Ring of Power?

During my tutorial at one point, Dr. Caldecott, replied to something I said with, "the so-called ring of power."

For those who have never read The Lord of The Rings or seen the movies, the entire quest revolves around the destruction of a ring that the personification of evil--Sauron--crafted.  It was made at the same time as other rings held by elves, dwarves and human beings, but is the master over them and their wearers.  Sauron wants the  ring back because he then will dominate those who lead the other races.

At least that is what he thinks.  Dr. Caldecott's point was fairly simple--if the ring of power is so powerful what power does it demonstrate?  Well, it does give its wearer invisibility and it does appear to push to madness those who possess it.  So it does have some demonstrable powers, but neither of those are ultimate sorts of power that can be used to exert control over others, just deception.

If the ring of power is so powerful, why does Sauron have it cut off his hand and lose it in the first place?  If the ring of power is so powerful, why does it wearer need others to accomplish their will?  If the ring of power is so powerful, why does it not give Frodo the strength to go with power into Mordor?

The so-called ring of power in the story demonstrates only the power of making its wearer vanish literally and figuratively from others.  It removes the person literally from community by making them invisible to other people.  The wearer becomes a non-entity, a negative space.

But it functions figuratively as well as the will of the one who wears it seems only to be able to do things in the world by the agency of others.  The ring takes away the power of the individual to do work in the world.  The domination of others ultimately causes the diminishing of the self.

The power of the ring of power is the same power as the power of all temptations.  It promises one thing while delivering quite another.  Rather than delivering ultimate power, the circle of the ring encloses and diminishes its wearer until they cease to have power at all.