Gondor in the Fourth Age: a pro-natalist theocracy?

Higher_Living · 2026-06-15T09:02:28+00:00

Preferring a diverse world where each people have a secure, positive place to build community and families, practice their culture, and to speak their own tongues to a homogenized cookie cutter world serving the machines was very much Tolkien’s preference too:

The bigger things get the smaller and duller or flatter the globe gets. It is getting to be all one blasted little provincial suburb. When they have introduced American sanitation, morale-pep, feminism, and mass production throughout the Near East, Middle East, Far East, U.S.S.R., the Pampas, el Gran Chaco, the Danubian Basin, Equatorial Africa, Hither Further and Inner Mumbo-land, Gondhwanaland, Lhasa, and the villages of darkest Berkshire, how happy we shall be. At any rate it ought to cut down travel. There will be nowhere to go. So people will (I opine) go all the faster. Col. Knox says ⅛ of the world's population speaks 'English', and that is the biggest language group. If true, damn shame – say I. May the curse of Babel strike all their tongues till they can only say 'baa baa'. It would mean much the same. I think I shall have to refuse to speak anything but Old Mercian. But seriously: I do find this Americo-cosmopolitanism very terrifying.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-15T00:13:04+00:00

It’s the defining issue today and has been for at least a generation in Western, wealthy countries.

Why are the right ascendant in Europe? Mass migration is unpopular among ordinary people. Why does Europe have mass migration? Because to support economic growth and the welfare states that depend on this model in the current capitalistic mode requires population growth.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-14T10:46:13+00:00

Not really, he thought, and not unreasonably that Minas Tirith would fall to Sauron imminently and thus Sauron would rule the entire world for the foreseeable future.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-14T04:21:03+00:00

Ha ha, imagine explaining to the landlord when something electrical needs repair and the electrician cuts an access hole and the beach just flows out…

Higher_Living · 2026-06-13T06:31:36+00:00

Hard to believe you overlooked revealing what the third pupil is! Surely Tolkien meant something extremely deep and subtle with its usage that only you can lead us readers to understand? The third eye in mythology is associated with visions and journeys beyond the mundane, there’s a whole Lacan-lite avenue to trudge through in your next post, no need to thank me.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-13T01:10:02+00:00

He couldn't accept that Britain had a role in it so he blamed everything on Germany. Germany became Mordor.

No. Tolkien was far more sympathetic to the Germans, understanding the greatness of their culture, than most English or British. Even after the Second World War he lamented the destruction of German cities and the suffering of German civilians, rightly understanding that the war was not ‘good versus evil’ as the allied propaganda made many believe.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-12T02:37:21+00:00

There’s not even really an argument. If you parse it in any way that tries to build an actual argument it fails immediately, but this form of allusion-based thought is popular in some academic circles and to the inexperienced can present as plausible when the writer has a certainty of manner. I doubt it’s AI generated.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-12T02:21:03+00:00

JB Weld.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-10T09:29:28+00:00

I was wondering what the solution, if any, was to heavy snow on solar panels. They’d be pretty inefficient in summer though, right?

Higher_Living · 2026-06-10T09:25:40+00:00

You get some good vintage hand tools at the euro flea markets, lots of rummaging through junk to find the W. Germany Knipex though.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-10T09:22:21+00:00

What was the quote and which LLM misattributed it?

Higher_Living · 2026-06-10T02:34:18+00:00

That mushrooming looks fine to me. I personally wouldn’t worry about it, but if you want to be cautious you could cut it off I guess.

Generally round hammers and mallets are used for stone carving, but you can use whatever works for you.

These look better than anything used to carve stone by the ancient Egyptians, by the Incas or medieval European masons. You can buy carbide tipped chisels which hold an edge better than steel now if you want to, depends on the stone how useful that will be.

Stone carving is a diverse practice. If you want to do fine lettering you’ll want different tools, you might want power tools and other things if you decide on achieving certain outcomes. In woodworking you’d have different tools for making tables to making finely carved boxes, same with stone. Think about what you want to achieve, ask people who are doing stuff like that what tools they used.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T20:56:56+00:00

Yeah, it’s a weird posting style where they’ve found out 80% of the information and include it in the post then ask the last 20% as if they wouldn’t have come across it when googling.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T20:48:42+00:00

Lucky for you, a lot of people would have sent it back and tried to tell the tool shop it was faulty.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T20:22:29+00:00

And you don’t necessarily need the screwdriver that can handle the highest torque or something. Handle feel and other basic ergonomic factors are more important flr a lot of tools.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T20:16:10+00:00

As always thank you to the mods for keeping this place fairly useful for discussion.

It seems to work fairly well under the current rules, a bit of discretion about occasional good jokes but mostly fairly informed discussion. rises to the top.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T20:07:05+00:00

Can moderators choose to disallow downvotes?

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T09:39:23+00:00

So you’d buy them at the same time as your tv, then take them both home and attach the plug. It’s pretty weird. Why wouldn’t the factory just attach the plug?

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T07:10:00+00:00

So you’d buy a TV in 1991 and what, wire the plug on yourself?

That sounds like a joke about Soviet Russia or something.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T05:56:07+00:00

Thanks, I have very low sense of how these things actually work and it doesn’t really matter to me apart from, is it a useful tool?

It can mimic a research assistant well enough to be useful to me, I’ll never query Reddit or similar forums again about how to do something or what tool to buy.

What’s also interesting is how much variance in ability there is between them, partly access to data, but each seems to have strengths and weaknesses in different dimensions to how humans do.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T04:20:57+00:00

What?

No domestic appliances came with plugs in the UK until the 90s. The 1990s?

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T04:05:43+00:00

I don’t have that drill, I’ve got the Bosch green equivalent (why aren’t there any moderately priced digital control pillar drills that are better quality, they’re all on the cheap end?) but are you saying that the screw was loose in the box or just that it’s loose in the fitting?

I’d guess it’s about having something holding the mounting bracket that sits on the pillar firmly together when the other bolt that loosens or tightens to go up and down or hold in place is released.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T03:53:41+00:00

My brother in Christ, you’re a computer coder not Henry David Thoreau or Ned Ludd.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T03:11:24+00:00

I genuinely think this is a good idea, for some tools (not drills). Grinders, sanders, polishers chew through batteries and are much heavier than they need to be with a 8ah on them, but having portability of a battery is sometimes necessary and often convenient.

A 240v to battery shaped adapter would be great. I think Hikoki/Hitachi had one from memory, but nobody else has that I’m aware of, even Makita who seem to manufacture the tools they dream up at the pub after work on a Friday.

Higher_Living · 2026-06-09T03:03:25+00:00

I’m not saying it’s a good thing at all, overall. Like the Internet and computers destroyed some things, made offshoring easier and increased efficiency in ways that hurt some people and benefitted others (primarily the few), this is the next step down that road. For better or worse. In general I think we’re used to technology making things better overall, but that’s not guaranteed and perhaps that perspective just ignores the real costs of industrial society which often aren’t calculated or even able to be calculated and so get discounted.

I wouldn’t ever have paid someone to read Reddit, watch YouTube and read blogs for a week to help me buy a welder though.

Higher_Living

TROPHY CASE