Fudge, Minister of Magic (was fearful fudge)

[boblevin2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 41009

It seems that one of the main questions that JKR raises, and examines 
so beautifully, regards the nature of evil.  She does not draw clear 
distinctions, rather she gives us a continuum.  On one extreme there 
is Voldemort, clearly evil, but not so much so to preclude some 
interesting questions.  The main one is what could he accomplish with 
the Dark Arts that he could not accomplish through goodness?  He 
claims he was on a quest for immortality--yet that problem had been 
solved by Flammel and Dumbledore.  The years of research in the Dark 
Arts could have been spent with Dumbledore, since he had the 
qualifications of being such a good and model student at Hogwarts. If 
he wanted power, there is no reason he couldn't have ascended to the 
position of the Minister of Magic--were it not for something deep and 
disturbing within him.  Whatever this is, it is a question.  I 
suspect it may be answered in the upcoming books.

Moving along the continuum, there is Lucious Malfoy.  It appears that 
he is much less complex than Voldemort, most interested in 
maintaining a type of Wizarding aristocracy that he feels he should 
lead.  We see here that his main goal, his deep driving goal, is the 
pursuit of something completely artificial, this social sense that 
comes out of thin air--is this a seed from which evil can grow?

The next stop seems to be the Death Eaters under the imperious curse. 
And yet we know that as harmful as this curse is, it is only 
effective because people let it be effective.  This curse does not 
have to work.  (Something just occurred to me--if this curse doesn't 
have to work, and Harry showed that the killing curse doesn't have to 
work, the only puzzle left for Harry is to defeat the torturing 
curse.  If this occurs, the Death Eaters' three weapons become 
useless--game, set, match) Anyway, the Death Eaters seem to have the 
same darkness as Voldemort, but they repress it until they have 
a "good excuse" to let this impulse flourish, while able to maintain 
a state of denial.

This brings us to the mid-point of the continuum, and this person is 
Cornelius Fudge.  What is crucial is that we can't say for sure what 
this person is about.  His ethical center doesn't seem to be there.  
And so we can speculate in several directions.  We know that 
Voldemort had a network in the Ministry--if Rookwood, then who else? 
Is Fudge part of this network? Why does he seem to smile when he 
hears that Voldemort has returned?  Or is he heart and soul a 
bureaucrat--caring about nothing else in life but his little plot of 
territory.  But the question is--maybe this IS evil.  Maybe this is 
the core, caring only about territory.  Perhaps the difference 
between Voldemort and Fudge is only a matter of degree, Voldemort has 
a bigger view of territory, and includes a section of others' 
hearts?  Or perhaps the evil core is viewing your self only through 
your perception of how others see you?  Fudge wants others to look at 
him as competent and dignified, scandal is poison to a soul like 
this, since a soul like this is too weak to deal with life's real 
problems. 

Maybe deep in our hearts there is something--like chakras or 
whatever, that is an ethical center.  And in life we have to do 
things, constantly, to strengthen this.  Each moment, therefore, we 
are choosing to strengthen it or weaken it--by not taking action, not 
standing up when we should.  Perhaps that is what Harry and company 
do, all of the time, is make choices to strengthen that center.  And 
therefore, perhaps that is what we should do.  Perhaps. 


"Bob"