Expecto Patronus: or How the Wizarding World Really Works (Part 1)

[pharnabazus]

This essay is very long so I'm breaking it up into parts, but it's really meant to be read all together, with each section building on the previous ones.

Comments

[anyro]

You raise a lot of interesting points, especially about the patronage system. I also found your comparison to ancient Rome and the Middle Ages interesting. (Certainly, Rowling did that on purpose: Just like robes, castles and parchment, lawlessness ‘seems’ old, and therefore, fitting.)

However, I find one point of you (and by extension, of Rowling) questionable: What will happen if the Muggles find out? Will they really prove a danger to the world of wizards and witches, or will they not just be blown away by magic if they try to get the magical world under Muggle control?
This leads directly to the question: How much can magic do? Of course, it seems that given their numbers, and possession of nuclear weapons etc., Muggles would have many advantages in an open war against wizards and witches, but probably at a very high cost. This also makes me wonder, magic has any power whatsoever beyond Bannishing cushions and other rather childish actions, why wizards and witches let it get that far, why they let Muggles become so powerful

[pharnabazus]

I think that Muggle technology is helpless before magic (it won't even work where there's a lot of magic around). Both have developed considerably in the last few centuries, especially in terms of communication, but wizards have always had the edge

[anyro]

True, but regarding the importance of total numbers, I disagree. Think how very few people rule this RL world through money and weapons. Experts on the importance of economic giants say fewer people rule the world today than it was the case in the times of Absolute monarchies. Do you think magic would have so much less power than money?

[pharnabazus]

What you are suggesting is (in effect) a return to the age of wizard-kings

[emeraldbijou]

I guess my reaction to the issue of Muggles "finding out" is, just how likely is that to happen, on a large scale? I mean, look at people who claim to have been abducted by aliens or to have been rendered violently ill by condensation trails from airplanes as part of a government conspiracy or to have met Elvis in 1997--their stories may be interesting, and certainly some people investigate such tales. There is a lot of fascinating evidence about alien abductions gathered by psychologists and such. But just how many people believe in aliens? (You've said something like this--)The strength of people's convictions about the way their world works--the power of denial--is the strongest protection Wizards have.

[pharnabazus]

I am privately convinced, though, that the "strength of [Muggle] people's convictions about the way their world works" is the deliberate result of generations of work by the Department of Misinformation. It did not arise by accident at all. It is not maintained by accident or by inaction either: it must require continuous work to maintain it

[emeraldbijou]

Wow, that's a really interesting thought!--that kind of deliberate misinformation being perpetrated by the Ministry--of course many Muggles suspect that their own governments might be doing the same thing to cover up their own secrets. It's all a big circular conspiracy theory isn't it? Excellent really.

I do feel a bit violated now, silly fangirl that I am. I don't my world view shaped by the Ministry...hahahah...

Re:

[pharnabazus]

I’d wondered about that myself

Re:

[mgafm]

I realize I am way behind when this was posted, but I wanted to say that there are quite a number of muggles who do know about the wizarding world. Think about all the muggle children who go to Hogwarts, there immediate family knows that they are witches. All the witches that marry muggles. The list gets rather extensive. So, it would seem that persons are allowed to know about the wizarding world so long as people don't. Therefore, it is completely within the realms of everything JKR has written for the PM to be given information. It would seem logical that there would be some cooperation between wizarding and muggle worlds, in the government and otherwise. The rule just seems to be "reasonable cause," and govt. falls under that heading.

In any event, love the essay, it is spot on.

Re: Muggle Prime Minister

[anonymous]

>>"some magical catastrophes or accidents are too glaringly obvious to be explained away by Muggles without the help of an outside authority. The Office of Misinformation will in such a case liase directly with the Muggle Prime Minister to seek a plausible non-magical explanation for the event." <<

And of course Fudge came up through the Magical Catastrophes Department. To him that would always look like the obvious last step in any crisis.

Justice

[anonymous]

Hey, I was just wondering where that essay was, by A.J. Hall is? And if anyone can better organize the main page, cause sometimes to find essays, you have to click on links from other essays, its all very confusing.

Excellent work by the way, I like OotP alittle better now that I've read these essays.
Sharker

Re: Justice

[pharnabazus]

I am glad you liked the essay.

A.J.Hall's essay "Justice in the Wizarding World" is not online at the moment, so far as I know. It was one of the papers presented at Nimbus 2003, and I don't know when they're going to be published or released online. It's probably worth inquiring about it.

[ari_o]

Hello there. This is fascinating and you obviously put a great deal of effort and thought into this. I found you through the fandom death match thingie. You are my opposition. :D