What political parallels do you see between HP & now?

[Pithy Cherub]

It is amazing to see HP with no advanced training trying to take on the full breadth of the political system at so many levels.

Harry's tribulations with the magical juvenile/adult court system. Hagrid's and Sirus's false imprisonment without a trial.

Dumbledore demoted by his friends and council peers.

The trio's anger with the media and its misrepresentations, misquotes and mismanagement. The magical version of the 'enquire' having the truth and the establishment paper printing lies.

The class distinctions made on something outside of one's direct control.

Lord Voldemort gathering his deat eaters back to say they have the true way - those who oppose it must die or be dimished...uh, familiar, anyone.

A war nobody voted on started by one individual who controls through fear and domination...

Looking forward to your input!

[Gryffindor_Bookworm]

1. I see enormous parallels between Bush and Cornelius Fudge.

Both are morons far more concerned with maintaining power than seeing the truth.

[robbedvoter]

2. In the beginning I saw that too. Then Aphonso Quaron said:

Bush is Voldemart, Fudge is Blair. I tend to agree (although the book was written before)
To me, the first relevant political parallels started with the "media" - Rita Skeeter destroying reputations, the Daily Prophet keeping the Voldemort truth out and discrediting the potential "whistleblowers".
Then came the full court - trying a juvenile misdemeanor - including the unanounced change of time and venue to try to twart defense.
Dolores Umbridge was Ashcroft - with her decrees, her craving for power, her delight in swamping any dissent.
The entire racism of the death eaters and their sympathisers is very reminiscent to us of the lilly white GOP - although, Rowlands probably has in mind the House of Lords

[Gryffindor_Bookworm]

3. that's....wow.

That's it.

Bush = Voldemort
Fudge = Blair
Umbridge = Ashcroft


That's amazing. That's -- wow. :wow:

[robbedvoter]

4. Found Quaron's actual quote:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/943721.asp?0dm=s11Ak
.... Does the evil wizard Voldemort still remind him of George W. Bush,
as he said recently? “In combination with Saddam,” he says. “They both
have selfish interests and are very much in love with power. Also, a
disregard for the environment. A love for manipulating people. I read
books four and five, and Fudge”—Rowling’s slippery Minister of Magic—”is
similar to Tony Blair. He’s the ultimate politician. He’s in denial
about many things. And everything is for the sake of his own persona,
his own power. The way the Iraq thing was handled was not unlike the way
Fudge handled affairs in book four.” ....

[Pithy Cherub]

5. Excellent analysis:

Following on your exceptional NEWT level analysis, do you think Salazar Slytherin might be the equivalent of Rove or Cheney?

[robbedvoter]

6. I'd hate to legitimize Rove so much. Slytherin was a co-founder

of a good school, hundreds of years after, there's a House bearing his name.
Rove is only Tony Soprano above the law and with the keys to the threasuty, and Cheney is Lynn's puppet.

[Pithy Cherub]

9. Your points as usual are very good. My perspective is on the long term

lasting damage to society. That probably does give Rove too much credit, but the damage inflicted will be horrific. The HP parallel is that even though Slytherin walked away he left horrible seeds of destruction behind - that is what powerfully reminds me of Rove.

Syltherin started the class/society warfare based on blood. Perhaps that parallel is more reminicent of Hitlers focus on self-hate via the Jews, Rome's persecution of Christians, Mao's Cultural Revolution, Stalin's purge's or any other leader that has had a lasting horrible forensic effect on society. This current American atrocity was created by the 'wizard' behind the scenes and has a real lasting effect not only on us but around the world.

A presidency that was clearly horrible that had a lasting effect on American society was Andrew Johnson. Clearly all the bad didn't come from Slytherin in HP. Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor...

edit: doing lines about spelling... :(

[Sabriel]

19. I would extend Umbridge to include the "Patriot Act"

Her decrees remind me strongly of that, so to me she represents the new way of thinking, rather than one particular person.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

20. And more generally

The rewriting of law to fit their purposes and target it at their enemies. Think of the decree against groups meeting (targeted at the DA). The DA was the students' response to not being taught DADA practices. But when Umbridge found out about it, there was a decree created.

[outraged2]

7. many parallels

I see much the same as is posted above about the political parallels

My son and I started rereading book 5 again tonight and I am amazed, even having read it many times already, how much insight is revealed in just the first few pages.... not just politics, but society in general.

I know it is over-generalized, but Rowling nails the whole suburban mindset. The attitudes of the Dursleys and their neighbors on Privet dr..... same cars, same houses, same self-righteousness, snobbery and hypocrisy.

Aunt Petunia griping about the famous wife divorcing the famous husband being reported on the news, meanwhile lapping up all the tabloid reports of same.

Uncle Vernon griping about the striking baggage handlers being reported about... "Give 'em a lifelong siesta, I would..."

Uncle Vernon griping about Harry wanting to watch the news.... "As if a normal boy cares what's on the news - Dudley hasn't got a clue what's going on, doubt he knows who the Prime Minister is...." That line sticks out at me because that sems to be what our leaders want us to think.... 'leave it all to the grown-ups, we know what we are doing here. Nothing to see .... move along.' Normal people don't care about this kind of stuff.

