Tolkien was not opposed to technology. However, he did oppose the rape of nature. Certainly, Isengard and Mordor are metaphors of a world gone awry, a world abused and misused for the sake of power and control. But it certainly is not an allegory.

I highly recommend Tolkien’s Modern Reading by Holly Ordway. Tolkien was a fan of science fiction and in 1957, he received the International Fantasy Award at the 15th World Science Fiction Convention. (It isn’t true that he thought the only good literature was written before the Middle Ages).

It is a mistake to suggest that LOTR is anywhere close to an allegory. Tolkien disliked allegory. He actually was not fond of his friend, C. S. Lewis' series Chronicles of Narnia because of several things--one was its allegorical nature.

Even with that dislike of Narnia, Tolkien enjoyed C.S. Lewis’ science fiction work Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra which, in an inscription he wrote in the cover of a copy, he compared it to a bottle of wine (“vintage”). He actually encouraged Lewis to write a science fiction piece about space.

All of that simply to say, he was not a Luddite by any stretch. His bucolic scenes point to his love for land managed by humanity. A farm is not a natural thing. It is managed by humans using human technology. I think it is simply a mistake to suggest that Tolkien hated technology based on his fantasy novel.

However, I dare say he would feel a great affinity to people like the poet and novelist Wendell Berry who is quite the advocate of the environment. Berry, too, loves farming and proper land management. Berry is opposed to the heavy industrialization of farming, to be sure--and Tolkien probably would feel right at home visiting Berry in his Kentucky farm.