Life imitates art

[Beren3000]

I thought I'd share with you a guys a truly Tolkien experience I've recently had.
I come from Egypt and, I'm sure most of you have heard, we've had a recent popular uprising in Egypt that ended in the overthrow of the president and his cabinet.
During the initial period of unrest, the police were (intentionally) withdrawn from the streets and the people of every neighborhood took their security upon themselves. As a result, I joined my neighbors nearly everyday in vigilante groups to guard against thugs and looters.

During that time I was on my umpteenth LOTR re-read. I started noticing many uncanny similarities between the situation and LOTR:

1- On the first day I had to join the vigil groups, Faramir was saying: "War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all"

2- While Mubarak (our president) was digging in his heels and refusing to step down, Gondor was being besieged.

3- After the military council came into power, many pleas sprang up on Facebook asking amnesty for the Egyptian soldiers who left their posts to join in the protests. While that was happening, I was reading this: "The Lord does not permit those who wear the black and silver to leave their post for any cause, save at his own command." "Well, you must choose between orders and the life of Faramir".

The whole ambiance of the story at that point was so like the way I felt during the recent turmoil.
Please understand that I'm not saying there's a mystical, metaphysical connection between the two. It just got me thinking of how accurately Tolkien has portrayed the emotions of such circumstances and how timeless his writing really is.

Ever felt that way? Ever found a situation in your life so like to LOTR that you were immediately reminded of it?