Sat, Jan. 24th, 2004, 05:12 pm

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



The wizarding world under the statute: patron and client in the state of emergency



It is only since Order of the Phoenix appeared that it has become clear to everyone that the Wizarding World, for all the wonders it contains, is in fact an extremely lawless place. Until then, the clues had been largely ignored. That Sirius Black could be sentenced to a lifelong torture without a trial was generally put down to a wartime situation, in spite of the awkward truth that the war was in fact already over – not to mention the curious oversight that his case was not once reviewed in twelve whole years of peace, and no one, not even Dumbledore, had any complaints. Moreover, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets exactly the same thing happened to Hagrid. In spite of the fact that the Ministry of Magic didn't really think he was guilty, they casually put him away in Azkaban for psychological torment, without any sort of hearing and for purely cynical reasons: they felt that they had to be seen to be "doing something" in order to reassure the wizarding public.



In the first four books, however, this sort of injustice didn't affect the protagonists much (except for a foretaste in Goblet of Fire) and so the reader was never fully aware of the degree of lawlessness and misuse of power that wizardkind is subject to. This finally happened with Order of the Phoenix, where a whole string of pernicious laws were more or less introduced on the nod, and the misuse of power and propagation of lies were at last directed at Harry himself.



The reason for this cavalier approach to justice, and for the frightful punishments routinely imposed for almost purely deterrent purposes, is that Wizarding Britain in particular, and the whole Wizarding World in general, has been living under a continuous state of emergency for over three hundred years – ever since the Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was passed in 1692: a state of emergency that has lasted so long that it is taken for granted by everyone. In fact, it seems completely normal; and there's no prospect of ending it, either, because if it ever were relaxed, the Muggles would find out, with unthinkable consequences.



Muggles finding out the secret of what has been really going on – that they have been fed a diet of lies for centuries about the truth of their world, and that they routinely have their memories rearranged by a caste of people completely indifferent to their hopes and fears, their wars and sufferings, would clearly be a catastrophe now. In the long run, in order to prevent the Muggle "Powers That Be" (whether legitimate or criminal) from taking control of their local wizards, adding magic to their arsenals and killing off those that resisted, a wizarding tyranny would have to be established over the Muggle world, ruthlessly wiping out any Muggle authorities strong enough to challenge the wizards. In the meantime there would be every likelihood of genocidal war between various factions of both peoples, fed by panic and revenge – and with hunts for traitors and quislings on both sides. And Muggles are bound to find out in the end, unless the authorities and the population in general are allowed to react quickly and effectively without regard to constitutional niceties.



And they do. Given the need for secrecy, this is a matter of necessity, because in the end enough people will get careless sufficiently often for even the Muggles to work out what's going on, in spite of all the squads of Obliviators, unless wizards as a whole are really terrified of what will happen to them if they do get careless, and unless there's a habit of sorting out problems quickly and only asking questions afterwards, when the evidence has usually been Obliviated. This is the true cause of the seemingly automatic presumption of guilt in wizarding justice – which Harry Potter came up against twice when accused of performing underage magic in front of Muggles: once when Dobby framed him in Chamber of Secrets, and more recently when he had to drive away the Dementors from Privet Drive. "Innocent until proved guilty, Severus" (Dumbledore’s warning to Snape) is the exception more than the rule.



As a result of these constraints, wizarding society has evolved in a very different manner from our own. Since their society can't have a proper rule of law (as we understand it) without risking its own existence, wizards have found another way of ensuring their safety and protection. One way of describing it is what historians call bastard feudalism, whereby in a lawless age (like England in the Wars of the Roses) unprotected men attached themselves to a powerful baron as his retainers: they would serve in his household and fight on his behalf – and he would make it clear to everyone that they were under his protection from enemies on both sides of the law. No enemy could attack a powerful baron's retainers without being punished, and the baron would make sure their lands weren't seized by a neighbour or confiscated by the government, and they couldn't be jailed on a trumped up charge. In return, they would fight for him whenever he needed a private army. In Chamber of Secrets it's hinted and in Goblet of Fire it becomes quite clear that Lucius Malfoy has just such an army, made up of ex-Death Eater commandos. So, it seems, has Albus Dumbledore, as the Ministry of Magic correctly feared – it's called the Order of the Phoenix, and it's made up not of Dumbledore's most powerful friends (like the Wizengamot elders who resigned in his support) but of those who are completely loyal to him. One of the chief developments in Harry Potter's fifth year at school is that he develops a similar armed force of his own. He calls it Dumbledore's Army, it's true, but in fact it's really his own army. Just a small segment of it (Harry's Inner Circle, in fact) turned out to be surprisingly capable of holding its own against a picked force of Voldemort's own elite Death Eaters.



