The one ring and the age of mechanical reproduction

Now that the One Ring is available for $US16.95 we can turn our minds to the necessary disclaimers - "WARNING: this ring will not turn the user invisible" or "WARNING: This ring will not find the other rings of power, bring them, in the darkness bind them, or rule them."

Actually, the ring could have done with some warnings from the beginning. Has anyone pointed out what a spectacularly bad idea it was to make it at all? At the end of TROTK Sauron was on the verge of total victory despite not having had the use of the ring, and only the ring being thrown into the fires of doom stopped him. If he'd simply hung around till the heroic age was over and everybody else in the top rank of the beings had gone home he could have conquered Middle-Earth quite satisfactorily without anything other than an orc extruder and a talent for organisation. All he did was create a needless vulnerability. Though I suppose you could say the same about America and the A-bomb.

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