The WW is fascist? (was the DE are Nazi?)

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 124709


Nora wrote:
"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..."

Del replies:
I went to see it. Very interesting. Let me paste here the list you
gave there:

"Common Characteristics of Fascism:

1) Authoritarianism and the absolutist tradition: power must lie in
the hands of one ruler of the state.

2) A founding mythology associated with this leader: what makes him
special and uniquely suited to the preeminent position. Combine
this with a sense of the destiny of a particular people.

3) Organicism: a system in which everyone's place is precisely
defined and fixed.

4) Obedience to the leader and system are of primary importance.

5) Disruption of traditional or previous class distinctions, which
are redefined by new criteria distinctive to each incarnation of the
fascist system.

6) Essentialism: people are defined by innate and inalterable
qualities. You were born what you are.

7) A particular mixture of racial and cultural anxiety, generated by
the confluence of conditions listed above.

8) The generation and definition of a distinct underclass, often
with the element of fear of retribution from this underclass.

9) Enforcers of the regime loyal to the dictator."

Del now comments:
How interesting! Let's see.

1) Authoritarianism and the absolutist tradition: power must lie in
the hands of one ruler of the state.

As you yourself pointed, Nora, this is something quite common in the
WW. Even right now, three people are "competing" for the title of
absolute ruler: LV, Fudge, and DD. All three of them have loyal
followers that think that everything would be perfect if their own
champion was the only ruler.

2) A founding mythology associated with this leader: what makes him
special and uniquely suited to the preeminent position. Combine
this with a sense of the destiny of a particular people.

You already expanded on LV. Let's see the other two.

DD: well, he is the great hero that defeated Grindelwald. He is the
only one LV was ever afraid of. He is the greatest wizard alive. And
so on.

Fudge: not really any mythology... yet. Give him another decade or two
(which he won't have), and I'm sure we'd see some tall stories surfacing.

I also feel that the mythology about the Founders is related to that
point. After several hundreds years, the sytem the Founders imagined
is still in place at Hogwarts, it hasn't been replaced. Kids are still
proud to be from this or that House, to be connected with this or that
great Founder. It's a big deal that Harry is a true Gryffindor, for
example, and it was ominously meaningful that young Snape was a
Slytherin. "A sense of the destiny of a particular people", indeed.

3) Organicism: a system in which everyone's place is precisely
defined and fixed.

The WW in its entirety is very much such a system. We even know that
the wizards spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out a
system that could categorise every single magical and non-magical
creature... with the wizards on top, of course.

And once again, we have the House system in Hogwarts, where students
are *literally* sleeping and eating and living in fixed places
depending on which House they belong to. Not to mention the unspoken
but very important rules of preeminence between the different Houses.

4) Obedience to the leader and system are of primary importance.

We've seen that again and again. For example, there are laws to
prevent wizards from doing magic in front of Muggles, complete with
punishment for doing so, and special forces to enforce that law.
There's also a law preventing underage wizard from doing any magic
during the holidays, and Harry suffered at their hands even before the
MoM got on his case.

At Hogwarts too, obedience to the system and to the leaders is a big
deal. There's no rebelling against authority, there's no
argumentating. The students won't even denounce an incompetent or a
sadistic teacher to the administration. The teachers rule supreme in
their class, no matter how unfairly they abuse their power.

5) Disruption of traditional or previous class distinctions, which
are redefined by new criteria distinctive to each incarnation of the
fascist system.

This is exactly what happens to Muggleborns when they enter the WW.
Suddenly, things such as race, religion, money, position of parents in
society, schools they went to, ancestry, intelligence, talents,
previous accomplishments, or whatever, become of no importance. But on
the other hand, something that had never mattered before, the fact
that their parents are not magical, becomes quite an issue. The WW
makes no effort to respect the particularities of the Muggleborns. It
is expectd of the Muggleborns that they turn into perfect copies of
the wizard-borns, period. What they might bring to the WW is deemed of
no importance, they must now make their life rotate around this one
particular attribute : magic. Nothing else matters.

6) Essentialism: people are defined by innate and inalterable
qualities. You were born what you are.

That pretty much summarises the WW. Wizards are wizards before they
are anything else. Muggles are underclass people because they are not
magical. Magical creatures are underclass creatures because they are
not humans.  Morality, hard work, intelligence, courage, whatever,
those things matter inside of your own sphere, but they will never
take you out of that sphere. 

7) A particular mixture of racial and cultural anxiety, generated by
the confluence of conditions listed above.

This is obvious in the WW, at least in my idea.

8) The generation and definition of a distinct underclass, often
with the element of fear of retribution from this underclass.

Obvious where the Muggles are concerned. Wizards must not mix with
Muggles, because Muggles are inherently inferior since they are not
magical, and so they could either abuse the wizards to get them to
work for them (Hagrid says something in PS/SS about this, something
about "they would ask us to solve all their problems"), or they could
hurt them like they did during the Middle-Ages.

Same with some magical creatures. The giants, for example, were
exiled, for fear of what they might do to the humans. The Merpeople
and the Centaurs have to live in tiny places, and we saw Umbridge be
quite afraid of the Centaurs in OoP.

9) Enforcers of the regime loyal to the dictator.

Umbridge was very loyal to Fudge, and she wasn't the only one. Even
the Daily Prophet people were loyal to the Ministry.

The Order members seem to be quite blindly loyal to DD too. We don't
know how much DD let them in on his plans, but we do know how much he
let Harry in on his plan, and that was almost not at all. DD expected
blind faith from Harry, and this seems to be his usual modus operandi.

In conclusion: the WW in itself is a fascist world. So it's really no
surprise that ultra-fascists like LV should crop up regularly. More
than ever, I argue that only a total transformation of the WW could
bring a real sense of hope for better days.

Del