However, a much closer parallel to the way power seems to work in the Wizarding World is the patron-client system, such as existed in Ancient Rome. Indeed, there are several parallels between Wizarding Britain and the Roman Republic: Crouch's sentencing of his son to Azkaban for plotting to bring back Voldemort is a definite echo of the Roman Magistrate Lucius Junius Brutus condemning his own son to death for plotting to bring back the exiled king and tyrant Tarquin; also, the lack of any official representation for Harry at his trial before the Wizengamot follows Roman practice: he was entirely dependent on what he could say in his own defence and the private efforts of an eminent statesman like Dumbledore. Perhaps this is hardly surprising: ease of communication and small population have made wizarding Britain very like an old city state (it even depends on some sort of slave labour) with large portions of the economy in the hands of outsiders (the goblins). Further parallels lie in the gradual decline of the old noble caste (patricians and pure-bloods, both of which were massive casualties of the last round of civil wars, proscriptions and murders) and the way both Rome and wizarding Britain could culturally absorb new blood (freed slaves and Muggle-born) by bringing them up in Roman households and wizarding boarding schools like Hogwarts.



Still, there is one major difference. In Ancient Rome the patron-client system was a formally recognised part of how government and social relations worked. By contrast, the wizarding version is entirely unofficial, and grew up in response to the simultaneous weakness, corruption and capricious power of the Ministry of Magic – the inevitable consequence of that fact that Secrecy always comes before Justice. The Ministry is weak in that it cannot provide protection from abuse of power coming from either side of the law, and its capricious power is all too evident in the draconian punishments it imposes, which usually leave the victim a physical and emotional wreck if not mad, and which most wizards (like Peter Pettigrew) will do nearly anything to avoid.



Basically, the system works by otherwise unprotected wizards attaching themselves to a powerful "patron" and becoming his "clients." The patron will smooth over any problems his client might have with the Ministry of Magic, and use his money and connections to help him out of his difficulties, and keep him out of Azkaban – as Dumbledore did with Mundungus Fletcher. In return, the client himself becomes a part of the patron's entourage and connections. The patron ends up with a large body of wizards dependent on him whom he can rely on (a private army, in other words) which effectively puts him above the law, because the wizarding world doesn't actually have armies, at least in the Muggle sense of the word. Some patrons may well have an even more powerful patron of their own, and a wizard at the top of a patronage tree is a very powerful figure indeed: such are Dumbledore, and Lucius Malfoy, to whom wizards like Crabbe and Goyle defer. Their sons in turn attend on Draco, as bodyguard and entourage; this makes them part of the same patronage network, because Draco's patron is his father.



The strength of a particular patronage network depends not only on the patron and clients themselves, but on the strategic resources which they control, and over which the struggle for power is fought. As A.J. Hall explained in her recent paper "Justice in the Wizarding World":



"There exist a number of key strategic pieces over which each primary [patronage] network seeks control or influence, Hogwarts and the Ministry being two, and Harry himself representing a third (others may be Gringotts, The Daily Prophet and possibly St Mungo’s). A network not controlling a particular strategic piece has the options either of outright conflict for possession of it, entering into an alliance with the network that does have control of the strategic piece, or working to discredit or eliminate the importance of the piece concerned."



This is precisely what Fudge's network attempted to do to Harry Potter once they had turned against Dumbledore. Harry was in Dumbledore's pocket, so Fudge's faction in response did all they could to discredit Harry, and so eliminate his importance.



