the DE are Nazi?Re: Elkins' Draco Malfoy Is Ever So Lame. (But not sympathetic)

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 124641


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "naamagatus" 
<naama_gat at h...> 
> wrote:
> > Seeing as the DEs are the equivalent of the Nazi SS or Gestapo, 
I 
> > don't see how they could be depicted as other than totally 
black. 
> <snip>
> 
> 

Are they though? Don't you think it is a bit too much of a 
generalisation perhaps? I mean, yes there are obvious similarities 
between whole this "pureblood"-"mudblood" thing and racist ideology 
of the Third Reich (mainly because of the word `blood'). Perhaps, 
even too obvious for us not to treat it with some suspicion. But is 
this DE movement really about superior race hegemony? Somehow it 
doesn't sound right.

As I said in some of my earlier posts, while in our world racism is 
a dangerous and faulty ideology, in the Wizarding World it is a fact 
of life. Like it or not, but Muggles ARE inferior simply because 
they cannot do magic. They even inferior to house-elves in this 
respect, which is probably why wizards didn't bother to enslave 
them. And let's face it, they easily could, should they chose to. So 
why on earth would members of the most influential wizarding 
families form this kind of a secret society just to prove something 
that doesn't need proving? As Harry quite reasonably asked after 
witnessing Muggle-torture at the World's Cup "what is point?" One 
needs more powerful motivation to go to such lengths, I think.  The 
real reason is that they feel threatened by the rise of what Malfoy-
fils termed as "riff-raff", that is muggle-borns and half-bloods. 
And this points to a different ideological framework.

The pure-blood families like the Malfoys or the Blacks clearly see 
themselves as NOBILITY. Remember NOBLE house of Black complete with 
the coats of arms and the motto, a book about nobility, etc. 
Remember how in CoS Borgin muttered "Mr. Malfoy" (emphasis on `Mr'), 
and Draco referred to his house as to a `manor'?  (And the owner of 
the manor would be a lord, not just a plain mister, would it?) And 
their leader is not called a `Fürer', or a `great Magister', etc, no 
it is called Dark LORD. And the correct form of address is "My Lord" 
or "Your Lordship" (there is always much more servile Master of 
course). This is something quite different from Nazism, I would even 
say opposite, since Nazism was a populist movement, while the DE is 
in a way an elitist club. Far from being populist the DE are clearly 
trying to reclaim their exclusive privileges. The kind of privileges 
their families have probably lost in the course of last hundred 
years or so, gradually loosing dome of their political influence to 
muggle-borns and half-bloods. And while I am ready to admit that 
radical aristocratic ideology of the DE may find a realisation just 
as ugly as radical populist ideology I would ague that they are 
hardly equivalent.