Hey Y'all,
I was reading the new Harry Potter book last night and I couldn't stop thinking how very much the Wizarding world is like the current state of our American Politics. The good guys are deeply under siege, even, it seems, often losing to the powers of darkness. The more I read, the more I think about it, the more parallels I find. So here goes.
If you're not a Harry Potter fan, most of the below will likely not seem relevant to you. If you are a Harry Potter fan, read on, and let me know what you think...
[Note: There are no spoilers in the diary, below, I'm only up to chapter 6 in my own reading of HALF BLOOD PRINCE. Actually... here's one spoiler - IT'S AWESOME!]
Harry Potter is clearly a children's masterpiece. J.K. Rowling has created a magnificent imaginary world of wizards, witches, magic and creatures too full and robust
not to be found enchanting by children and adults alike. With the release last week of Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the series takes us to it's penultimate installment and will likely leave us in the midst of an all-out-blood-and-guts-win-or-lose war between the forces of good, as represented by Harry Potter and his allies, and the forces of Evil as represented by the
Dark Lord Voldemort.
I'd like to talk for a moment about three major issues that I see as directly paralleling the state of American politics at this moment, and then take some time asking the critical questions about the usefulness of drawing such parallels and what they can do to further the cause of the Policial Left.
Three key parallels to our brave struggles are clearly striking to me as I read through the mythological tales of Harry Potter. First, and foremost, Harry Potter represents the forces of meritocracy and bravery in his world, just as the Liberal Left in ours, while the cabaal of dark wizards is clearly a repressive group of aristocrats and bigots which unmistakably mirrors conservatism in philosophy and practice if not in spin. Second, I see a very interesting parallel between the methods of the right-wing media machine and the methods of the dark wizards, in particular Voldemort. There are actions those of us in the political middle and left will not take, things we will not say to achieve victory, while the radical right has absolutely no qualms. Finally, and most striking, I see Harry's life story itself as a clear parallel of FDR's New Deal, his birth, time of vibrance, and current deep struggle is strikingly similar to the lifespan of FDR's Second Bill of Rights and the merciless assault is it now under.
If these connections can be asserted, what is the value? Can the common sense center learn anything from the lessons of a fantasy boy wizard and his friends? Can the defenders of the Middle Class take heart in the trials and achievements of "The Boy Who Lived"? In the face of hate, fear, bigotry, and cruelty, what do we have on our side? What Does Harry Potter Have?
ARISTOCRACY
DRACO MALFOY: Who let that filthy Mud-Blood in here?
So here's a question:
How did Tony Blair's son get a top position with the US Republican Party?. Was he the best qualified for the job? Had he achieved any great boon for the state of California in order to get a job with its top congressman? Had he personally achieved any great boon for the US? The answer is an unqualified "NO", but the question remains, how did he get the position?
Maybe the answer can be found in this piece about his previous position: Remarkably his last job was working as a Gofer on the movie for Harry Potter Book 3: the Prisoner of Azkhaban. Go figure.
Thanks to his dad's friendship with Steven Spielberg, Euan also previous worked on the set of the TV mini-series Band of Brothers.
See, at a certain point, it all comes down to who you know, whether the Prime Minister is your Dad, or your Dad's greatest ally happens to be President of the United States, or your dad just happens to know one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. I'm not picking on Euan Blair. I'm actually a big fan of Tony Blair, and I think we'd do well with a Democrat of his like in our White House. What I'm pointing to is the danger of aristocracy.
If you haven't read the brilliant article "What is Conservatism and What is Wrong with It?" by Philip Agre, please drop everything and go have a peek. Here's a clue as to his thesis:
Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.
Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.
In our world, we watch, dismayed as law after law is passed dismembering the Middle Class and wonder why. Here's what Agre has to say:
Modern-day liberals often theorize that conservatives use "social issues" as a way to mask economic objectives, but this is almost backward: the true goal of conservatism is to establish an aristocracy, which is a social and psychological condition of inequality. Economic inequality and regressive taxation, while certainly welcomed by the aristocracy, are best understood as a means to their actual goal, which is simply to be aristocrats.
This is becomming ever more prevelent thanks to the activities of the radical right. The K Street Initiative makes sure that all lobbying positions are held by Republicans; if there's a more qualified Democrat for the job employers are too afraid of the ramifications to make the hire. There is a spreading class of ultra-rich elitists drawn from the ranks of old money, as our President is. They help eachother and keep the rif-raff out. The economic policies of the far right have also eliminated nearly all protections for labor, and created a vast lower class largely immigrants who do "all of the things that Americans won't". As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer in America we are beginning to see the emergence of a new American aristocracy the likes of which have not been seen since the Guilded Age.
