The Geopolitical Implications of Armageddon-Inducing Reptiles

The existence of a fire-breathing, ill-tempered dragon suggests the creation of one geopolitical pole. Perhaps the inhabitants of Middle-Earth are simply inured to the existence of fantastical, and violent, creatures.  Yet, it seems that the existence of a super-predator would demand a new political calculus, both within and between societies. The cultural evolution of any group negotiating common space with a dragon suggests the transformation of a society. Surely we can imagine powers within the world so imposing that all aspects of a people would be touched.

This may resemble a certain type of defeatism, yet it is difficult to imagine a social sphere which would willingly antagonize a sleeping dragon. When Thorin and his band arrive in Lake-town, and subsequently announce their intentions to both awaken and slay Smaug the Terrible, surely a debate is in order about rousing this beast. Shut-up in a mountain, quietly sleeping, seems the perfect place for a dragon. The well-worn argument, this evil must be dealt with, while a certainly heroic trope, doesn't address the implications for others. If people are living under a repressive regime it is one thing to loosen their shackles. However, awakening the threat of annihilation while it peacefully sleeps, is another thing entirely. One type of politics can address living life in the shadow of a terrible, but contained, nearby power. Yet awakening that power would forcibly transform all social frameworks. I imagine that the presence of dragons would be cause for a re-calculation of economic and political focuses and power structures. The inclusion of such super-predators always seems to ignore their novel and transformative impacts manifest in how people interact with the world. Rather than a vast opposition, perhaps it would be better to say that the existence of such terrible power would haunt the very words and deeds of men and women in everything they did - at least in comparison to a non-dragon world. If evolution is the co-production of things with their environment, then people co-existing with dragons must become so culturally dissimilar that, over time, we would not recognize their kinship with us. Can we imagine powers so awesome that everything is significantly different in relationship to them? How would this foster novel creations?