The Politics of the Potterverse: A Parable

The Christians deride J.K. Rowling and her work as satanic, while cheerfully laying the Harry Potter books upon bonfires and singing hymns. The Wiccan community derides J.K. Rowling because Harry rides his broomstick backwards and celebrates Christmas and Easter instead of the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. Even so, Harry magickally comes through triumphant with record book sales and accompanying movie deals with topnotch actors filling the roles of the fictional characters.

I was never a Harry Potter fan. I had never given in to the peer pressure to read the collected work of J. K. Rowling; although, I'll admit that I have seen all of the book-based movies, and even own a copy of the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) DVD. I still am not a fan, but after seeing the latest film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) the infrastructure of the tale captured my attention. Rowling has created a microcosm of the political macrocosm that we, unfortunately, find ourselves in today. It is that microcosm that we will explore.

Bloodline

A very important element of the Potterverse is Bloodline. And the issue of Bloodline is not lost on Rowling, who is British and fully aware of the meaning - both allegorical and literal - of Bloodline.

Bloodline continues to play an important part in American politics. Nearly every president of the United States can trace his lineage to the thrones of Europe. That world leadership is held in the hands of the minority can not be questioned. Bloodline plays its most important role in the doctrine of Divine Right of Kings. A doctrine that finds its source in ancient worlds of Sumer and Egypt.

This Divine Right of Kings sees certain bloodlines as being more worthy to rule over bloodlines. From the earliest times, bloodline control was in the hands of the Kings and Priests, who represented the two controlling systems used to our present time: politics and religion. Their "power" was handed down from father to son. Throughout history, there has been a struggle between these two factions for taking domination over its population. At times, the two bonded to become a single, dominating entity.

Perhaps the easiest example to site is the Roman Catholic Church, which had usurped power at the time of the collapse of the Roman Empire. This manipulative take over of politics by religion was accomplished through a forged document that came to be known as the Constitutum Donatio Constantini (Donation of Constantine). The document first appeared in ca. 752 A.D. during the papacy of Pope Stephen III (752-757). Donation purported to have been given to Pope Sylvester I by the Roman Emperor Constantine, who had made Christianity the national religion of the Empire. The document proclaimed the Pope to be the earthly representative of Jesus Christ, having authority over every kingdom and throne on earth, and named him Vicarius Filii Dei (Vicar of the Son of God). Further, the document gave the ruling Pope the authority to create and empower kings and queens. The adoption of this forgery began the birth pangs of the Holy Roman Empire beginning with the forced removal of the Merovingian bloodline that ruled Gaul, and culminating in the official birth of the union of Church and State government with the anointing of the Carolingian Charlemagne by Pope Leo III at Christmas mass on December 25th, 800 A.D. Religious and political laws, established by the Roman Church, were to be enforced by the kings that the Vatican had put into power.

In the Potter-verse witch community there are three tiers of witches: the Purebloods, the Mudbloods and the Muggle born. Purebloods are the descendants of parents who were both witches with no intermarrying within the family with Muggles, and seen as the Elite. Mudbloods are witches who have one Pureblood parent and one Muggle parent. And, finally, the Muggle born is the child of two Muggle parents who displays magical ability.

Bloodlines have been the source of countless genocides throughout the centuries. By the end of the series Mudbloods and Muggle-born are culled and removed from the community after undergoing interrogation and torture. The similarities to Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Mao's China - among a list of other such 20th-century atrocities - genocidal policies are easily seen. But, perhaps, less obvious is the present political climate in which we live; suspicion, mistrust, interrogation and torture is being laid upon the heads of the Muslim community. And in Afghanistan and Iraq, Arab peoples are being killed en mass. According to John Hopkins study (source) over 650,ooo Iraqis have been killed since the invasion began in March 2003. When the total dead from Desert Storm (1991) are added to the figure, the death toll is well over 1 million casualties of war. And with the unprecedented use of depleted uranium weapons since Desert Storm, the death toll will only increase over the coming years.

Defense Against the Dark Arts

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
-- The Bill of Rights: Amendment II

These words from the American Constitution's Bill of Rights is perhaps one of the most contested freedoms of our time. But one need look no further than the writer of the U.S. Constitution to fully understand what this Second Amendment is meant to give We the People: the right to keep and bears arms. Why? To offer the American people a means of defense against its government should that government become unfit to govern.

