Patriotism in the WW?

[Melissa McCarthy]

No: HPFGUIDX 83648

There seems to be something of a lack of patriotism in the Wizarding World.  The only example I've come across is Seamus' enthusiastic support of the Irish team at the Quidditch World Cup.  There's some awareness that wizards living in other countries do some things differently, as in the trouble over Ali Bashir and his flying carpet, but I'm not seeing any overt pride in England, simply a sense of "some of our ways are not the same as some of theirs."  The Ministry of Magic deals with the Muggle bureaucracy but seems to feel no particular loyalty to it, or to the Queen.  We don't see the students singing God Save the Queen in the morning, but that may not be significant as there's a great deal that we don't see them doing.  (Incidentally, would a real British boarding school have God Save the Queen sung?  Growing up in the Canadian public school system, I remember O Canada being sung every morning at the start of the school day.)

The Triwizard Tournament could have provided an opportunity for patriotism, but I'm not seeing any there either.  Fleur makes it quite clear that things at Beauxbatons are not done the same way as they are at Hogwarts, but this seems to be more of a Beauxbatons-is-better-than-Hogwarts attitude rather than a more general France-is-better-than-England attitude (disclaimer: I don't think that patriotic people necessarily think their country is better than other countries, nor do I think that patriotism is a bad thing; I just can't think of a better way to phrase this).  Things at Durmstrang are also different, but that's largely because of the school's emphasis on the Dark Arts.  I get the impression that the differences among the three schools are due more to the personalities of their respective headmasters than to the countries they're in.  Karkaroff is an unpleasant person and treats his students harshly, and it's possible that the school's policy towards the Dark Arts is largely due to his liking of them; Madame Maxime is a more lenient person who treats her students kindly; and Dumbledore is eccentric and runs an eccentric school.  I would imagine that Hogwarts under Phineas Nigellus, or Hogwarts under the four founders, would have been a much different place than it is under Dumbledore.  So it seems to me that the differences are headmaster/mistress-based and school-based rather than country-based.

So, is there patriotism at all in the WW?  Is an individual's first loyalty to his/her country as against other countries; does he see him/herself first as a subject or citizen of his/her country and then as a wizard/witch?  It's possible that patriotism matters in the WW, at least somewhat; the example of Seamus suggests this.  Or is he/she primarily loyal to the WW?  The second possibility seems more likely to me because of the history of wizard persecution by Muggles.  This could be another reason for pureblood wizards to dislike the presence of Muggle-born students at Hogwarts, since a Muggle-born might have been taught loyalty to England and certainly wouldn't have been taught loyalty to the Wizarding World.  Perhaps someday we'll see a Muggle-born student struggling with this question.  Of course, this doesn't explain Seamus; perhaps patriotism is an issue in some countries but not in others.  If that's true, though, there goes my half-formed theory about Muggle-borns' possible patriotism being a reason for purebloods to distrust them.  Am I just overthinking this?  Ideas? thoughts? smacks with a wet noodle?

Melissa, reflecting that the English language desperately needs a set of words to replace "he/she" and "him/her"!

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