LOTR: Saruman HP: Voldemort HHGG: Slartibartfast All villains who enforce their will on the world around than and don't give a damn what others think. Maybe this illustrates the power of social sanction? (I mostly didn't read the other replies before answering.)
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in general is it irrational to break with consensus? that depends on how the consensus was formed. if it's just a social norm then it's not irrational. if it's based on the best available evidence then yes it is irrational to break with it unless you have new evidence.
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There was *no* available evidence for what would happen if Saruman got hold of the ring. Gandalf and the Elflords had one theory: Saruman had another. We will never know which was correct. I suspect Saruman *was* wrong, inasumch as a fictional character can be "wrong."
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we absolutely have evidence. we know that the rings rapidly corrupt any mortals and that all 9 of the human kings and all 7 of the dwarf lords became corrupted this way. we also know that the other 3 Wizards became corrupted by various means (if not necessarily rings of power).
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Saruman is not mortal. Sauruman is stronger and arguably smarter than the other wizards.
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well he seemed to think so but it turns out not so much
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Whether a person is shown to be incorrect about something after the fact has zero bearing on whether they are smarter than somebody who was not. And he was the strongest, as I said, until Gandalf leveled up. Which the Valar arguably did for the purpose of dealing with Saruman.
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(Side note: I've really enjoyed this conversation, even when we didn't agree. I hope everyone else has too, and no one is suffering from nerd rage.)
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agree completely. nerding out makes me happy.
End of conversation
New conversation -
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Saruman failed *without* the ring, and arguably because he never got hold of it. Had he known that he was not going to get hold of it no matter what, he might have acted very differently. The fact that he failed does not mean he was wrong about what he could do with the ring.
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