[HPforGrownups] Re: Marietta

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 169559

>
> Dana:
> In the WWII people who just lived next to people who gave refuge to
> Jewish people sold that secret to the Germans because they were
> scared for repercussions if they found out just by living next to
> these people.  It was the same with underground organisations that
> fought against the occupation of the Germans, sometimes people were
> part of this or just learned about it and then got scared for either
> their direct involvement or the possibility to be associated with it
> and in an attempt to protect themselves they gave this information
> to the Germans and this did coast people their lives.
>
> It might be hard to compare Hogwarts and an attempt of the MoM to
> take over control as a sever act of aggression as was seen in WWII
> but it actually is because students were used as political leverage
> and just to smoke out a potential enemy of the established order.
> This is how dictators start taking over a country without initially
> using military force, they take over schools and dictate what can
> and can't be taught to the students and they take over the media and
> begin a propaganda campaign to mould the sheep, so resistance of
> taking away people's right of truthful information. The resistance
> is taken out, outside of public view so that the government always
> seem to act correctly while it actually smothers people's right to
> speak and defend themselves against an upcoming threat.

You might not consider it of any importance because Hogwarts seems
so insignificant and the WW so irrelevant but these campaigns happen
in RL too with deviating results for people living in these
countries and people ratting out opposing groups keep such
governments at the height of their power because it makes them able
to act before these groups can gain power by convincing others to
join them in the fight for their rights to the truth. Fear is how LV
rules and in OotP the MoM used the same means to control the
students at Hogwarts. Umbridge clearly tries to install fear that
one will be punished if one goes against the MoM and why she
installs ever so many new rules and has them pinned to the boards of
all the common rooms. It had an successful effect on Marietta and it
had its consequences just like it has its consequences in real life.

These campaigns are not supposed to evoke public up-rise and
therefore are very subtle (although Umbridge was anything but
subtle) and many people do not notice it until they are no longer
allowed to do anything because it could land you a trip to prison
and then the power a government holds over its people is so strong
that most people just stop thinking for themselves.

 montims:
While I agree with all this, it is not necessary to go back as far as WW2 -
children spying on, reporting on, and being the cause of arrest, torture and
even murder of their own families and friends happened in more recent
history in China, Soviet Russia, Argentina, and many other places.  It is
also a fictional concept in futuristic books such as 1984.

I would also mention that Umbridge set Dementors on Harry, off her own bat,
not knowing that he could fight them off, and not caring who else could have
been attacked.  If Dudley, why not also Mrs Figg if she was witness to the
murder of the boys?  This isn't revealed to us until the end, so there is no
reason for any of the characters to take this into account, but it colours
my opinion of Umbridge on every re-read...


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