I was thinking today about the Shire. Specifically, how it is kind of like a medieval village. Or at least, a pre-electric one. However, upon deeper thinking, I realised that it’s not at all like that. A medieval English village was probably not a very enjoyable place to be. I recently watched some videos from Eddie Swartzentruber giving a first hand glimpse into Amish life, which is certainly “pre-electric”. In these hilarious and insightful videos, he reveals that the Amish “fight all the time about the stupidest little things”. It seems like, no matter how basic the living, we cause each other to be unhappy.

Take an example in the opposite direction. The Star Wars universe, which is very technologically advanced, still contains people with much the same problems as we have now. Greed, jealousy, ruthlessness, anger, murder. Even when we imagine something as “futuristic”, we still imagine people as being more or less unchanged. Only their technology changes.

This is why the Shire is different. From my memory of the books, I believe I’m right in saying that there are no police in the shire. There’s one official, and he never really has to do anything. It’s explicitly written that no murders ever happen. People abide by a common code of ethics, just because it makes sense. They celebrate things often with festivals. They seem to enjoy life. They create songs and music and write books. There are no poor. There are some relatively wealthy (like Bilbo), but not greatly so. They all seem to work enough but not too much. There are barely any weapons at all, and they are never used. There is no king, no ruler, no lord, barely any authority at all.

Despite being technologically regressive, I propose that the Shire is the future. It is a world that could be possible, if only people were all conscious, kind, awake. Funnily enough, in the books but not in the films, when the hobbits return to the Shire, they find it in disarray. There are police who arrest them, old trees have been cut down, people live in suspicion and fear. There is a hierarchy, with some getting wealthy, and some getting poor. And who is to blame for all of this? Men. Specifically Saruman (although not technically a man, he might as well be) and his companions.

Out of spite, he turns the Shire into a modern world mess. Luckily this is short-lived, as the hobbits all band together to overthrow these new and unwanted overlords. But it’s an interesting lesson. Who is the more advanced? The wizard and his posse with all their magic and weapons and technology, who bring unhappiness and trouble, or the weaponless, simple hobbits, who maintain a gentle, conscious, functioning society with no enforcement or oversight?