[HPforGrownups] Re: The Fundamental Message.../ Heroes...

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 176392

Bruce Alan Wilson wrote:
>
> A lot of the problems in the WW are of hundreds of years in the
> making.  That
> doesn't get reversed in a decade or so.


montims:

In fact.  I keep reading that people are disappointed at so few changes in
the epilogue - 19 years after the end of the VW.  The thing I like about the
Potter books is the realism (or maybe pragmatism is a better word to use
about a world that takes centaurs, elves, unicorns and giants in its
stride...)

What was happening in our world 19 years after the end of WW2?  Universal
peace and harmony?  Tolerance among races?  Unfortunately not.  Wikipedia,
as ever, is our friend - unnecessary to cut and paste paragraphs - those who
want to can go to  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964. Suffice it to say that
there is still racial segregation in America, most South Africans are
disenfranchised, Nelson Mandela is tried and imprisoned, Greeks and Turks
begin fighting in Cyprus, the Cold War is big business, the Vietnam War is
in full swing, the Moors Murderers abduct Lesley Ann Downey...  Not a nice
world, you could say.

OK then, 19 years after WW1, the war to end all wars?  Uhoh - we reach 2
years before WW2, and widespread antisemitism...

But when a murderous dictator is overthrown, all citizens throw down their
weapons and embrace in loving reconciliation, regardless of partisan
loyalties, no?  Well no, actually.

All right - let's cheat - let's look at 18 years ago - 1989 - a great year
for democracy: Solidarity is legalised and wins the elections, the Soviet
Union leaves Kabul, Botha resigns - leading to the end of apartheid and the
release of Mandela in 1990, (Salman Rushdie was placed under a fatwa, but
that's a blip in my thesis...), the Tiananmen Square massacres lead to a
change in Chinese thinking - don't they?, the Hungarian Republic is
declared, the Berlin Wall came down, it's the beginning of the end for
Eastern European communism, Brazil holds its first free presidential
election since 1960, the communist government was overthrown in
Czechoslovakia, the Ceausescus were executed. So less than 19 years after
these momentous happenings, we must be living in a time of universal peace
and tolerance, right?

In Germany, it took a couple of generations before they started discussing
the wartime events openly, and teaching it honestly in schools...  Before
that, nobody wanted to ask friends and family, because they were afraid of
what they might discover...

People of honour do not change their entire belief systems just because
their side lost.  It takes persuasion, and evidence that their beliefs are
wrong.  When I first started working, there were jobs that women were not
considered capable of doing.  When I was at school, little black children in
America were forcibly prevented from going to school with white children.
People's ideas didn't change overnight, and still today there are many
racist and sexist bigots in the so-called civilised world.

I think the WW will need longer than 19 years for ingrained beliefs and
ideas to be replaced.  It would be good to see forward 50 years - what have
Kingsley, Harry and Hermione accomplished?

The ending of LOTR was brilliant, IMO, when they showed the Shire still
suffering long after the war ended, due to the actions and attitudes of the
bad guys that endured.  I also found the ending of DH credible and
satisfying.  I am a rooster - I cannnot digest suger-coated pap - I need
some grit in there.


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