Empathy for a Chance at Redemption

I had once hear that since it is easy to have empathy for people we like, the point of empathy is to have it for people we don’t.¹ Though I agree with this and it was recently prominent in my mind, I now realize that the point of empathy is also to foster redemption.

Following the death of a controversial public figure, some of my friends celebrated the figure’s death, even going so far as to claim they deserved it. That precise claim immediately brought to mind one of the most famous quotes from The Lord of the Rings. After Frodo claims that Gollum deserves death, Gandalf replies:

However, I omitted what Gandalf says immediately preceding this quote: “Deserves it! I daresay he does.” Whether Gandalf is here agreeing with Frodo or using ‘daresay’ as a sarcastic rebuke actually serves to illustrate the point of the omission and my application of it to the public figure: his personal opinion of Gollum is irrelevant to the view that we should not be hasty in wishing or celebrating the death of those we don’t like.

The Indictment of Master Gamgee

In correspondence with fans and colleagues, J.R.R. Tolkien on one hand praises Samwise Gamgee as “the chief hero” of The Lord of the Rings² while on the other citing his treatment of Gollum as perhaps his personal “most tragic moment in the Tale.”³ Here’s his case:

What may be of some consolation to Sam fans is that his treatment of Gollum was largely inevitable. Additionally, Sam does ultimately reach a point of pity for Gollum, but in a curious way: through the bearing of the Ring⁵. During Sam’s final confrontation with Gollum at the door to the Cracks of Doom, he has an opportunity to kill the begging-for-mercy Gollum:

Seemingly counter-intuitively, the One Ring, this ultimate symbol of power and corruption, enhanced Sam’s inherent sense of empathy.⁷ That is, Sam’s exposure to (what I’ll call) Primary Evil caused him to remember his natural empathy.

Hearken back to Nietzsche’s quote: fighting evil must be done artfully, lest we ourselves turn into the monster (like Sam does for Gollum). While Sam initially failed to take care, he did eventually gaze into the abyss of the Ring. It gazed back, reminding him of his choice to have empathy. How we let the abyss change us is within our control.⁸

Say a friend of yours is brainwashed into a cult. Ridiculing them will get you nowhere. Certainly, like Gollum, they won’t be convinced to leave their cult because you made them feel bad. That will only make them embrace the “safety” (that is, familiarity) of the cult, further entrenching them. Rather, we must warmly help people to summon the courage needed to reject the cult and join reason (like Frodo attempted with Gollum). Those brainwashed folk are sub-evil victims. That is, they are secondarily evil, corrupted to spread the lies that have been propagandized to them by the Primary Evil – the propagandist, the cult leader. But they are redeemable, and we must have empathy to inspire their redemption. Primary Evil figures (e.g., Hitler) are often too rotten to the core (like Gollum after Sam’s rebuke⁹) for empathy to redeem them. But as a rule, most people’s inherent goodness is merely fooled by evil, and we must maintain our faith in hope that their goodness can prevail once more with the help of our empathy.

The point of all this is to say: we could all be Sam damning Gollum whenever we lack empathy and perspective. Gollum needed empathy for any chance of redemption, and (pre-Ring) Sam denied it.¹⁰ Recognizing that we are all irrational actors, susceptible to propaganda, and capable of evil, it is our responsibility as humans (and hobbits) to fight monsters artfully, remembering empathy for sub-evil victims.

First Impression Bias

I remember discussing Christopher Nolan’s Tenet with a friend who frustratingly said, “I shouldn’t have to watch a movie three times for it to make sense!” At the time, I agreed with him. Now, however, I generally disagree (though maybe not in regards to Tenet in particular), because I’ve realized that I’m constantly developing appreciation for things through repeated exposure. Like the old adage: the first time you hear a song, it washes over you and carries you along with it. The second time, your mind begins to see the interplay of instrument and lyric. The third time, you understand the meaning.¹¹

Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam are each initially fooled into believing their numerous reasons for disliking Gollum warranted his death. It isn’t until the enhanced perspective from the Ring – the abyss staring back into them – checks this bias do they remember empathy and pity and realize they were wrong.

In Good Faith

Most of my familiarity with the term “in good faith” came from its use in debate. Essentially, it’s the distinction between arguing from a place of sincerity versus disingenuity and self-interest. It wasn’t until I read Skye Cleary’s How to be Authentic that I understood its broader applicability. For example, knowing that I simply must choose to engage, I ask myself, “did I make a good faith effort to write today?” By that I simply mean, “did I make a sincere effort to engage with writing today?” If the answer is yes, then I’m satisfied. If the answer is no, I feel an anxious call to action which grows the more I ignore it (i.e., act in bad faith).

