is, I think, the key here. Every society has a deep-seated need for a mythos to fulfill the sense of being rooted in time and space. In our current state of modern life, we don't really have a universal mythos that transcends the divisions imposed by the divergent streams of varying cultures. LOTR seems to me to serve that function. It gives all of us a common mythological ground where we can meet and revel in the expression of idealism and purpose that embraces a multiple of cultural expressions. The fact that it's a rattling good saga is an added bonus...