Wizard supremacy (was:Re: Nel Question #4: Class and Elitism)

[greatelderone]

No: HPFGUIDX 125922


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

GEO: Knowledge of specific spells that they are capable of 
performing, information about their capabilities with and without 
wands and their knowledge about defense would all prove immensly 
useful to military planners.

> a_svirn:
> 
> This is probably true. However wizards still can apparate (I maybe 
> wrong, but I think it's a kind of wandless magic). And anyway it's 
> not easy to disarm a wizard without magic. In fact you only can do 
> it if you catch them by surprise. 

GEO: Or a soldier could do it with a standard issue assault rifle by 
shooting the said wizard. 

 a_svirn:
  By the end of the war it was the allies who had 
> a nuclear bomb, not the Nazis. When I spoke about technological 
> superiority I meant the situation when one side is armed by bows 
and 
> arrows and the other one with guns and cannons.

GEO: Except there isn't that big of a gap between wizard and regular 
muggle technology. They aren't inferior or superior as more like 
just completely different systems. And besides look at Vietnam for 
the USA or Afghanistan with the Soviets, in both situations a more 
advanced force was defeated and hampered by a less advanced force 
through enormous sacrifices in manpower from the latter.

> a_svirn:
 They only need to interrogate a dozen 
> of the top Muggle officials (like the US and Russian Presidents, 
and 
> British Prime Minister etc.) on the subject of wmd and connected 
> programs with Veritaserum. 

GEO: And how would they get their hands on these said officials who 
are surrounded by secret service agents and body guards everyday.

Upon learning where the wmd are kept 
> wizards need only vanish them together with the corresponding 
> documentation, and then modify memory of all Muggles concerned. In 
> fact they could even obliterate the whole knowledge about nuclear 
> physics etc for good just as they have obliterated knowledge about 
> magic. 

GEO: To do any of the above tasks you mentioned would require an 
enormous amount of work which we don't know if the wizards are even 
capable of. To vanish all the nuclear, biological and chemical 
stockpiles along with every bit of information on how to develop 
them would mean modifying the memory of a significant portion of the 
population not to mention going through and combing through millions 
of books and destroying every piece of technology that uses nuclear 
energy including nuclear energy plants which I think is beyond the 
wizard's capability.

Besides if they were capable of doing such a task why haven't they 
obliviated the muggles back to a medieval or feudal era or back to 
caveman status to make it easier to control them?