The secrecy motif

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 179991

---  Bob Connors <bobjtc at ...> wrote:
>
> <Snip>
> > Montavilla47:
> > I don't disagree with you, Bob. Yes, it's a two-way street.
> 
> > But... how can the Muggles fear the wizards when they don't
> > even know that Wizards exist? 
> 
> 
> Bob:
> 
> But we have known that they existed, and we feared them. 
> Look at what we have done to them over the years - the most
> famous I think would be Salem, Mass.  We muggles don't 
> understand them, don't know them, don't trust them, therefore
> we fear them.
> 
> Just imagine what the pacifists would be doing - register
> your wands?  Wand control? Only crooks and cops should have
> them?  It is sort of funny to think of them in that way.
>  
> Bob
>

bboyminn:

I think Bob is right. Consider what would happen if it were
discovered that Magical Beings (wizards/witches) really 
existed. Do you think the various Churches in the world
are going to throw them a big tea party and welcome them
aboard? Do you think the world governments, especially
minority governments (like Arabs and Persians) are going
to just 'live and let live'? I REALLY don't think so. 

And as Bob points out, at various times in REAL European 
and American history, we were convinced that wizards and
witches did exist, and look how we treated them; in the 
most irrational, brutal, and cruel way. 

Wizards and witches are part of real muggle history, just
as Basilisks, Dragons, Elves, and Sphinxes are part of
our real history. They don't have to be real to be part
of history, that's the irony. I remember when I was 
researching Basilisks and came across a massive crop failure
in Italy that was blamed on the breath of a Basilisk (many 
centuries ago).

The absents or presents of the wizard world is not about
magic and what it can do for society, it is about POWER,
who has it, who controls it. 

The Church would certainly see the existence of wizards 
as a challenge to it's power and authority over the
people of earth. Government with the largest concentrations
of wizards, would try to command them to force this
countries will on the world.

No, it is far better for all if wizards and witches remain
the stuff of children's fairytales. 

Just a thought.

Steve/boyminn