Question about Harry Potter.
Jan. 8th, 2005 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
What are the wizards so afraid of?
They've got law after law to keep them from being discovered, but why? What are they scared will happen? They make a point of teaching that muggle attempts to kill witches fail because muggles can't recognize witches (and anyway, witches and wizards can't be killed by muggles), so they're in no danger. Hagrid's idea that "well, then everybody would want magical solutions to their problems" doesn't ring quite true. So what if everybody wants a magical solution to their problems? Shouldn't it be up to the individual witch or wizard to decide if they're going to sell it? And if you don't want to give magical solutions to your problems, okay. Don't. End of problem. In fact, a substantial number of muggles already know about the wizarding world, it doesn't seem to have caused any real problems.
I don't see how the muggle world is a threat to the wizarding world, but because of this fear we've got: you can be arrested for using magic where a muggle can see, or if you're underage (I think this almost *must* be related, and I have a separate rant about this as well). There's a non-insignificant market of charmed muggle objects, this would probably be smaller if muggles knew enough to be wary. And there's an entire department or two of the government devoted to keeping people hidden.
Remember McGonagall's words in PS/SS? About how "it'd be a fine thing if the muggles found us", something like that? Well, what if they did find out about wizards and witches? What would happen?
The first, most obvious thing is that a lot of people would lose their jobs. Not only had they failed miserably at hiding the wizarding world, but it's all a moot point now anyway.
Secondly, muggle science needs some dramatic rewrites.
Third, society changes drastically.
Okay. I can see how this would be a problem, but where's the inherant harm in any of this? A little upheaval, and then we're all back to normal, business as usual.
They've got law after law to keep them from being discovered, but why? What are they scared will happen? They make a point of teaching that muggle attempts to kill witches fail because muggles can't recognize witches (and anyway, witches and wizards can't be killed by muggles), so they're in no danger. Hagrid's idea that "well, then everybody would want magical solutions to their problems" doesn't ring quite true. So what if everybody wants a magical solution to their problems? Shouldn't it be up to the individual witch or wizard to decide if they're going to sell it? And if you don't want to give magical solutions to your problems, okay. Don't. End of problem. In fact, a substantial number of muggles already know about the wizarding world, it doesn't seem to have caused any real problems.
I don't see how the muggle world is a threat to the wizarding world, but because of this fear we've got: you can be arrested for using magic where a muggle can see, or if you're underage (I think this almost *must* be related, and I have a separate rant about this as well). There's a non-insignificant market of charmed muggle objects, this would probably be smaller if muggles knew enough to be wary. And there's an entire department or two of the government devoted to keeping people hidden.
Remember McGonagall's words in PS/SS? About how "it'd be a fine thing if the muggles found us", something like that? Well, what if they did find out about wizards and witches? What would happen?
The first, most obvious thing is that a lot of people would lose their jobs. Not only had they failed miserably at hiding the wizarding world, but it's all a moot point now anyway.
Secondly, muggle science needs some dramatic rewrites.
Third, society changes drastically.
Okay. I can see how this would be a problem, but where's the inherant harm in any of this? A little upheaval, and then we're all back to normal, business as usual.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-08 07:28 am (UTC)But they weren't. The laws about secrecy didn't start until just after this.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-08 08:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-08 08:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-08 09:01 am (UTC)At any rate, the muggles being bad at recognizing "real" witches also means that they caught, tortured and burned innocents - muggles like themselves - so the point of hysteria and witch hunts remains valid. Maybe the Statute of Secrecy is more about keeping yet another reason to kill each other from the muggles than about actually protecting the wizards.
Also, I suppose the wizarding society is just as prone to succumb to prejudices or unreasonable fears as muggle society is. Wizards are only humans, after all. So the Statute may as well be a reaction to a threat that might never arise...