Andrea Monda, the director of L’Osservatore Romano, has written an op-ed criticizing the Meritocracy Fellowship of the software company Palantir Technologies.
Recalling the palantir of J.R.R. Tolkien’s literature, Monda critiqued the fellowship’s goal of avoiding indoctrination in college: “the ‘Palantir’ in the novel is a tool (a kind of crystal ball that allows remote communication) that serves precisely this purpose: brainwashing! Just as the Fellowship, the Company Tolkien speaks of, is anything but meritocratic!”
Monda concluded:
The already disturbing meritocratic project taking hold in the most developed valley on the planet has absolutely nothing to do with the green valleys of the Hobbit Shire of Middle-earth. If “Palantir Technologies” intended to borrow Tolkien’s language, then behind it are not peaceful hobbits, but malevolent lords of evil who have already plundered this extraordinary novel, which, let’s face it, doesn’t deserve it!