Longevity and Youth (was Re: Why Voldemort is a fascist..)

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 109204

Ffred wrote:
> I found myself musing about longevity and how it's affected the
WW...
<snip>

Eustace_Scrubb:
A subject that always gets me musing, too! 

Ffred:
> For us, the 17th century is so long ago that it's pretty alien, and 
> it's natural to think that the Statute of Secrecy and the Ministry 
> are so ancient that they've been around virtually for ever. But 
> consider it this way. We know that Dumbledore is aged around 150
(and 
> often assume that wizards live about twice as long as muggles as a 
> result).  So he would have been born round about 1840. Assuming
that 
> wizards live three times as long as Muggles, that would make a 
> wizarding generation 90 years. 

Eustace_Scrubb:
And yet on the other side of the coin, we have a significant number of
characters who seem to assume major responsibilities immediately after
secondary school, there apparently being no college or university
level education in the WW.  We know that the Potters, Sirius and
others were in the Order at the age many muggles (in the US anyway)
are joining fraternities and muddling through college.  Percy Weasley,
for goodness sakes, is at the right hand of the Minister of Magic at
the age of 19.  

We know that in the 11 years prior to Godric's Hollow, significant
numbers died violently and prematurely.  In fact, we know of few
grandparents of current Hogwarts students, if I'm not too far
mistaken.  That Harry's grandparents (both the magical Potters and the
(presumably) muggle Evanses) are dead and that nothing has been said
of them would seem significant to me, although it appears that JKR may
not agree.  We know that one of Neville's grandmothers is alive, but
she is mentioned in contexts that suggest she's a widow.  I don't
recall a mention of any other grandparents...I don't think we've ever
heard anything about Ron's grandparents which seems odd given the
amount we've learned about the Weasley family in general.

Perhaps this is a result of the first war with Voldemort.  Or perhaps
it's an authorial oversight or just a decision that this doesn't bear
on the plot.  If the former, it seems there may be a generation or two
in the WW that's been decimated...and this may also have an effect on
attitudes about the more distant past.  In any case, it does seem that
the WW is heading towards a situation in which there are the very old
and the very young with the middle aged cohorts much smaller in
comparison.  If the very old die off before passing along their
knowledge of the past, then the WW is in danger of losing that
connection with their heritage.

Then again, the WW's attitude toward history is another thing that
gets me musing...it doesn't seem to be valued much academically, does
it?

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb

"To be without a history is like being forgotten...
to be forgotten must be the worst fate of all."--poet Donald Hall, in
String Too Short to Be Saved.