What is the evidence for Sauron's love of Law and Order?

Question

[I]t had been [Sauron's] virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction. (src: History of Middle-earth X Morgoth's Ring Part 5: "Myths Transformed" Chapter VII "Notes on motives in the Silmarillion" - h/t this answer)

Is there compelling evidence for this characterization in other works (LOTR primarily, but not necessarily) for Sauron liking order/coordination and disliking confusion and waste?

Answer 1

This is hard to answer definitively, since we have so little insight into the inner mechanisms of Sauron's Empire, but I'll do my best.

• From one perspective, simply supporting (or setting himself up as) a sole ruler of the world is evidence in itself; whatever else you might say about dictatorships, they're the most efficient system of government (assuming your definition of "efficiency" is "getting your own way, all the time")

• There's some evidence that Sauron had ordered Mordor rather effectively, providing for his armies in a rather inhospitable land:

  Neither [Sam] nor Frodo knew anything of the great slave-worked fields away south in this wide realm, beyond the fumes of the Mountain by the dark sad waters of Lake Núrnen; nor of the great roads that ran away east and south to tributary lands, from which the soldiers of the Tower brought long waggon-trains of goods and booty and fresh slaves. Here in the northward regions were the mines and forges, and the musterings of long-planned war

  ^{_{Return of the King Book VI Chapter 2: "The Land of Shadow"}}

• There's also abundant evidence of strict military organization among the Orcs of Mordor; the last few chapters of Book IV, and the first few of Book VI, are replete with orcs talking about signals, orders, regular patrols, and a rigid chain of command.

• While not exactly evidence, it's telling that Sauron's initial attempt at taking over Middle-earth is realized through mind control; from the published Silmarillion:

  [W]hile [Sauron] wore the One Ring he could perceive all the things that were done by means of the lesser rings, and he could see and govern the very thoughts of those that wore them.

  But the Elves were not so lightly to be caught. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and perceived that he would be master of them, and of an that they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took off their rings.

  ^{_{The Silmarillion V *Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"}}

  It's thematically interesting that Sauron's goal isn't just to conquer the free races, but to impose his will upon them. Had he succeeded, Sauron's will would have been the only will in effect among the Elves. This is also, essentially, the plan of Star Trek's Borg, and Doctor Who's Cybermen: not merely conquering, but assimilation.

  This motivation is something Tolkien touches on again in "Notes on Motives", the essay referenced in the question (emphasis mine):

  Sauron, however, inherited the corruption of Arda, and only spent his (much more limited) power on the Rings; for it was the creatures of earth, in their minds and wills, that he desired to dominate.

  ^{_{History of Middle-earth X Morgoth's Ring Part 5: "Myths Transformed" Chapter VII "Notes on motives in the Silmarillion"}}