanding government surveillance through artificial intelligence and facial recognition software. It has\u00a0recently been the target of protests<\/a>\u00a0for its involvement in building deportation software for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a very long association of LotR with conservative politics,\u201d says Dr Helen Young, senior research fellow in the Writing, Literature and Culture Group in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University. \u201cTolkien himself was reasonably conservative for his time, [and] his fantasy world of Middle-earth is a kind of racist fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n Young says Tolkien\u2019s world is one where biological race is real, and the different white-coded protagonist races (humans, elves, dwarves and hobbits) face off against orcs and other creatures who are described as black-skinned with \u201cslant eyes\u201d.<\/p>\n It should be noted that Tolkien denounced the Nazis and apartheid<\/a>, among other social injustices.\u00a0<\/p>\n Published in the mid-1950s, LotR initially found success among the left-wing environmental movement, drawn to its themes of simple-living Hobbits standing in opposition to the forces of evil and industry. In the \u201970s, however, the book was picked up by the right.<\/p>\n Giorgia Meloni, before she became the right-wing prime minister of Italy, said<\/a>, \u201cTolkien could say better than us what conservatives believe in \u2026 I don\u2019t consider Lord of the Rings fantasy.\u201d These sentiments were echoed by Vance<\/a>, who recently remarked that a lot of his conservative worldview was \u201cinfluenced by Tolkien\u201d.<\/p>\n The backlash Amazon\u2019s recent LotR prequel series The Rings of Power<\/a> received for casting actors of colour in roles typically reserved for white actors shows how commonplace these views are. Conservative political commentator Matt Walsh said<\/a>, \u201cBecause I am a fan of LotR, I will not watch the Amazon version.\u201d<\/p>\n Thiel, who has launched at least five companies<\/a> with names taken from LotR, has lamented that today\u2019s scientists have given up on a search for immortality \u2014 a fascination stemming from Tolkien\u2019s version of elves<\/a>. Thiel has also suggested society\u2019s perceived lack of recent technological progress could be due to the emergence of the Antichrist<\/a>, using Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as a stand-in figure.<\/p>\n The idea of the Antichrist could resonate with certain fans of LotR, where notions of good and evil take on real, cosmological forces, says Young, adding that its main antagonist Sauron is a physical manifestation of evil \u2014 a purely corrupting force.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[The right-wing] present themselves as returning freedom,\u201d she says, \u201cbeing the ones who are taking on a heroic role and returning freedom to these people who have been oppressed by the \u2018authoritarian rule\u2019 of \u2018wokeness\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\tRelated Article Block Placeholder<\/p>\n \t\t\tArticle ID: 1012903\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t These naming conventions rely on a shallow reading of Tolkien\u2019s work, says Dr Nick Groom, professor of literature in English at the University of Macau.<\/p>\n In LotR, the Palantir stones allowed users to communicate vast distances, often to their peril. Erebor was a mountain holding vast amounts of wealth, but was invaded by a dragon that killed all its inhabitants. Anduril, also known as \u201cthe Flame of the West\u201d, was a great sword, but one that had to be reforged after shattering in failing to defeat Suaron thousands of years prior.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese are very difficult, tricky, even unreliable objects,\u201d says Groom. \u201cI would never name a company Palantir. You\u2019ve actually missed the point of Tolkien saying this is fundamentally unreliable technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
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