This is perfectly paralleled in the Wizarding world. Among Wizards there are aristocrats and commoners, not to mention slaves. The Aristocrats have wealth and family connections, and tend to want to protect their position in society. The Malfoy clan is a perfect example, or the house of Black, or the Notts, or even the House of Gaunt. There are also commoners. They work for a living, as aurors or shop keepers or just wizards in the various Ministries or just as Quiddich players or driving the Knight's Bus. They're the salt of the earth, they work, raise families practice their arts and try to stay out of other people's business. The Weasley's are a perfect example. Sure they've got family, but they're not going to try to get a leg up on anyone because of it. House elves are the slaves of the wizarding world. They do all the work for little or no compensation. Hermione actually tries to unionize them with some success.
BIGOTRY AND DIRTY TRICKS
DUMBLEDORE: Lord Valdemort has powers I will never have.
PROFESSOR MCGONNEGAL: Only because you're too noble to use them.
I'll leave much of the "Conservatism as Aristocracy" argument to Mr. Agre's magnificent paper The next clear parallel between the Wizarding world's forces of darkness and the radical right can be found under the heading Dirty Tricks, specifically bigotry and the use of evil forces to win.
The "prejudice" in the Wizarding world's aristocracy centers around the terms "Muggle" and "Mud-Blood". A Muggle is a non-wizarding person and a Mud-Blood is a wizard who's parents are Muggles. The word "Mud-Blood" is used in the Wizarding world precisely in the way the word "Nigger" is used in our world. To keep the "haves" in power and "have-nots" out. There's the same hatred, cruelty, and greed inherent in the use of both terms.
The modern conservative movement is founded on bigotry. Nixon's famous "Southern Strategy" was designed to take advantage of the hatred of blacks by southern voters and transform it in to election victories for Republicans. The GOP has been so successful in corraling bigots in to their pasture that they were comfortable in recanting the Southern Strategy last week in hopes of luring black votes. The GOP is soundly the home of racial bigotry and now they are expanding their repitoir to homophobia in the "anti-family" movement personified by gay marriage debate, and misogyny in the forms of the "anti-privacy" assault on a woman's right to choose. Hatred of blacks, gays, and independent women are the hallmark of the modern right.
In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. If you've already gone headfirst to the darkside with the bigotry, why not round it off with a fair share of dirty tricks. Professor Dumbledore is headmaster of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and widely regarded as one of the most powerful wizards around. There are certain things he would never dream of doing, largely because they are "Dark Arts" and clearly cost the user whatever much more than they might possibly gain. For example, it is well known that drinking unicorn blood can sustain a wizard even at the very edges of death, but since a Unicorn is such a pure being of beauty, if one were to kill a Unicorn, one would be forever doomed to a miserable half-life, neither truly alive or dead. In the first Harry Potter book, Lord Voldemort, the most powerful evil wizard, eagerly goes about murdering unicorns in order to stay alive.
I always think of this episode when I think of how Republican strategist Scott "Black Hands" Howell manages political campaigns. Howell is the same guy who was behind the Swift Boat Liars who killed John Kerry presidential bid, and laibeled Georgia Senator Max Cleland as "unpatriotic" despite the arm and two legs he'd lost while in uniform. He's completely partizan, will stop at nothing and absolutely hellbent on making Jerry Kilgore Governor of Virginia, regardless of the lies he has to tell or the bigotry he has to invoke. This is the darkest operative in the Republican party and he's come to roost on the Old Dominion. Prepare for an onslaught of lies and hate as the unqualified Kilgore uses the same old dirty tricks to try to become Governor.
This is all standard faire for the GOP, if they can't win on merit, they'll win by destroying the reputations of war-heroes.
HARRY POTTER AND THE NEW DEAL
We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people--whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth--is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure. - FDR July 11, 1944
As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them. ~J.K. Rowling, spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore
[This entry is getting too long, and I need to get on with the day. I'm going to go ahead and post it and follow up with a read on how Harry's life has paralleled the life of the New Deal in a future Diary.]
LOYALTY, BRAVERY, GUTS, AND BRAINS It's all Harry's got, and it should be enough for us.