Continued in Part 2... 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.It is only sinceappeared that it has become clear to everyone that the Wizarding World, for all the wonders it contains, is in fact an extremely lawless place. Until then, the clues had been largely ignored. That Sirius Black could be sentenced to a lifelong torture without a trial was generally put down to a wartime situation, in spite of the awkward truth that the war was in fact already over – not to mention the curious oversight that his case was not once reviewed in twelve whole years of peace, and no one, not even Dumbledore, had any complaints. Moreover, inexactly the same thing happened to Hagrid. In spite of the fact that the Ministry of Magic didn't really think he was guilty, they casually put him away in Azkaban for psychological torment, without any sort of hearing and for purely cynical reasons: they felt that they had to be seen to be "doing something" in order to reassure the wizarding public.In the first four books, however, this sort of injustice didn't affect the protagonists much (except for a foretaste in Goblet of Fire) and so the reader was never fully aware of the degree of lawlessness and misuse of power that wizardkind is subject to. This finally happened with Order of the Phoenix, where a whole string of pernicious laws were more or less introduced on the nod, and the misuse of power and propagation of lies were at last directed at Harry himself.The reason for this cavalier approach to justice, and for the frightful punishments routinely imposed for almost purely deterrent purposes, is that Wizarding Britain in particular, and the whole Wizarding World in general, has been living under a continuous state of emergency for over three hundred years – ever since the Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was passed in 1692: a state of emergency that has lasted so long that it is taken for granted by everyone. In fact, it seems completely normal; and there's no prospect of ending it, either, because if it ever were relaxed, the Muggles would find out, with unthinkable consequences.Muggles finding out the secret of what has been really going on – that they have been fed a diet of lies for centuries about the truth of their world, and that they routinely have their memories rearranged by a caste of people completely indifferent to their hopes and fears, their wars and sufferings, would clearly be a catastrophe now. In the long run, in order to prevent the Muggle "Powers That Be" (whether legitimate or criminal) from taking control of their local wizards, adding magic to their arsenals and killing off those that resisted, a wizarding tyranny would have to be established over the Muggle world, ruthlessly wiping out any Muggle authorities strong enough to challenge the wizards. In the meantime there would be every likelihood of genocidal war between various factions of both peoples, fed by panic and revenge – and with hunts for traitors and quislings on both sides. And Muggles are bound to find out in the end, unless the authorities and the population in general are allowed to react quickly and effectively without regard to constitutional niceties.And they do. Given the need for secrecy, this is a matter of necessity, because in the end enough people will get careless sufficiently often for even the Muggles to work out what's going on, in spite of all the squads of Obliviators, unless wizards as a whole are really terrified of what will happen to them if they do get careless, and unless there's a habit of sorting out problems quickly and only asking questions afterwards, when the evidence has usually been Obliviated. This is the true cause of the seemingly automatic presumption of guilt in wizarding justice – which Harry Potter came up against twice when accused of performing underage magic in front of Muggles: once when Dobby framed him in Chamber of Secrets, and more recently when he had to drive away the Dementors from Privet Drive. "Innocent until proved guilty, Severus" (Dumbledore’s warning to Snape) is the exception more than the rule.As a result of these constraints, wizarding society has evolved in a very different manner from our own. Since their society can't have a proper rule of law (as we understand it) without risking its own existence, wizards have found another way of ensuring their safety and protection. One way of describing it is what historians call bastard feudalism, whereby in a lawless age (like England in the Wars of the Roses) unprotected men attached themselves to a powerful baron as his retainers: they would serve in his household and fight on his behalf – and he would make it clear to everyone that they were under his protection from enemies on both sides of the law. No enemy could attack a powerful baron's retainers without being punished, and the baron would make sure their lands weren't seized by a neighbour or confiscated by the government, and they couldn't be jailed on a trumped up charge. In return, they would fight for him whenever he needed a private army. In Chamber of Secrets it's hinted and in Goblet of Fire it becomes quite clear that Lucius Malfoy has just such an army, made up of ex-Death Eater commandos. So, it seems, has Albus Dumbledore, as the Ministry of Magic correctly feared – it's called the Order of the Phoenix, and it's made up not of Dumbledore's most powerful friends (like the Wizengamot elders who resigned in his support) but of those who are completely loyal to him. One of the chief developments in Harry Potter's fifth year at school is that he develops a similar armed force of his own. He calls it Dumbledore's Army, it's true, but in fact it's really his own army. Just a small segment of it (Harry's Inner Circle, in fact) turned out to be surprisingly capable of holding its own against a picked force of Voldemort's own elite Death Eaters.However, acloser parallel to the way power seems to work in the Wizarding World is the patron-client system, such as existed in Ancient Rome. Indeed, there are several parallels between Wizarding Britain and the Roman Republic: Crouch's sentencing of his son to Azkaban for plotting to bring back Voldemort is a definite echo of the Roman Magistrate Lucius Junius Brutus condemning his own son to death for plotting to bring back the exiled king and tyrant Tarquin; also, the lack of any official representation for Harry at his trial before the Wizengamot follows Roman practice: he was entirely dependent on what he could say in his own defence and the private efforts of an eminent statesman like Dumbledore. Perhaps this is hardly surprising: ease of communication and small population have made wizarding Britain very like an old city state (it even depends on some sort of slave labour) with large portions of the economy in the hands of outsiders (the goblins). Further parallels lie in the gradual decline of the old noble caste (patricians and pure-bloods, both of which were massive casualties of the last round of civil wars, proscriptions and murders) and the way both Rome and wizarding Britain could culturally absorb new blood (freed slaves and Muggle-born) by bringing them up in Roman households and wizarding boarding schools like Hogwarts.Still, there is one major difference. In Ancient Rome the patron-client system was a formally recognised part of how government and social relations worked. By contrast, the wizarding version is entirely unofficial, and grew up in response to the simultaneous weakness, corruption and capricious power of the Ministry of Magic – the inevitable consequence of that fact that Secrecy always comes before Justice. The Ministry is weak in that it cannot provide protection from abuse of power coming from either side of the law, and its capricious power is all too evident in the draconian punishments it imposes, which usually leave the victim a physical and emotional wreck if not mad, and which most wizards (like Peter Pettigrew) will do nearly anything to avoid.Basically, the system works by otherwise unprotected wizards attaching themselves to a powerful "patron" and becoming his "clients." The patron will smooth over any problems his client might have with the Ministry of Magic, and use his money and connections to help him out of his difficulties, and keep him out of Azkaban – as Dumbledore did with Mundungus Fletcher. In return, the client himself becomes a part of the patron's entourage and connections. The patron ends up with a large body of wizards dependent on him whom he can rely on (a private army, in other words) which effectively puts him above the law, because the wizarding world doesn't actually have armies, at least in the Muggle sense of the word. Some patrons may well have an even more powerful patron of their own, and a wizard at the top of a patronage tree is a very powerful figure indeed: such are Dumbledore, and Lucius Malfoy, to whom wizards like Crabbe and Goyle defer. Their sons in turn attend on Draco, as bodyguard and entourage; this makes them part of the same patronage network, because Draco's patron is his father.The strength of a particular patronage network depends not only on the patron and clients themselves, but on the strategic resources which they control, and over which the struggle for power is fought. As A.J. Hall explained in her recent paper "Justice in the Wizarding World":"There exist a number of key strategic pieces over which each primary [patronage] network seeks control or influence, Hogwarts and the Ministry being two, and Harry himself representing a third (others may be Gringotts, The Daily Prophet and possibly St Mungo’s). A network not controlling a particular strategic piece has the options either of outright conflict for possession of it, entering into an alliance with the network that does have control of the strategic piece, or working to discredit or eliminate the importance of the piece concerned."This is precisely what Fudge's network attempted to do to Harry Potter once they had turned against Dumbledore. Harry was in Dumbledore's pocket, so Fudge's faction in response did all they could to discredit Harry, and so eliminate his importance. Sun, Jan. 25th, 2004 12:33 am (UTC)

