[HPforGrownups] Muggleborns choosing WW

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 118216

kjirstem wrote@
> I think there are other things to consider about an individual's
> contribution to society in the WW or the Muggle world.  Because of the
> International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, magic cannot be used to
> solve problems in the Muggle world.  Since magic is what wizards are
> trained in, and since more mundane knowledge is not cultivated after
> age 11, their skills are not of use to the rest of the world.  To me,
> this seems to limit the scope of what a wizard or witch can
> accomplish.  There are a lot more Muggles than people in the WW,
> regardless of the calculation method used for the WW population.  So,
> a person with talents that are fundamentally non-magical might be able
> to do a lot more good in the Muggle world.

Though logically, given that there are more Muggles, there are equally, more
talented Muggles to make the contribution.

"Mundane knowledge" of course is really a concept that's from our point of
view rather than the WW point of view. For them, what we would consider
esoteric (the techniques of magic and so on) would be entirely mundane (this
is the spell that you use to wash the dishes, this is the one that you use
to send a minute to Araminta in the Wages Department, and so on) while what
we would consider mundane (our technology, the "laws of physics", and so on)
appear to be entirely esoteric in the WW (as witness the "eccentric" Arthur
Weasley always mucking about with Muggle stuff - I think JRK is pretty
explicit in pointing us towards drawing that comparison).

Also, would a Muggleborn wizard necessarily have any feeling of
responsibility to the world they were born in, as opposed to being entirely
sucked into WW culture? The only example we've seen is Tom Riddle, who went
back solely to get his revenge on his father and who treats Muggles as lower
than vermin.

> The interesting thing, I think, is that the breach between the Muggle
> and magic worlds doesn't seem to be in the WW's best interests.  (At
> least now, maybe it was in 1692.)  The WW is probably somewhat
> dependent on the Muggle world for food, and manfactured goods.  I
> suspect the WW would be affected by dramatic changes in the Muggle
> world, such as war or widespread disease.  Yet, the WW has little
> effect on the Muggle world due to the Statute of Secrecy.

I'd tend to take the opposite view and think that the WW is far too small
and culturally fragile to survive coming into the open on any sort of level
of equality: if they did, they'd be ruthlessly exploited, robbed, and
brutalised, the way pretty much _all_ cultures have been treated by Western
civilisation. Given that the WW can hide in plain view - "don't notice me" -
I don't think that the kind of cataclysms that have affected Muggledom have
touched the WW more than in passing. If any of the wizards have noticed,
they've probably shrugged and said "look what the Muggles are doing to each
other now, I'm so glad we're not like them". But I do think you're right in
the modern context. Could the wizard population of Hiroshima have survived
being at ground zero? Possibly not, especially without warning. Will the WW
be able to hide from the effects of global warming or the incessant pressure
on space. Once again, possibly not (though the climate at Hogwarts does
appear to behave as it traditionally "should").

A daring thought: can the WW survive _without_ the victory of Voldemort or
some other Dark Wizard who seeks to reduce Muggledom to slavery? Not a
_nice_ thought, but...

> The WW comes across as conservative and changing very little over time
> (e.g. robes, forms of address at school, ghost Binns teaching
> history).  I doubt there is much innovation in the use of magic; the
> teaching methods appear to emphasize rote memorization.  Fred and
> George are a break from this, they actually invent things.  But
> generally, there is a recipe presented to the students and they
> learn the recipe rather than the reasons.  In addition, with fewer
> people there are fewer ideas to try, therefore change occurs at a
> slower pace.  On the other hand, since the break between the worlds
> there have been substantial changes in what the Muggle world can
> accomplish.  Eventually the Muggle world will catch up to or surpass
> the WW in many ways; communication is already better in the Muggle
> world than in the WW.

The books do give us some examples of innovation, not just Fred and George,
so that I think there is both internally generated development (new potions
and the like) and also externally generated development (the Knight Bus, for
example). But I also think that some of the things that you highlight
reflect a basic cultural difference between the two worlds - perhaps
inherent in the difference between a magical and a technological world.

But JKR alone knows all

Cheers

Ffred

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