"With old J.R.R. in his grave since 1973, there’s no way to be certain, but it seems likely he would have been deeply disturbed to see the words “Anduril” or “Palantir” inscribed on a cruise missile or an AI targeting system.
In other letters, Tolkien wrote that “My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning the abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs)—or to ‘unconstitutional’ Monarchy.” This is obviously contradictory and eccentric, and literature scholars have spent decades debating exactly what he meant by it. But we get a clue a few sentences later, when Tolkien writes that “The most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.” I take that to mean that Tolkien liked the idea of “unconstitutional monarchy” in theory, if a purely benevolent king like his fictional Aragorn could be found, but he didn’t trust any actually existing leader to fill the role, and so opted for anarchy and the “abolition of control” as a lesser evil. (Other readers will, doubtless, disagree.) At any rate, the bit about “those who seek the opportunity” to wield power being the least fit of all is another clear rebuke to people like Thiel, Vance, and Yarvin, whose entire lives seem devoted to becoming more wealthy and powerful. In fact, we could call that the moral core of Tolkien’s entire mythos.
It’s especially ironic, when you know the ins and outs of Middle-Earth, that Peter Thiel chose to name his surveillance company “Palantir.” In The Lord of the Rings, a palantir is not a good thing to have. Actually, almost everyone who lays a hand on one is cursed and driven to their destruction by the experience."
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-the-right-abuses-tolkien
