Well not exactly but close enough.
When Tolstoy writes about his aristocratic epicurean friends, a voice in my head responds, “Let’s not disparage the Epicureans, old man.”
Epicureans were into simple pleasures and promoted a simpler life than even the Hobbits. But there are a lot of similarities. They’re both into gardens and love their food and friendships. Neither group was aspiring to power or wealth beyond basic sustenance. Neither was after the hifalutin pursuit of the good and both were into mostly keeping to themselves.
It’s those nasty Stoics like Aragorn and Gandalf that get in the way of their peace and quiet.
In any case there’s some sort of morality trap when you start to over rationalize goodness instead of just trying to provide aponia to yourself and the people around you. Many of our daily choices have global consequences now and you need a super rationality to make sure each act is “good”. But that’s really inhuman, we’re terrible at that. We’re better at treating each other well when we have strong contextual cues, when our needs are met by people who are in close proximity.
The wider world has encroached on the Shire though so what to do?
It’s likely impossible at this point but we should rehumanize, hobbitize, epicurianize.
I mean unless you feel like you’re Gandalf and can go slay the Balrog and all that. By all means, go do it. And if you’re Frodo too, go ahead and heed the calling.
I’ll see if I can keep the Shire going while you’re gone.
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