Thursday
In his list of “26 Villains of 2026” (“ranked by how much harm they’ve done and/or are poised to do to the people of this country and the world”), blogger Greg Olear mentioned a Tolkien allusion from this past year that I missed. Apparently former employees of Palantir believe that their company, which “develops data integration and analytics platforms enabling government agencies, militaries, and corporations to combine and analyze data from multiple sources” (Wikipedia), has taken on the negative aspects of Tolkien’s crystal ball, after which the company is named. They headlined their open letter of May 5, 2025, “The Scouring of the Shire: a letter from concerned Palantir alumni to the tech workers of Silicon Valley.”
In case you need reminding, the palantír has been devised by men of old to allow people to (in Gandalf’s words) “see far off, and to converse in thought with one another.” The letter cites one reference to the sphere that appears in Tolkien’s unpublished writings:
The palantíri were no doubt never matters of common use or common knowledge…They were kept in guarded rooms, high in strong towers, where only kings and rulers, and their appointed wardens, had access to them, and they were never consulted, nor exhibited, publicly.
Unfortunately Sauron has gained control of the palantíri and adjusted their algorithms to fit his ends. Therefore, other owners—Saruman and Steward of Gondor Denethor—don’t realize that the reality presented to them by the stone is in fact being manipulated by the dark lord. It is this unethical manipulation that Palantir’s former employees fear.
The “scouring of the shire” is a reference to the hobbits returning home and freeing their countrymen from the grip of Saruman and his quislings. Frodo and company reverse the Shire’s descent into a tyrannical and industrial hellhole and restore it to pastoral innocence and democratic governance. Sam will go on to be elected mayor for multiple terms.
Palantir’s alums fear that the forces of darkness are taking over our own shire. Their letter opens,
When J.R.R. Tolkien passed, he left the story of the palantíri, the all-seeing stones of Middle Earth, unfinished. In a sense, the story is still being written.
The myth of the powerful seeing stones warned of great dangers when wielded by those without wisdom or a moral compass, as they could be used to distort truth and present selective visions of reality. Similarly, Palantir Technologies’ platform grants immense power to its users, helping control the data, decisions, and outcomes that determine the future of governments, businesses, and institutions — and by extension, all of us.
Early Palantirians understood the ethical weight of building these technologies. A Code of Conduct was crafted to uphold democracy, preserve the spirit of free scientific inquiry, and ensure responsible AI development. Guardrails were set to prevent discrimination, disinformation, and abuses of power. These principles have now been violated, and are rapidly being dismantled at Palantir Technologies and across Silicon Valley.
It’s a grim irony that Tolkien fan Peter Thiel has missed the author’s central point, which is that power corrupts. In fact, these technofascists (as some are calling them) have begun espousing positions embraced by Adolph Hitler, the original model for Sauron. A profile on Thiel and his company elaborates:
Palantir . . . combines machine learning with military spending, data-driven “intelligence” with naked violence. This is most clear in its longstanding collaboration with ICE, which is now carrying out notorious immigration raids at the behest of the Trump administration. “On the factory floor, in the operating room, on the battlefield,” states a recent Palantir recruitment ad placed across US college campuses, “we build to dominate.”
Palantir’s alumni, shaken by Elon Musk’s looting of the government’s sensitive data, address the turn their former company has taken:
Palantir’s leadership has abandoned its founding ideals. Public statements have grown hostile to diversity, equity, and inclusion, principles that — despite corporate misuse — remain essential for critiquing power and ensuring ethical applications of technology. Instead, executives now employ inflammatory language, sow confusion, and invite controversy — going as far as threatening critics with violence.
Meanwhile, democracy faces escalating threats: biometric data collection on immigrant children, journalists being targeted, science programs defunded, and key U.S. allies, like Ukraine, sidelined. Trump’s administration has sought to greatly expand executive powers while alluding to monarchy. Recently, Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, removed distinguished military leaders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff for discriminatory reasons, replacing them with unqualified loyalists. Big Tech, including Palantir, is increasingly complicit, normalizing authoritarianism under the guise of a “revolution” led by oligarchs. We must resist this trend.
It’s worth reflecting for a moment on the popularity of Lord of the Rings amongst the Thiels of the world. Since Thiel is also a fan of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, I wonder if John Rogers’s biting observation about the two works needs amending:
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
Does Tolkien’s trilogy also lead to a stunted and socially crippled adulthood? It is true that Tolkien has created a black and white universe where there is little tolerance for other races (hobbits, dwarfs and elves excepted) where a king must return to restore order. Through fantasy one can leave one’s messy world behind, which is what both Thiel and Musk—also a Tolkien fan—dream of with their techno-utopias.
But fantasy doesn’t have to work in this way. Terry Pratchett’s multicultural disc world series can be seen as a Tolkien corrective as goblins, trolls, werewolves, vampires, witches, dwarfs, humans, leprechauns, and (most dangerous of all) elves must figure out how to peacefully co-exist. But that difference being noted, Pratchett fully endorses Tokien’s warning about power corrupting. In Thud!, for instance, we see how “the summoning dark” threatens to twist even a good man like Commander Vimes.
Does Thiel remember how, standing on Mount Doom, Frodo lacks the power to resist his own dark impulses—and that he is saved only by a moment of grace and a past act of mercy? It’s a Christian vision, coming out of the author’s deep Catholic faith. Thiel may claim to be a follower of Christ, but his Christianity is antithetical to Tolkien’s.