Oh, there is just so much in all the books I could really go on and on.... and on. I have been pretty obsessed with them recently. We have read them over and over and over again, and each time I see even more.

[robbedvoter]

8. The Durstley are the perfect rednecks (funny, since they are Brits)

So much so, a Christian Right reviewer identified with them in his review and blasted Harry ON THEIR TERMS. I wish I could find that amazing article,

[Pithy Cherub]

10. LOL!

Seamus Finnegan's mom is also a wonderfully cast as a member of the sheeple. She believed everything the Daily Prophet said and so did her son in the beginning.

[outraged2]

12. wow... scary

How could anyone WANT to be like the Dursleys? I know there are an awful lot of Dursleys out there, but I don't necessarily think it is a conscious decision except for a vocal minority. For the most part I think people are lazy, and don't want to have to think about things, especially uncomfortable things that aren't clear cut black and white. But even more I think most people want to believe that the 'leaders' in various fields are honorable people who are in fact looking out for them, even if we disagree on the details. I think that is the main thing we are running into now with people resisting what we are telling them about how bad the political situation is for us here now in the States. We've never had such a radical group take over and people still don't believe it could happen here.... 'this is America'..... <sigh>

[Pithy Cherub]

11. Very insightful ! Rowling was having a great deal of snarky fun

making the Dursley's into people we all recognize. The lack of parental supervion on Dudders is apalling. The Dursleys are on the news every night saying there is no way there kid could do something like this...

[Chovexani]

13. I've been calling repukes "Death Eaters" for the longest

That's exactly what they are.

Another interesting parallel is the fact that the wizard media is/was going to be responsible for many deaths because of the fact that they tried to cover up Voldemort's return. The only media outlet who dares tell the truth is the tabloid that no one takes seriously.

Just like in real life, the only news you can trust is on the comedy channel...

[Pithy Cherub]

15. That is a great analogy! On the media mess

'management' at the wizarding press did not do anything about Rita's yellow journalism. A member of the reading wizarding public did. Gives one ideas, doesn't it? :)

[LWolf]

14. I can't quote, or even remember which of the most

recent books it was in, but the parallel was unmistakeable:

The bureacracy's top-down takeover and crackdown at Hogwarts = NCLB.

[Pithy Cherub]

16. Yep! Then the Children's Crusade started.

Just like the 60's, the children led and had to fight to get their Civil Rights - Book 5, Order of the Phoenix! Fred & George created the metaphorical swamp...

[Lisa]

17. my workplace just went through a departmental review ...

... similar to the one described in Book 5. The secretaries and I were laughing our heads off when we looked at all the parallels! Either Rowling's worked in a school or college herself, or knows people who do ... the bogus evaluation techniques imposed on Hagrid and the other instructors are actually recognizable!

As far as the political ramifications -- Rowling's mentioned the educational philosophies of the Hogwarts founders several times. There's the "old school" elitists of Slytherin, who only want the rich aristocratic "purebred" families to be educated. (Degrees are a badge of privilege, for them.) Kind of like the way Yale used to be prior to the reforms of the 1960s -- it went from being an special club of the type derided by Veblen, to accepting a much broader range of students. George W. Bush was upset by this, because a) his little brothers didn't make the cut, and b) the new students didn't share his political views, and c) he didn't like them letting in girls! (Ironic, because his daughter Barbara went to Yale as well.)

Bush's people, like the Slytherins, don't think that education should be made available to the Gryffindors (active people who may not come from lofty ancestry, but have initiative) -- or even the Ravenclaws (intelligent). Their vision of education is something that upholds the existing power structure, so even if it means depriving society of potential talent, that's less important than reserving it for "the right type of person". And especially they don't want education to be directed at criticizing or changing society -- that's one reason why people like Lynne Cheney are so down on "activist academics". (See the Plaid Adder's essays for details.)

It's interesting to me that everybody, even the Gryffindors (the house we're supposed to sympathize with most), makes fun of the Hufflepuffs. Their founder wanted education to be available to everyone, regardless of background. This is something which is coming under increasing pressure in the "real world". Even leftists say things like, "we don't have enough resources, so we'll have to be practical here", and "some people just aren't suited for advanced education". But the fact that Rowling portrays the Hufflepuffs as honest, decent, and trustworthy -- I wonder if that's where many of her sympathies are. We've seen more unpleasant or cruel acts by Gryffindors (including Harry's dad) than Hufflepuffs, so far.

[Pithy Cherub]

18. Hufflepuff have a few issues too.

This house seems to represent Everywizard. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all had their takes on whether the masses should be educated or allowed to vote in a democracy.

What is interesting about Hufflepuff is the bravery they show going to Defense Against the Dark Arts secretly. They also were not above their own spitefulness against Harry in GOF and OOtP. Ernie MacMillian had to apologize. Many Hufflepuffs died in the first Wizarding War as well.

If anything many of the Gryffindors react first, think later. The purpose of showing a dark part of Harry's parent's is to show that no matter which house they come from there are a full range of human attributes in all people. (Even the heir of Slytherin wasn't tyring to kill Harry's mom at first.)