Is it any wonder that one of the first acts of any dictatorship is to confiscate the citizens ability to defend themselves? We can once again call upon the usual list of historical suspects to find precedence for such action. And Rowling once again acquaints us with the strategy within the walls of Hogwarts, when she refuses to teach the pupils the practical use of magic against the Dark Arts. In so doing, she took away the students weapons, leaving them defenseless and at the mercy of dictatorial control. And the students, as any revolutionary thinker would do, formed themselves into a resistance to tyranny: Dumbledore's Army. There they made themselves ready for the battle ahead of them against the will of the dictatorship that had taken over the school.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Edict

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
-- The Bill of Rights: Amendment I

The gradual eroding away of American's basic liberties is probably easiest seen in the current destruction of free speech. This erosion is, again, clearly exemplified by Rowling within the walls of Hogwarts. The imagery in the film of each edict handed down by the pink-draped, smiling dictator, Umbridge, speaks for itself as each edit is hang upon the wall until floor to ceiling is covered with documents outlining the restrictions of freedoms and privacy.

Through such bills as the Patriot Act and Patriot Act II - the former not even read by the Congress before being signed into law - Americans now find themselves without the liberties and freedoms that are outlined in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And it has become a matter of public record that the people currently in control of the U.S. government have engaged in criminal surveillance of the American populace. Freedom to assembly and to protest these criminals has been named criminal itself. Freedom of Speech has been relegated to so-called Free Speech Zones, which are fenced in and kept far away from the activities being protested against. People are arrested for wearing anti-Bush regime t-shirts, bumper stickers and the like. And to add insult to injury, ignorant cops question whether a U.S. Constitution is legal or not! One wonders just how much the American people will endear before they are ready to take their country back.

Gonzales at Hogwarts

Rowling's shows us the heart of the Pink Lady and her lust for torture as "acceptable" punishment as well as information gathering tactics. Perhaps Umbridge took her torture policy from the memo of Alberto Gonzales (read here). In this memo, Gonzales outlines "acceptable" reasons for using torture. Reasons, I hasten to add, that were quickly adopted by the Neo-Con Bush regime. Gonzales may no longer be Attorney General of the United States of America, but his policies are still in full force.

The Golden Rule

He who owns the gold makes the rules.
--Anonymous

I find it quite interesting that in the Potter-verse there is no paper money. Rather, the magical bartering system is with gold. Real gold! No Federal Reserve Bank Notes, no fiat currency! Just bright, shiny gold coins! Real money! In other words, the currency system that the United States should be using. Not the 1913 Jekyll Island creation of the Federal Reserve that took the American money system out of the hands of government and turned it over to private banking interests. This topic is too involved to go into deeply, but I encourage you to take the time to watch Aaron Russo's film America: Freedom to Fascism for a detailed history of the Federal reserve and the IRS.

Pay No Attention to the Men Behind the Curtain

But there is a more subtle thread woven through the Harry Potter-verse: a Ministry behind the Ministry of Magic; a government behind the government. Voldemort, we are told, has little interest in politics, and has no desire to be a part of the Ministry of Magic. We do discover, however, that he has no qualms about taking control of the government and pulling the strings in the background. Is Rowling alluding here to a "man behind the curtain" in our own reality? Do we really believe that George W. Bush is in charge? or is he a puppet? and if a puppet, who are the Puppet Masters. Again, this is a subject too large for the context of this article, but it is well worth considering the politics behind the politics.

Conclusion

So while the Christians burn and the Wiccans nitpick the essential truths of Easter, Christmas, the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, I choose to look deeper into Miss. Rowlings' Potter-verse and see a world all to similar to the one that we live and breathe in. A world that we as a population would be able to change - not through magickal spells and incantation - but by taking direct action and by speaking out against the evils that are all around us. For it is we ourselves who are to blame for the current state of affairs. It is our inaction and silence that allows these woes to persist. If we would stop to remember that it is basically 5% of the population that sees itself as our Bloodline ordained leaders the opposition does not seem so great. It took 12% of the American colonies population to raise up against the tyranny and establish a government for the people and by the people. It is not necessary to pick up arms and dispose the criminals that inhabit our hallowed halls of government. We need only arm ourselves with truth and the laws of governance as laid down by the Fore Fathers of these once great and united States of America.