Tolkien was idiotic in his own way with his proto-hippy vision of an ideal rural society.
A society protected by giants its members were ignorant of. His work makes clear the Shire would never have existed without Gordor or Arnor.
Tied into the Shire is the sentiment that despite it being a bubble that fact didn't exclude it from having good qualities which were represented in its people.
Tolkien had an agenda throughout his writing;
Of course he did, and every bit of his works focused on them: That Western Civilization and Christianity had intrinsic qualities that bettered the world and were constantly under attack throughout their history by forces that sought to bring them down and tear them asunder, the latter day history of his world in LOTR, just as in ours, was simply yet another age when they were under siege when it looked like there was no hope.
The modern scholarly consensus is that the British Empire was, in the long run, bad for everyone. Just because you would like to think it is good, doesn't make it good; there is still plenty to be proud of in English history, as England has produced many heroes of the arts and sciences, from Chaucer right up until the latest top-sellers and scientists.
There is more to culture than art and science. The Empire was national endeavor that took centuries and looked ludicrous from the get go. It all began with the revival and repurposing of the old Anglo-Saxon title of their king as the Lord of the Seas in Elizabethan times, originally meant to convey their rule over the English Channel.
That claim replaced the old Norman claims to France as the national endeavour of the people and compelled them to expand out into the world instead of sitting around producing wool to sell to the Flemish.
Societies needs purpose just as individual people do and its no surprise the British ran into trouble once they fulfilled their claim and struggled to find a new one to replace it. Countering German hegemony in Europe took over, but it was largely re-purposing their decline in a form of self-sacrifice.
No Britain, like much of the rest of the West, have nothing to strive for and are consumed with self-doubt, the only thing they seem to busy themselves with is making themselves as happy as they can, contentment is never condition that produces real grow in people or society.
Say you are a living, talking , walking piece of shit.
Would you rather:
1. Acknowledge what you are
2. Say you're great.
Honesty is the ultimate virtue.
Except no person is ever something like that, we are shades of many things and it is up to us what we chose to make ourselves represent. If you think of yourself as nothing but trash you will never be anything more than trash.
The British set a high standard for themselves to meet and strove to reach as closely to it as they can without whitewashing their mistakes, but those same high standards leave them open to attack by ignorant idiots who only see them claiming to be something more than they presently are.
