Tolkien

I think Tolkien's whole spiel, is creating technology that harmonizes with nature, both human and the earth. He got that from William Blake, which I know for a fact, he had to have some contact with Jerusalem. As the two have nearly identical themes. Like that is the meaning of TLOTR, and Sauron is not Hitler, but unchecked industrialization. It's more the conflict of World War I and not actually World War II, which is why he always hated allegory.

But that could also be the fact that Industrialization was seen as something like a Plague in the English Conscience, from even the time of William Blake, and that theme arose organically in Tolkien's mind. That's always possible, too, as communication works that way.

Tolkien, for instance, got the Ring of Power from The Elder Edda, and so did Wagner, and that's why the two are so similar, and sometimes Tolkien is erroneously said to have been inspired by Wagner, when he really was inspired by Seamunder.

But I say World War I because he saw no man's land, and the beginnings of modern warfare. That was the first modern war, and it destroyed so much of the pastureland and green, and it was the result of industrialization frustrating people. You can see film of people right on the cusp of World War I in old Film Reels, how they're kind of lackadaisical, and don't understand how to navigate the streets right, and kind of dreamily go about their business in shock by all the new advancements of technology. That's the ring of power, is that corruptive influence of power and greed, combined with the destruction of the Earth through industrialization. Smoke chimneys creating black smog that would choke out entire communities; strip mines; bad civil engineering geared more toward what's practical than what's beautiful. Mr. Scrooge is more Sauron than Hitler. It's just that wasteful greed and mindless destruction.