Palantir: How Tech Bros Misread Tolkien

The Westfold Will Burn

By An Informed Alarmist

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the Palantiri were magical orbs that could give their users a vision of something taking place far away. Only very powerful and capable beings, such as Saruman the wizard, Denethor the leader of Gondor, and the big baddie Sauron were able to use these seeing stones. But even the very wise could be deceived by what they saw, and using a Palantir led to their downfall.

For a nerd such as myself, the Palantiri are a sinister symbol of hubris and a tool of manipulation. So a red flag went up as soon as I heard about a company called Palantir Technologies, a data analytics and surveillance company that primarily works with the military, immigration control and intelligence communities. I was incredulous that anyone would name their data mining company after a tool that promises foresight but ultimately leads to ruin.

And then I realized that Palantir is one of Peter Thiel’s companies.

Like Mithril Capital (named after Middle Earth’s most precious mineral) or Anduril Industries, named after Aragorn’s sword, these seemingly playful names actually help paint an increasingly clear picture of the repugnant neoreactionary movement (NRx) that Thiel and Elon and the other billionaire trolls running our country are a part of: one part Saruman’s hubris, one part Dwarf-like lust for minerals, and one part confidence in the inevitable greatness of the Men of the West (Anduril, dontcha know, means “Flame of the West”).

But what all of this tells me is that Thiel and his ilk have drawn all the wrong lessons from Lord of the Rings. The most vivid lesson comes from the story of Denethor, who was brilliant, strong willed, and utterly devoted to the cause of Gondor, but he was also jealous of rivals and insecure about his power being usurped by Gandalf and Aragorn. Sauron is able to subtly shift what Denethor sees in his Palantir in order to magnify his fears, leading him to despair and inaction.

Saruman, as a Wizard, was even more prideful and powerful than Denethor but he had devotion to nothing but himself and thus was easy to manipulate. Sauron showed the Wizard exactly what he wanted to see in the Palantir and bent Saruman to his purpose.

Like Sauron, Thiel and the NRx movement want a new world order with themselves at the top, and their accelerationist philosophy means that they will raze the White City, burn the Westfold, and turn the Shire into a cryptomining wasteland to get it. They see our era in apocalyptic terms: War of the Last Alliance, the end of an age, and all that.

But for Tolkien, hope was essential. Denethor’s despair led to his death which meant he could play no part in saving Gondor. As Gandalf also showed, giving up hope is irrational and might even cause the doom we wish to avoid. Only when we know for certain there is no way out should we stop trying to act on our hope. We should not be deceived by the seeming certainty given to us in the Palantir. Hope is the antidote to apocalyptic nihilism.