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 instead of preventing it.

If it is possible to rule and / or ‘fix’ the world by magic, I do wonder why wizards and witches don’t do that. (The eternal question of the series, I suppose.) If it is not, why should magic be such a big deal that it is taught in a separate school, and why keep it top secret if its powers are so limited? How, for example, can wizards and witches do without ‘decent jobs’? How did many wizard families come by their wealth? To me, it seems logical that, among other things, they must have exploited Muggles in a Feudalism-based fashion. How, then, could the Muggles become more powerful than witches and wizards?

To me it seems that if you approach these questions logically and read the children’s books with an ‘adult mind’, you have a problem.

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 instead of preventing it.If it is possible to rule and / or ‘fix’ the world by magic, I do wonder why wizards and witches don’t do that. (The eternal question of the series, I suppose.) If it is not, why should magic be such a big deal that it is taught in a separate school, and why keep it top secret if its powers are so limited? How, for example, can wizards and witches do without ‘decent jobs’? How did many wizard families come by their wealth? To me, it seems logical that, among other things, they must have exploited Muggles in a Feudalism-based fashion. How, then, could the Muggles become more powerful than witches and wizards?To me it seems that if you approach these questions logically and read the children’s books with an ‘adult mind’, you have a problem. Sun, Jan. 25th, 2004 01:17 am (UTC)

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.



The chief weakness of wizards (in the event of a hypothetical conflict with Muggles) is their comparative lack of numbers; to even maintain their own numbers (and hence maintain their hegemony over goblins and other magical peoples) they need new blood from the Muggle world. Ron is almost certainly right in saying that if it weren't for the Muggle-born, "we'd have died out."



For every wizard there are probably several thousand Muggles. That means it would be almost impossible for a wizarding caste to rule Muggles directly, even if it were the full time job of nearly all wizards - but Muggles can still be manipulated (and hence more easily controlled) by subterfuge, secrecy, and (above all) misinformation. Magic has a far greater potential to control Muggle society, as long as Muggles don't know it exists. You can't fight any opponent, if you don't know he exists.



I suspect that (if Muggles knew about wizards - let us say, if memory charms no longer worked) a conflict would be a very messy business. Some Muggles would (in time) work out how magic worked, and they would probably have at least some wizards on their side. Both worlds have their internal divisions, and wizarding unity in the face of Muggles is actually a consequence of Secrecy. So it wouldn't simply be a matter of wizards on one side, and Muggles on the other. In the short term, Dark curses like Imperius could be used to set Muggle powers against one another. Ultimately, I think that for a wizarding victory to be secure the wizards would have to cull Muggle numbers drastically (probably by setting Muggle nations against each other) and this would horrify most wizards (at least under present conditions). Quite apart from the inhumanity, the risk of fallout of various kinds would be horrendous.



Anyway, the idea of working out how to end separation isn't even discussed in the wizarding world. I think this must mean that thoughtful wizards are genuinely terrified of what might happen if Wizarding Secrecy came to an end. 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.The chief weakness of wizards (in the event of a hypothetical conflict with Muggles) is their comparative lack of numbers; to even maintain their own numbers (and hence maintain their hegemony over goblins and other magical peoples) they need new blood from the Muggle world. Ron is almost certainly right in saying that if it weren't for the Muggle-born, "we'd have died out."For every wizard there are probably several thousand Muggles. That means it would be almost impossible for a wizarding caste to rule Muggles directly, even if it were the full time job of nearly all wizards - but Muggles can still be manipulated (and hence more easily controlled) by subterfuge, secrecy, and (above all) misinformation. Magic has a far greater potential to control Muggle society, as long as Muggles don't know it exists. You can't fight any opponent, if you don't know he exists.I suspect that (if Muggles knew about wizards - let us say, if memory charms no longer worked) a conflict would be a very messy business. Some Muggles would (in time) work out how magic worked, and they would probably have at least some wizards on their side. Both worlds have their internal divisions, and wizarding unity in the face of Muggles is actually a consequence of Secrecy. So it wouldn't simply be a matter of wizards on one side, and Muggles on the other. In the short term, Dark curses like Imperius could be used to set Muggle powers against one another. Ultimately, I think that for a wizarding victory to be secure the wizards would have to cull Muggle numbers drastically (probably by setting Muggle nations against each other) and this would horrify most wizards (at least under present conditions). Quite apart from the inhumanity, the risk of fallout of various kinds would be horrendous.Anyway, the idea of working out how to end separation isn't even discussed in the wizarding world. I think this must mean that thoughtful wizards are genuinely terrified of what might happen if Wizarding Secrecy came to an end. Tue, Jan. 27th, 2004 04:10 am (UTC)

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.

