You know, I’ve always identified more with Orcs and Sauron than the men and elves.
The politics of Lord of the Rings and J.R.R Tolkien more generally are actually really interesting.
Tolkien’s politics come from an era where Industrialism was seen to be contrary to the Conservative establishment. The forces of “Good” in Middle Earth (the Elves, Dwarves, Gondor, the Shire, etc.) represent this Conservative establishment (in many forms) while the forces of “Evil” (Orcs, Saruman, Sauron) represent not Socialism but Industrialism and Liberalism (and to some extent, Capitalism) - an abandonment of traditional values in favor of the accumulation of personal power., a degradation of morality and personal dignity.
Tolkien was a fascinating man. Some of his politics were ahead of his time, whereas other times there was a lot of “back in the day” style racism shining through. Like the elves being perfect beautiful white people, while the orcs and “evil men” were all explicitly asiatic.
