[HPforGrownups] Portrayal of MoM in the series

[Ffred Clegg]

No: HPFGUIDX 178821

Alla wrote:
>I always loved how consistently Rowling portrayed corruption of the 
>ministry throughout the series and when I look back now I can also 
>see how elegantly she foreshadowed its fall as well.  This post is 
>
>I also think that even good people working at the Ministry get 
>sucked in the atmosphere of  corruption of power, no matter how 
>harmless it is to me on the grand scale of things. I love Weasleys 
>by and large, no matter if I sometimes have Molly's issues and 
>Arthur I just love. But eh, writing a law and make a loophole to be 
>able to amuse oneself with muggle car seems just wrong to me.  
>
>Of course I refuse to think that it means that Arthur will ever 
>write a law that would truly hurt somebody, so to me it is 
>relatively harmless, but I am just saying that it is telling to me 
>of what Ministry of Magic truly is.
>
>Of course I think corruption and other weaknesses of  the Ministry 
>are shown in all its glory in OOP more than any other books.

(much snippage)

As I see it, here is the problem with the Ministry which is at the root of all these tendencies: government in the WW is a pure bureaucracy.

If you want to enter politics, you join the Ministry and work your way up. Given the longer lifespans (and probable lack of an official retirement age) you could quite easily have a working life in excess of 100 years. This already and of itself makes it highly likely that there will be an atmosphere of intrigue and corruption. There is no external check on it. If someone like Arthur is to write a piece of law that's within his competence and to do it to his advantage, who's to stop him?

But I also put a lot of the blame for Voldemort at the door of the Ministry. If all political activity is drawn into the bureaucracy, then what is left for someone who is in opposition to it? There's no political culture. The only alternative is conspiracy and underground subversion.

All fairly bleak. And it doesn't give me enormous hope for the future, either. Kingsley is an honest guy who will have done a great deal to cleanse the upper levels and send the Ministry in an honest direction, but without a major political change then what comes after? And given the requirement for secrecy from Muggles, _can_ there be any political change?

Pessimistically

Ffred


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