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. Tue, Jan. 27th, 2004 05:32 am (UTC)

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.



In addition, I think that the Department of Misinformation (and its foreign equivelents) have deliberately planted and fostered "harmless" Muggle "scientific" supertsitions about aliens and UFOs as a way of misdirecting those who are naturally credulous, and those who notice unusual things that their worldview can't account for, so that they will jump to an alternative explanation for anything magical they stumble across. Otherwise some people would be more or less "bound" to suspect magic.



In fact, there's something about the Department of Misinformation that reminds me of the diabolical civil service in the Screwtape Letters. It isn't anywhere near as malevolent, but they both manipulate Muggle perceptions from behind the scenes in a remarkably similar way.



My point was that the misinformation system can take occasional mistakes and leaks in its stride; but if wizards in general had less to fear from the authorities (and thus grew more careless) and if the reaction of the authorities to breaches of security were slower and more measured, the leaks might approach the critical point at which the worldview of many Muggles started to be affected.



It's a question of just how many leaks there are, and just how well publicised they are. At the moment, both are well within safetly limits. The wizards did get a bit careless, though, the day after Voldemort's defeat at Godric's Hollow. 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.In addition, I think that the Department of Misinformation (and its foreign equivelents) have deliberately planted and fostered "harmless" Muggle "scientific" supertsitions about aliens and UFOs as a way of misdirecting those who are naturally credulous, and those who notice unusual things that their worldview can't account for, so that they will jump to an alternative explanation for anything magical they stumble across. Otherwise some people would be more or less "bound" to suspect magic.In fact, there's something about the Department of Misinformation that reminds me of the diabolical civil service in the Screwtape Letters. It isn't anywhere near as malevolent, but they both manipulate Muggle perceptions from behind the scenes in a remarkably similar way.My point was that the misinformation system can take occasional mistakes and leaks in its stride; but if wizards in general had less to fear from the authorities (and thus grew more careless) and if the reaction of the authorities to breaches of security were slower and more measured, the leaks might approach the critical point at which the worldview of many Muggles started to be affected.It's a question of just how many leaks there are, and just how well publicised they are. At the moment, both are well within safetly limits. The wizards did get a bit careless, though, the day after Voldemort's defeat at Godric's Hollow. (Deleted comment) Fri, Jan. 30th, 2004 12:29 pm (UTC)

pharnabazus I’d wondered about that myself.



We don't know how much Cornelius Fudge told the Muggle Prime Minister, do we? He certainly told him about the crisis of Sirius Black's escape, and that Sirius was dangerous, but we don't know how much Fudge told him about the Magical World itself. It's extremely unlikely that Fudge told the PM everything, although to tell him anything at all was clearly enough to worry the International Federation of Warlocks.



"Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis," the Daily Prophet explained.



Unusual as Fudge's action seems to have been (and the criticism implies that it "was" unusual) it wasn't entirely without a precedent. Newt Scamander, in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" speaks of the way that "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."



This seems to imply that the wizarding authorities (after three centuries of seclusion) have so little real knowledge about what it is like to live in the Muggle world, that they have to consult with Muggle authorities to construct convincing explanations for magical accidents and catastrophes. It also implies that they prefer to consult with a single Muggle potentate than with several minor ones (which would increase the risk of discovery) and that they tend to choose the Muggle Prime Minister because he’s in the best position to help. Whether the Muggle is afterwards memory-charmed or kept under observation is not clear from Scamander's words.



However, in the Daily Prophet's account in Prisoner of Azkaban, Cornelius Fudge went on to say that he had "the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it - who'd believe him if he did?" This makes it fairly clear that the Prime Minister has not been Obliviated (and wouldn't be) and that Fudge had told the PM that Sirius Black was a wizard. This displays an astonishingly casual attitude to the Statute of Secrecy, when you remember that keeping magic hidden for Muggles is basically what the Ministry is for! Was there some other (magical) guarantee of the Muggle PM’s silence? Fudge’s words don’t suggest that he was aware of any such thing, but there are clearly many (legal) ways of influencing a Muggle’s behaviour by magic without resorting to forbidden curses like Imperius; Muggle-repellent charms are one, but there may be others.



On the other hand, for such a potentially risky breach of security to go by with so little practical opposition suggests there were limits to what Fudge told the PM about Sirius. Perhaps the PM was only told that a dangerous criminal of known paranormal abilities was now at large. We don't know for sure how much the Muggle Prime Minister really knows about the magical world. It may in fact be very little.



