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<blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4047531" data-attributes="member: 1054">It may be, but it doesn't have social approval. Up the ladder! The American Dream! My child's going to do better than me! Keep up with the Joneses! That's soooo last week! I wanna be class president/star quarterback/valedictorian! Etc, etc, etc.Getting off topic, but &quot;ambition&quot; is built into modern society; those without it are considered lazy, shiftless, leeches, parasites, etc. Not going to argue if this is valid or healthy or not, but it is the way we are. Further, our modern take on history says the Happy Farmer In The Fields is an Imperialist Lie; the peasants were oppressed, miserable, wretches kept enslaved to the whims of their Cruel Feudal Lords, and often rebelled, only to be slaughtered.Likewise, any human society which reached the point of hobbit-style agriculture was very hierarchical, whether benignly so or (usually) not. But Hobbits have no leaders; at best, they have a Mayor and some Sherriffs whose main jobs are to keep the drunks from getting too rowdy. Sure, it's Tolkeins ideal fantasy of working-class life...but it's just that, a fantasy. It not only never existed in reality, given human nature, it couldn't. But Hobbits/halflings, being non-human, CAN make this society work -- for them. This gives them a very alien psychology, as far as I'm concerned.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lizard, post: 4047531, member: 1054"] It may be, but it doesn't have social approval. Up the ladder! The American Dream! My child's going to do better than me! Keep up with the Joneses! That's soooo last week! I wanna be class president/star quarterback/valedictorian! Etc, etc, etc. Getting off topic, but "ambition" is built into modern society; those without it are considered lazy, shiftless, leeches, parasites, etc. Not going to argue if this is valid or healthy or not, but it is the way we are. Further, our modern take on history says the Happy Farmer In The Fields is an Imperialist Lie; the peasants were oppressed, miserable, wretches kept enslaved to the whims of their Cruel Feudal Lords, and often rebelled, only to be slaughtered. Likewise, any human society which reached the point of hobbit-style agriculture was very hierarchical, whether benignly so or (usually) not. But Hobbits have no leaders; at best, they have a Mayor and some Sherriffs whose main jobs are to keep the drunks from getting too rowdy. Sure, it's Tolkeins ideal fantasy of working-class life...but it's just that, a fantasy. It not only never existed in reality, given human nature, it couldn't. But Hobbits/halflings, being non-human, CAN make this society work -- for them. This gives them a very alien psychology, as far as I'm concerned. [/QUOTE]

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