Often only the craftsman knows if he acts in good faith or not, this is why Tolkien goes to such pains to distinguish art from magic (which I elaborate on elsewhere). For example, propaganda may disguise itself as art, but since its intent is power and domination, Tolkien would say it is fundamentally not art but villainous magic.

Most Primary Evildoers act in bad faith – they know what they’re doing is wrong and do not care who they hurt – but, crucially, their sub-evil victims – the cult members – act in the opposite: so potent is their faith in the propogandist that they develop a cognitive dissonance, taking as real anything this Primary Evil infects them with despite their better judgement. This is simultaneously the fear and righteousness unpinning the difficulty in liberating a cult member and the reason their good faith delusion must be met with good faith empathy. A person bumps into you, knocking you down. You scrape your knee. You look up, and your simmering blood runs cold as you realize they’re blind. How upset can you really be at someone who cannot see? After all, they were using their cane.¹²

The Duality of Man & The Perception of Reality

Gollum exemplifies the duality of man (hello, Sméagol). We all do. At my best, I see art and beauty all about me. At my worst, I’m Wormtongue angrily storming out of Edoras crying “get out of my way.” That is, I take personally every small, inconsequential grievance, rashly blaming people’s ignorance.¹³

It is life’s beautiful gift how subjective the human experience is, how each of us has this duality inside us and is experiencing a unique reality, influenced by innumerable factors.¹⁴ I believe to truly see a person, we must seek to understand how their mind works – their duality and how they perceive and interpret life’s events – because that is their entire reality. Like in the case of Sam, who finally dimly guessed the agony of Gollum’s shrivelled mind, that understanding kindles our empathy, and as Frodo nearly achieves, can inspire redemption.

Footnotes

1. Paraphrase from the YouTube channel à-bas-le-ciel ↩︎
2. “Letter 131,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien ↩︎
3. “Letter 246,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. See 5 for further context. ↩︎
4. See 9 ↩︎
5. “[Sam’s] service and loyalty [to Frodo]… had an ingredient (probably inevitable) of pride and possessiveness… it prevented him from fully understanding the master that he loved. He plainly did not understand Frodo’s motives or his distress… If he had understood better what was going on between Frodo and Gollum, things might have turned out differently in the end… For me perhaps the most tragic moment in the Tale comes… when Sam fails to notice the complete change in Gollum’s tone and aspect… His repentance is blighted and all Frodo’s pity is… wasted… This is due of course to the ‘logic of the story’. Sam could hardly have acted differently. (He did reach the point of pity at last (III 221-222) but for the good of Gollum too late.)” “Letter 246,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien ↩︎
6. This scene and realization are incredibly reminiscent of Bilbo’s own experience with Gollum all those years prior. He too had the ability and desire to kill Gollum, but “A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo’s heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering.” (“Riddles in the Dark,” The Hobbit) Unlike with Sam, Tolkien does not explicitly state the reason for Bilbo’s ‘sudden understanding.’ However, based on the similarities, I’d posit the same phenomenon from the Ring is occurring with Bilbo. ↩︎
7. This is how the Ring works – it enhances one’s innate nature (though ultimately always leading to Evil, whatever the beginning intent), which is why Bilbo’s ownership of the Ring began with pity while Gollum’s began with murder. That is, Bilbo was genuinely kind, whereas pre-Ring Sméagol was already on the path to wickedness. ↩︎
8. This is similar to the ‘timshel’ revelation in Steinbeck’s East of Eden – we have a choice. ↩︎
9. “…the tragedy of Gollum who at that moment came within a hair of repentance – but for one rough word from Sam.” (“Letter 96,” The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien) ↩︎
10. Perhaps Tolkien cites this moment as his personally most tragic moment because Sam’s rebuke both prevented Gollum’s redemption and also changed Gollum into an irredemable Primary Evil. ↩︎
11. Ironically for how obsessed with it I am now, this was my experience with The Lord of the Rings; during my first readthrough, I was actually so sick of it that when I finally reached the end, I didn’t even read the appendices. Repeated readings and engagement with the lore overcame my first impression bias. ↩︎
12. While I understand why some may hesitate at such a comparison, I invite you to ponder the validity and the point. ↩︎
13. This is projection. Whenever I make a mistake, I fear people will think I made it because I am stupid. ↩︎
14. At the same time, I also believe we are all more similar than we are different. Fighting arises when we overlook our similarities and focus too intently on minor differences. ↩︎