My guess is that there are always some agents of the Office of Misinformation who work within the Muggle government, or are in a position to influence its members. However, to judge by the horror with which the fact Fudge’s revelations were received among international wizardry, it must have been rare for some generations to tell the Muggle Prime Minister anything. It would have been the Voldemort terror that changed that, and forced the Ministry of Magic to let the Muggle PM into their (limited) confidence in order to help to preserve secrecy. This is what Scamander referred to. Somehow (by persuasion or magic, fear or partial ignorance) this partial collaboration with Muggle authority didn't reveal the secret to Muggles.



With Voldemort’s fall, this tradition of gaining the help of Muggle insiders in maintaining secrecy was presumably allowed to lapse, but Cornelius Fudge clearly revived it when faced with Sirius Black’s escape, doubtless because of the pressure to capture him, and the fear that if Black went unrecognised he might hide out in the Muggle world. I’d wondered about that myself.We don't know how much Cornelius Fudge told the Muggle Prime Minister, do we? He certainly told him about the crisis of Sirius Black's escape, and that Sirius was dangerous, but we don't know how much Fudge told him about the Magical World itself. It's extremely unlikely that Fudge told the PM everything, although to tell him anything at all was clearly enough to worry the International Federation of Warlocks."Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis," the Daily Prophet explained.Unusual as Fudge's action seems to have been (and the criticism implies that it "was" unusual) it wasn't entirely without a precedent. Newt Scamander, in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" speaks of the way that "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."This seems to imply that the wizarding authorities (after three centuries of seclusion) have so little real knowledge about what it is like to live in the Muggle world, that they have to consult with Muggle authorities to construct convincing explanations for magical accidents and catastrophes. It also implies that they prefer to consult with a single Muggle potentate than with several minor ones (which would increase the risk of discovery) and that they tend to choose the Muggle Prime Minister because he’s in the best position to help. Whether the Muggle is afterwards memory-charmed or kept under observation is not clear from Scamander's words.However, in the Daily Prophet's account in Prisoner of Azkaban, Cornelius Fudge went on to say that he had "the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it - who'd believe him if he did?" This makes it fairly clear that the Prime Minister has not been Obliviated (and wouldn't be) and that Fudge had told the PM that Sirius Black was a wizard. This displays an astonishingly casual attitude to the Statute of Secrecy, when you remember that keeping magic hidden for Muggles is basically what the Ministry is for! Was there some other (magical) guarantee of the Muggle PM’s silence? Fudge’s words don’t suggest that he was aware of any such thing, but there are clearly many (legal) ways of influencing a Muggle’s behaviour by magic without resorting to forbidden curses like Imperius; Muggle-repellent charms are one, but there may be others.On the other hand, for such a potentially risky breach of security to go by with so little practical opposition suggests there were limits to what Fudge told the PM about Sirius. Perhaps the PM was only told that a dangerous criminal of known paranormal abilities was now at large. We don't know for sure how much the Muggle Prime Minister really knows about the magical world. It may in fact be very little.My guess is that there are always some agents of the Office of Misinformation who work within the Muggle government, or are in a position to influence its members. However, to judge by the horror with which the fact Fudge’s revelations were received among international wizardry, it must have been rare for some generations to tell the Muggle Prime Minister anything. It would have been the Voldemort terror that changed that, and forced the Ministry of Magic to let the Muggle PM into their (limited) confidence in order to help to preserve secrecy. This is what Scamander referred to. Somehow (by persuasion or magic, fear or partial ignorance) this partial collaboration with Muggle authority didn't reveal the secret to Muggles.With Voldemort’s fall, this tradition of gaining the help of Muggle insiders in maintaining secrecy was presumably allowed to lapse, but Cornelius Fudge clearly revived it when faced with Sirius Black’s escape, doubtless because of the pressure to capture him, and the fear that if Black went unrecognised he might hide out in the Muggle world. Sun, Feb. 1st, 2004 12:08 pm (UTC)

(Anonymous): Justice 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 Tue, Feb. 3rd, 2004 02:18 pm (UTC)

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. 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. Sun, Feb. 22nd, 2004 04:01 pm (UTC)

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



My only resistence to your rhetoric is that the world of the books is framed by Harry's consciousness. And I think some of what we would perceive to be unfair or lawless is actually just the vacuum that stems from Harry's ignorance and immaturity. Children often think things aren't fair or just don't have the savvy and experience to understand the way of things. Of course there is something to your arguement. And I think it is a blend of both a strange legal situation and the world view belonging to a highly uninformed child. Wizarding Justice is somewhat arbitrary and antiquated and quite as off kilter as you portray it - but I am not convinved that the strangeness of certain things is not in part due to Harry's tunnel vision.



There are a lot of basic questions he has not asked himself yet. He can be so frustrating and at times has the introspection of an dog biscuit.



