Dumbledore (was: The Sorting Hat)

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 87378

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" <gbannister10 at a...> 
wrote:
> 
> 
> If your view that Dumbledore is manipulative, devious and even ESE is 
> correct, then why didn't he allow himself to be put forward for the 
> Minister's job?
> 
> You suggest he is the Puppetmaster, using the pupils of Hogwarts like 
> living chessmen.
> 
> Yet, as Minister (as Fudge shows in OOTP), you can be even more 
> manipulative and devious with the command of the media and of the 
> legal system which you possess. So why choose the lesser course?
> 

Geoff, Geoff, poor lad; so trusting, so innocent.

The Ministry of  Magic, like any other Ministry is a bureaucracy. Lots of
ambitious pen-pushers, paper-filers and possibly origami merchants all 
over the place. It runs on meetings and files. That wouldn't suit DD at all.
Fudge fits into that sort of structure; probably packs the meetings with
placemen who support everything he proposes - "All those in favour? All
those against please update your CVs." Even so, he has to tell other people
what  he's doing and what he plans to do. When people complain, and 
start demanding that he do something, he has to respond in some way
even if the  answer is "No." He has to justify what he does. 

Not only that, it's  a fair bet that there's  a lot of Voldy suppporters
beavering away to make sure that everything that happens is reported
back to their favourite Evilness. Great opportunities for sabotaging DD,
if he were the Minister - delaying actions, mis-interpreting messages, 
insisting on 'correct' procedure, starting whispering campaigns, building 
cliques and factions. I bet that there're lots of office holders looking for 
promotion. Internal politics; dodgy. He'd be hamstrung most of the time 
unless he did everything himself, which would defeat the object of being
Minister in the first place.

But DD at Hogwarts is master of all he surveys (at least until a Dolly
Umbridge turns up; even then she can be circumvented). He can make
decisions, meet 'undesirables', influence people and events and who's to
know?

His staff is hand-picked and he knows what everybody is up to. His word,
or rather suggestion, is law. At Hogwarts he is a Dictator de facto. Out
there in the wilds but still within easy reach of and in contact with all his 
little friends, sitting in his study doing who knows what. And he doesn't 
have to tell anyone anything. He's a spider, interpreting  the vibrations of 
his web and spinning his plans accordingly. It sounds worse than it is;
I  don't think he's ESE!DD so much  as Devious!DD.

Like all politicians, Fudge likes to think that decisions once committed
to paper are a done deal. Dumbledore knows different. Bits of paper
mean very little; actions are very different from policies. (Witness Arthur
and Shacklebolt subverting from within.) There is no way Dumbledore
could have comparable freedom of action inside the Ministry unless he
was installed as Dictator there too.

No, for freedom of action Hogwarts beats the Ministry hands down.

Kneasy
who has had to deal with bureaucracies that induce nervous prostration