Realistic Ootcomes

[career advisor]

No: HPFGUIDX 180735

<<Mike:
But as Fudge and Scrimgeour allowed in "The Other Minister", the 
other side can do magic too. Unless the DEs Imperiused the entire 
ministry staff, and that's not the way I read that, there sure 
seemed to be a lot of timid sheep in the WW. 

Harry sees a dozen witches and wizards stuffing envelopes for the 
Muggle-Born Registration Commission. So they can't plead ignorance
at what's going on under their noses, unlike some of the scenarios 
Alla painted for us with Stalinist Russia. Even if they're not 
particularly adept at fighting, they outnumber Dolores 12:1. Surely 
they could overpower her. 

And from the looks of things, these same odds exist throughout the 
Ministry. Adding to that, most likely not all of the department heads 
are in favor of the new regime or have been Imperiused. Do you think 
the DEs bothered to Imperiuse the head of maintenance, or any of the 
maintenance workers. I doesn't look like Reg Cattermole was a 
Voldemort supporter. How do these people continue doing their jobs 
as if nothing has changed while their family members are being 
persecuted?

Scrimgeour was killed for crissakes! Are they that blind and stupid 
that they can't figure out what's happening around them? But no, they 
just continue using their wands for stuffing envelopes. It's not Real 
Life, they have magic. That's why this whole takeover/downfall felt 
wrong for me. Authorial choice that I didn't like. I can only think 
that time constraints caused this to happen faster than what made 
sense. She needed the Ministry to fall and didn't have time to show 
all the people being indoctrinated to the other side.>>

Da Jones:

One explanation Mike is that magic is simply a talent and a skill and just like in real life not everyone 
is equally skilled. Most witches and wizards simply do not seem to have ths skill to make a stand even if they wanted too. And the leaders of departments are generally the most skilled at magic. Most likely JKR would say  that Umbridge is an extremly poweful witch and that her staff had no possibility of overpowering here even combinded. To paraphase George Carlin even a Goldish can kill a Gorilla but it takes a massive amount of surprise. 

Most ministry employees seem to be goldfish and Voldemort is the 1000 pound Gorilla in the tank.

Imagine a word for instance in which govenmental power was determined solely by the ability to play Basketball. There's no guarantee that playing Basketball equates to good governing skills or even a wish to govern fairly or even for the common good. A world that is governed by an arbitary skill is more adapt to have more leaders like Isiah (spelling) Thomas then Bill Bradleys, or even forgive me Shaq. 

The wizarding world wants Dumbledore to govern due to his 'heroic history' and magical power, but Dumbledore is wise enough to understand that the power of governance will corrupt him. But Fudge and others are proof that this is not always the case in this world. 

Magic isn't like having a gun, because in JKR's world everone is armed, but most people have a water pistol while others carry around a full division of artillery. And you can't overthrow a dictator with a water pistol. Even within the DA we see a vast difference in power. Harry is not able to teach everyone the Patronus it appears and there are several scenes that indicate that although equally brave Lavender is no match for her friend Parvati in the power department.Lavender is defeated easily in the battle and almost becomes werewolf bait, while Parvati saves Deans life and can cast a powerful Reducto curse.

Not everyone is capable of becoming an auror, even if they have the courage to try. And even if you are hugely courageous a water pistol does you no good. To fight is just to forfit your life against that power.

I think many people know what is happening, it is just literally they do not have the ability or the need to resist. Look what happened with the protesting Monks a while back in the real world. Did that government change? 

No! In thr real world the only time dictatorships seem to fall to unarmed or underarmed civilans is when the Dictatorship becomes so broke that it cannot govern, and cannot even put food on the shelves. Look at history and you will see that it is only when the people face death by hunger that they will risk death by the sword  (or the bullet). This is also in my humble opinion why Democracy never really seems to work well in really poor places. There is no compromise possible over bread, if shifting it your electorial enemy means you yourself will starve.  If you're needy you are also greedy and voting only works with wants. And when people have little want they have little need for governance (the richest places have the worst voter turnout in general). 

So its realisitc that Voldemort was able to take and hold power for a time at least, he satisfied the peoples basic needs. And the only want they had was freedom, and tyranny without starvation is not enough (for example the British blockaded the ports and refused trade with America during its revolution, which means that in many places in those more primitive times if bad weather occured hunger was a real threat) so the British were their own worst enemy. Had they simply restored trade and cut some disagreeable taxes, Americans would all my bowing to the Queen even now).        

Also don't forget that in addition to everything else, Voldemort has the majority of wealth on his side. The old pure-blood families (mostly Slytherin) have immense weatlh. Combinded they drawf Harry's I beleive. Even if some of the wealthy on Harry's side, such as Ernie where spending money convertly for his cause, they couldn't have held them off. 

The poor may be able to defeat city hall but I just don't beleive they can beat Exxon or BP for that matter. In my opinion it was a fairly realistic and consistent depiction of a coop given the dynamics of the world she presented.


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