I am going to keep reading this. Very cool. Thanks. 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. :DMy only resistence to your rhetoric is that the world of the books is framed by Harry's consciousness. And I think some of what we would perceive to be unfair or lawless is actually just the vacuum that stems from Harry's ignorance and immaturity. Children often think things aren't fair or just don't have the savvy and experience to understand the way of things. Of course there is something to your arguement. And I think it is a blend of both a strange legal situation and the world view belonging to a highly uninformed child. Wizarding Justice is somewhat arbitrary and antiquated and quite as off kilter as you portray it - but I am not convinved that the strangeness of certain things is not in part due to Harry's tunnel vision.There are a lot of basic questions he has not asked himself yet. He can be so frustrating and at times has the introspection of an dog biscuit.I am going to keep reading this. Very cool. Thanks. (Deleted comment) Sun, Sep. 19th, 2004 07:40 pm (UTC)

pharnabazus Yes, if a ruthless wizard really wanted to kill a huge amount of Muggles, his best bet would be to put some Muggles under the Imperius curse, and make "them" do the killing!



I think you are right about technology, and about nuclear radiation.



I partly disagree about the Dark Curses though. You've got to truly mean them for them to work, "even" if you are an Auror. No amount of training will get round that problem. What Bellatrix tells Harry implies as much. There are no exceptions. That is why these curses are automatically "unforgivable."



To use Imperius, you have to really want to control someone. To use Cruciatus, you have to take real pleasure in their suffering, and to use Avada Kedavra you have to really want to kill. I think you have to hate as well.



What this implies is that under Crouch, a lot of Aurors became just as sadistic and hate-filled as many Death-Eaters were, as Sirius Black once tried to explain to Harry. This was the only way even an Auror or a hit-wizard could use an Unforgivable curse. And that is an uncomfortable thought. Yes, if a ruthless wizard really wanted to kill a huge amount of Muggles, his best bet would be to put some Muggles under the Imperius curse, and make "them" do the killing!I think you are right about technology, and about nuclear radiation.I partly disagree about the Dark Curses though. You've got to truly mean them for them to work, "even" if you are an Auror. No amount of training will get round that problem. What Bellatrix tells Harry implies as much. There are no exceptions. That is why these curses are automatically "unforgivable."To use Imperius, you have to really want to control someone. To use Cruciatus, you have to take real pleasure in their suffering, and to use Avada Kedavra you have to really want to kill. I think you have to hate as well.What this implies is that under Crouch, a lot of Aurors became just as sadistic and hate-filled as many Death-Eaters were, as Sirius Black once tried to explain to Harry. This was the only way even an Auror or a hit-wizard could use an Unforgivable curse. And that is an uncomfortable thought. Sat, Mar. 19th, 2005 01:06 pm (UTC)

(Anonymous) We are told in the HP books that in medival times, on the rare occasions that real witches were captured, all they had to do was perform a simple spell to save themselves from being burned alive at the stake. Or perhaps they stored lead weights in their pockets and perform the bubble-head charm as a precaution against the ducking stool.



While the measures taken by muggles weren't effective in the dark ages, the hatred and fear that they had for wizarding culture must have been lodged into the wizard psyche (indeed, Hogwarts' students learn about it in History of Magic), possibly preventing the 1692 Act from being removed.



Assume for a moment that magic is not all-powerful, and therefore the reasons for maintaining an entire underground magical culture are redundant. There is pressure within the Wizarding World for the 1692 Act to be repealed, and for a reintegration of Muggle and Wizard cultures. The wizards know that there'll be difficulties, but what's worse is that muggle technology has come a long way in the last two hundred years or so. While two or three wizards could have held their own against rifles and cannons, nuclear bombs are a different matter altogether. All Voldemort would need to do is to present himself to a muggle of power (let's say George Bush), convince him that he's on the 'right' side and point out Hogwarts on a map.



Especially given the wizards' prejudices towards Muggles (the conventional attitude seems to be one of 'slightly intelligent monkeys'. Arthur Weasley might think that they need to be studied and protected, and Lucius Malfoy might consider them pests that need exterminated, but the general view is the same), there's little to stop the powerful and influential from using them as weapons against the opposing factions. While magic may just be about summoning cushions, or getting your washing-up to do itself, it'd be very easy to appear to have ultimate power, or the abililty to give power to others. A political leader would probably be vastly influenced by people who 'showed' that they could destroy enemies for him, or even give him magical power.



So we have a scenario in which thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of people both magical and non-magical are being destroyed; opposing wizards that are armed with muggle weapons, muggles that are using the excuse of wizard power, miscellaneous mass-murderers who are taking advantage of the general bedlam . . .



Maybe two hundred years ago, when magic could have made so much of a difference to people's lives that it didn't evoke great fear (or if it did, the fear couldn't have been acted upon effectively), wizards could have successfully become part of a greater whole. A hundred years ago, fifty, even ten, it might still have been possible. The problem is, the longer the wizards wait the less need muggles will have for magic, the greater fear they will have of it and the more efficiently they will be able to act on that fear.



I once heard a line The Simpsons: "Welcome to the 21st century. It's a lot like the 20th, only the stock markets are a lot lower and everybody's afraid," . . . Sun, Jul. 3rd, 2005 10:07 am (UTC)

elfwreck Followed a link from hp_essays



I like opening all the sections of a long story or article in tabs so I can read them at leisure when I'm offline. (I know, dialup is for luddites... someday I'll be rich & have DSL. In the meantime, I very much like knowing how big an article is going to be before I start reading it; that lets me know how much time to set aside for it.)



