“Suddenly another voice spoke, low and melodious, its very sound an enchantment. Those who listened unwarily to that voice could seldom report the words that they heard; and if they did, they wondered, for little power remained in them. Mostly they remembered only that it was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire awoke in them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves. When others spoke they seemed harsh and uncouth by contrast; and if they gainsaid the voice, anger was kindled in the hearts of those under the spell.”
– “The Voice of Saruman,” The Two Towers
“Freedom of speech” is a topic American society frequently invokes. Indeed, it is a core foundational principle of the Republic and our university system (the primary rationale behind tenure, which you may be surprised to learn is in deep decline). With the recent controversies over White Supremacists Richard Spencer and Milo Yiannopoulos, we are again seeing the specter of freedom of speech being called on in defense of these hateful ideologies. So the arguments run, we cannot hide from ideas we do not like or agree with. We must engage them on equal terms and allow Reason to dictate the victor. Let’s address this.
A few months ago, I wrote a post on Authoritarianism and Tolkien, which briefly touches on the fact that Saruman is frequently compared to Adolf Hitler, and how his appeals to the concepts of “law and order” are rhetorically identical to those in contemporary American politics. I knew even while writing that post that I was not developing my thoughts on Saruman in sufficient detail, and have wanted to revisit it for some time. Now, I think, is the perfect moment to discuss how the Voice of Saruman in The Lord of the Rings can be used as a tool for understanding current political discourse.
As demonstrated in the opening quote of this article, Saruman uses his Voice to persuade even his fiercest opponents to heed his will. He shapes the way people view and understand the world. We are no strangers to this phenomenon; human intellectuals have studied rhetorical theory since at least the ancient era. Ideally, many of us would wish to see ideas rise and fall on their own merit, but in reality that is seldom the case. Rhetorical appeals to base assumptions and values are by and large what determines whether an idea succeeds or fails. And as we have seen of late, rhetoric is able to boost blatant falsehoods to the level of canon. This is where Saruman’s greatest power resides.
Saruman speaks. Gif source: tumblr user asgxrdixn
An entire chapter of The Two Towers is dedicated to a rhetorical confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman at Isengard. Saruman, his armies defeated and his stronghold occupied by Ents, still manages to sway the assembled with his Voice; he attempts to portray himself as a victim and the Free Peoples as aggressors. He claims that their ways of decency will lead them to destruction at the hands of a greater Evil than he. The results are chilling:
And over their hearts crept a shadow, the fear of a great danger: the end of the Mark in a darkness to which Gandalf was driving them, while Saruman stood beside a door of escape, holding it half open so that a ray of light came through. There was a heavy silence.
It was Gimli the dwarf who broke in suddenly. ‘The words of this wizard stand on their heads,’ he growled, gripping the handle of his axe. ‘In the language of Orthanc help means ruin, and saving means slaying, that is plain. But we do not come here to beg.’
-“The Voice of Saruman,” The Two Towers
Gimli proves resistant to the power of the Voice, perhaps because of Dwarvish resilience to magic, perhaps due to his gruff and straightforward manner. Regardless, the scene vividly portrays how even the Riders of Rohan, who had suffered so much at the White Hand of Saruman, could be enchanted by his rhetorical magic. Indeed, Tolkien describes them as “cheering” when Théoden initially says he will make peace with Saruman. But thanks to the intervention of Gandalf and Gimli, the power of the spell is broken to an extent. Saruman is able to portray himself as righteous and reasonable, when in fact he is neither. If this Voice is so powerful, and so few are able to resist its glamour, what can one hope to do about it? Should it simply be let loose, in the interest of “freedom of speech?”
“Voice of Saruman,” by Saul Zaentz
There is a long precedent in the American judicial tradition that speech which incites or causes harm to others is not protected speech. The classic example is yelling “fire” in a crowded theater when there is no fire. However, it can be difficult to prove “harm” in many cases. This is why the government does not frequently take sides in speech controversies. Recently, an event with Milo Yiannopoulos at UC-Berkeley was canceled after the university decided it could not guarantee the safety of participants. This incident is being touted by many as a symbol of a fight for the freedom to hold “unpopular opinions.” Protesters have been derided as being unwilling to engage in “reasoned discourse” and as hiding from ideas they cannot refute. I will allow Gandalf to respond for me:
‘Understand one another? I fear I am beyond your comprehension. But you, Saruman, I understand now too well. I keep a clearer memory of your arguments, and deeds, than you suppose. When I last visited you, you were the jailer of Mordor, and there I was to be sent. Nay, the guest who has escaped from the roof, will think twice before he comes back in by the door.’
-Gandalf to Saruman, “The Voice of Saruman,” The Two Towers
The people who protest Yiannopoulos, Spencer, and the rest of their White Supremacist crew are not the ones who are ignorant of their ideas and actions. Indeed, they know the rhetorical appeals and their consequences all too well. Resistance is predicated on prior events where demonstrable harm was caused to students by the very nature of Yiannopoulos’s vitriolic theatre, outing and inciting the crowd against a transgender student at UW-Milwaukee, who subsequently was forced to drop out after harassment became unbearable. There is reason to suspect that the same approach would have been deployed at Berkeley, to devastating effect. As Gandalf pointed out, and as I am hoping my argument has made clear, in order for freedom of speech to function, there needs to be good faith on both sides. Saruman, like today’s so-called “Alt-Right,” is not acting in good faith. He fully intends to deceive and manipulate, lie and connive, in order to have his way. And once he has his way, you can rest assured that no Voice shall be heard but his own.
– Saruman at Orthanc, as portrayed in The Return of the King (2006)
Not All Who Wander Are Lost 
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