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

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 124649


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_svirn" <a_svirn at y...> wrote:

<snip>

First, let me plug my very own analysis at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/108762, comparing 
the DEs as we see them to fascism...

<snip>

> 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.

But does this make them less human?  To some bents of wizards they 
are on the level of beasts, but humans still meet all requirements 
for sentience.  Is it right to maltreat someone merely because they 
are weaker?

Where the racism argument usually gets pulled out (and has legs) is 
with the half-bloods and Muggleborns--so we'll get to that.

<snip>

> As Harry quite reasonably asked after witnessing Muggle-torture at 
> the World's Cup "what is the 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.

I don't think these things are in any way mutually exclusive.  It's 
the *combination* of racist essentialism and cultural anxiety that 
gives the DE movement real teeth.  The threat posed by the Muggleborn 
is not only that they bring in culture from the outside, but that 
they genuinely *are* perceived as being dirty and contaminated by 
those who adhere to the pureblood ideology.  Draco, in GoF, makes a 
crack about not touching Hermione--he just washed his hands and wants 
to keep them clean.

Ouch.

> 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?)

Then why isn't Lucius Malfoy 'Lord Malfoy'--'cause if he were, I am 
totally sure that Draco would have been blabbing about that by now.  
You'll also note that Borgin's tone of voice can be read as 
extremely, ummm, uncomplimentary.

> 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). 

Being as they speak English in the HP books, as they are set in Great 
Britain, the lack of Fuehrer is not surprising.

What's most interesting about the 'Lord' part of Voldemort is how 
totally nouveau riche it is.  Airs of aristocracy, and he describes 
his enemy Dumbledore as a 'champion of commoners'.  And you know what 
they say about guys with inadequacy problems...

> 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.

I answer most all of your objections in my post. :)  What it seems to 
me is that first of all, while Nazism was broadly popular, it also 
had a decided appeal to the innate *qualities* of the people: in that 
case, for example, the German people are the aristocrats of the 
earth, as compared to all the other degenerates out there.  That's 
the kind of essentialist language that 'Mudblood' and the language of 
contamination and filth used to describe Muggles and Muggleborns 
speaks to.

Second, we have hints that while a lot of the power of the DEs is/was 
in this nasty nexus of wealth/entitlement/the Dark Arts, we also have 
unknown factors like Young!Snape.  Not wealthy.  Most likely 
pureblooded.  Likely to benefit from a reorganization of society on 
blood basis, where that status will pull him up.  (It's a hypothetic, 
but I think it works.)

So while Nazism is not a perfect comparison, I humbly ask all takers 
to go look at what I wrote, and see if in some ways fascism doesn't 
fit.  After all, remember that "lots of people thought Voldemort had 
the right idea" and that the DEs outnumbered the Order considerably 
last time around; purely elitist they were not.

-Nora embraces her political theory side