Author: Jaconaazar Souza Silva
Institution: Federal Institute of Brasília (IFB) — Recanto das Emas Campus
Position: Laboratory Technician in Audiovisual Arts
Symbolic Location: Recanto das Estrelas – XChronos Project
Date: April 2025
Abstract
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is not merely a fantastic adventure but also a profound critique of the materialistic spirit that haunts humanity. Smaug, the dragon who hoards treasure in his lair, represents more than individual greed: he embodies the ethical collapse produced by the obsessive quantification of wealth.
This article explores how draconic hoarding—mirrored in the real world through arms races, consumerism, envy, and violence—perpetuates global disorder. It proposes a symbolic rereading of Tolkien as a timeless warning against materialist reductionism, aligning this perspective with the symbolic measurement of lived time introduced by the XChronos Project.
1. Introduction: Smaug the Hoarder
Smaug makes no use of his treasure.
He does not invest it, share it, or transform it.
He merely hoards—as if possession itself were the pinnacle of being.
Tolkien portrays Smaug almost clinically: immobile atop a mountain of gold and jewels, the dragon is not nourished by his wealth; he is nourished by the illusion of ownership.
This is the symbolic key:
Hoarding for the sake of hoarding is sterile.
And where life is sterile, corruption grows.
2. Draconic Hoarding in the Modern World
Tolkien wrote in the 20th century, yet his message resonates with far greater urgency today.
2.1 Arms Race
Nations accumulate nuclear weapons they never intend to use, but whose mere existence destabilizes the world—a mountain of latent destruction.
2.2 Consumerism
Individuals collect products, status, and possessions far beyond their needs, trapped in an endless cycle of manufactured dissatisfaction.
2.3 Envy and Violence
Where gold is the supreme measure of value, envy becomes inevitable and hatred festers in the fractures created by extreme inequality.
2.4 Murder and Chaos
In societies where having outweighs being, human life loses its value in the pursuit of objects.
The spirit of Smaug reigns.
3. The Quantification That Destroys Meaning
The true poison of draconic hoarding lies not merely in greed, but in the reduction of reality to cold, dead quantities.
- A country is measured by its GDP, not by its happiness.
- A human being is valued by net worth, not by kindness or wisdom.
- An object is desired for its price tag, not for the meaning it carries.
The obsession with quantifying everything destroys the symbolic soul of existence.
What cannot be counted is discarded.
What can be counted is idolized.
Thus beauty, compassion, art, and consciousness are suffocated.
4. Tolkien’s Antidote: The Journey, Not the Treasure
In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins embodies a lesson Smaug could never comprehend:
- The value of life does not lie in gold.
- True worth lies in experiences, bonds, and inner transformation.
Life is movement, not accumulation.
Life is transformation, not stagnation.
Life is sharing, not possessing.
Bilbo is not defined by the wealth he encounters, but by the courage he discovers within himself.
This is Tolkien’s antidote to the draconic spirit of our time.
5. Conclusion
The 21st century is the age of new dragons.
They do not breathe literal fire—they incinerate souls.
If humanity continues to measure reality solely by the weight of gold, it risks falling asleep atop its own ruins, as Smaug did upon his pile of gilded bones.
The solution is not to destroy wealth but to re-enchant the meaning of value.
To remember that what matters is not what we hoard, but what we become.
The XChronos Project, by proposing the symbolic measurement of lived time—as presented in Chronons, Hectachronos, and Hexachronons: A Proposal for a Symbolic Measurement Model of Subjective Time (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15181968)—echoes the same truth:
The true value of existence lies not in the accumulation of objects, but in the symbolic intensity of lived moments.
May we gaze into Tolkien’s mirror and choose a different path—
A path where consciousness, not greed, guards the treasures of our world.
References
- Tolkien, J.R.R. (1937). The Hobbit. Allen & Unwin.
- Souza Silva, J. (2025). Chronons, Hectachronos, and Hexachronons: A Proposal for a Symbolic Measurement Model of Subjective Time. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15181968
Keywords
Tolkien; Smaug; Materialism; Draconic Hoarding; Symbolic Consciousness; XChronos Project; Philosophy of Value; Chronons; Consumption and Spirituality; Ethics of Wealth