I'd even gather up all the links for you, if that'd help. Followed a link from, I think. This is lovely (haven't finished reading, or I'd be more specific); would you be willing to edit it and add links to all the other sections?I like opening all the sections of a long story or article in tabs so I can read them at leisure when I'm offline. (I know, dialup is for luddites... someday I'll be rich & have DSL. In the meantime, I very much like knowing how big an article is going to be before I start reading it; that lets me know how much time to set aside for it.)I'd even gather up all the links for you, if that'd help. Tue, Jul. 12th, 2005 12:19 pm (UTC)

pharnabazus Thanks for liking it. I'd meant to revise it in lots of ways, and add a whole lot of new (and altered) ideas, but it's too late now, and I'd better wait until HBP comes out. There isn't even time to make any predictions now, really, is there? Or at least no time to put the "arguments" in order! Thanks for liking it. I'd meant to revise it in lots of ways, and add a whole lot of new (and altered) ideas, but it's too late now, and I'd better wait until HBP comes out. There isn't even time to make any predictions now, really, is there? Or at least no time to put the "arguments" in order! Tue, Jan. 3rd, 2006 09:45 pm (UTC)

(Anonymous): Expecto Patronus This is a very well-thought out bit of insight into Harry Potter's Wizarding World. I tended to agree with much of it up until the publication of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince, in July 2005.



It is now 2006. Jo Rowling informs us on her website that she plans to write Book 7 throughout this year. Please let us know if the author of Expecto Patronum has done any updating to take into account Book 6, the death of Dumbledore, and all the new information about Lord Voldemort.



It seems, for example, that Pharnabazus isn't far wrong about Lucius Malfoy. We see Voldemort furius with Lucius, and about to punish him through his son Draco. We see Draco finding out service to Lord Voldemort isn't what it is cracked up to be, and we see Snape taking an unbreakable vow to help Narcissa, Draco's mum.



And there is Percy Weasley. He seems to have transferred his loyalty to Fudge to a new boss, Rufus Scrimgeour. Fudge in HBP looks cleaner than he might. He hasn't shown he is a death eater, just misled. Karkaroff looks the off Karkus that he was, and Snape who really didn't get to the churchyard on time still manages to survive.



Anyway, if this eight or nine part article is to be updated with an extra book in mind, I'd be most interested in reading it.



Cheers!

Mon, Feb. 20th, 2006 11:16 am (UTC)

(Anonymous): Expecto patronum Very interesting paper, but you should correct the title: the acusative of 'patronus' is 'patronum'. Sat, Mar. 25th, 2006 01:15 am (UTC)

(Anonymous) Many people have pointed out muggle technological advances as a significant threat to wizards and I too agree. Moreover it's not necesarily the weapons themselves but the minds behind them that Wizards should truly fear. All humans bend the enviroment to suit personal needs. Magic for all its appeal/power has spawned a culture of complacency in which its people are content to stagnante. There have been no significant innovations in centuries and the many smaller ones they have are leached from muggle creations. Wizards are so busy revelling in their own superiorty they can't even entertain the notions that in many ways muggle have surpassed them. I doubt they'd take muggle weapons seriously or even attempt to learn about them in a serious manner. Such a thing would offend Wizarding sensibilities. And that is a major source of weakness: the constant underestimation of the muggleworld. To win a war you have to know your're enemy and you have to think outside the box. I don't believe Wizard know how to do that nor do I think they would make use of its muggleborn denizens. Even muggleborn aide is suspect as they do seem to get brainwashed into believing the nonmagic part of themselves is inferior.



My point is Muggles plan, strategize, and organize better than Wizards. The sudden unequivocable discovery of magic, would shake them, but they would rebound and rethink the world around them and integrate it into their new world view especially,if magic is coming from hostile forces. They'd have the best scientific, technologic, creative, and spiritual minds working on the problem in addition to billions of pissed off bamboozled muggle ready and willing to help.



Slightly OT but in the 1980 one of the world most notorius drug lords was caught because the US authorities found his hideout, surrounded his property with speakers, and proceeded to blast hard rock at unholy decibals till he came running out. Now that's creativity at work. Tue, Jun. 27th, 2006 07:50 pm (UTC)

shishkeberry My point is Muggles plan, strategize, and organize better than Wizards. The sudden unequivocable discovery of magic, would shake them, but they would rebound and rethink the world around them and integrate it into their new world view especially,if magic is coming from hostile forces. They'd have the best scientific, technologic, creative, and spiritual minds working on the problem in addition to billions of pissed off bamboozled muggle ready and willing to help.



This is very true. If you remember in PS when Harry and Hermione reach the potions puzzle, Hermione mentions that wizards are not very logical people. I do think that the wizarding world has a great deal to fear from Muggles, maybe more so than they currently think. This is very true. If you remember in PS when Harry and Hermione reach the potions puzzle, Hermione mentions that wizards are not very logical people. I do think that the wizarding world has a great deal to fear from Muggles, maybe more so than they currently think. Thu, Jan. 27th, 2011 03:13 pm (UTC)

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