I'd put it even more strongly in fact - a central theme of LOTR is that the world as it is *must* pass away, sad though that is, in order to give room for the new to come and the humble to be exalted. Galadriel & Gandalf must go *so that* Aragorn and the hobbits may come into their place.
Suzannah Rowntree
Tolkien is no progressive in disguise, but he knows that whether you like the changes it has wrought or not, you cannot arrest the passage of time.
A conservative may be someone who stands athwart history yelling "Stop!" but Tolkien is too stubbornly realistic to entertain such an empty fantasy.
Tom Emanuel
In which Denethor articulates the platform of the modern Republican Party: either freeze history or burn it to ashes.
