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Magical Solutions
Mar. 9th, 2005 03:13 pmOkay, so, question to the fandom: what on earth is so terrible about Muggles "wantin' magical solutions to their problems," the explanation Hagrid gives for Wizarding secrecy? I mean, shouldn't the wizards want to help Muggles if they can? If wizards can cure cancer or track down serial killers, why not offer their services to society?
As a child I interpreted Hagrid as referencing the traditional story of the human who is given wishes and messes it up, a la the folktale where the woman ends up with the pudding on her nose. I think I also brought to it a vague idea that it's not good for people to be handed the world on a silver platter, and that the journey towards something is often more valuable that the having of that something once you've got there. I thought about wanting to magically be rich, magically be famous, popular, happy, ect. And any kid who's read stories about magic knows that of course it doesn't work that way, and wizards would be seriously screwing everybody up and the Muggles would demand it anyway and it would be narsty.
Okay, but somehow that Wizarding World manages to have an economy. Still not sure how that works--why don't the Weasleys just transfigure nice clothes for themselves, a huge mansion house, whatever? If you can turn an inanimate object into an animal, couldn't you transform it into a servant? Why can't you conjure up food? Money is magically controlled, so inflation's not the problem. The issue is that money is only valuable as a unit of exchange, when you have it and want something else. But if you can make as much of "something else" as you want, if twelve-year-olds can give life to non-living things and pots can easily be made to stir themselves, why would you need to exchange for it? I mean, this whole thing obviously falls apart at the seams, but I'd think that if the Wizarding World does work, there must be some sort of restrictions.
But there are so many other things wizards could do for others. They can heal wounds, protect, conceal, cure, find the lost. Can they change the weather? They can certainly effect agarian production--doesn't Hagrid "do something" to his pumpkins? So it's not too far a stretch to guess that they could put a significant dent in the problem of world hunger. You know wizards have a pretty darn fail-safe method of contraception. Why not bottle and sell potions? reduce the dangers of travel by transporting Muggles via Floo Powder?
Okay, so I'm getting a bit frivolous here. But the point still stands. These people have great power, and could really, truly make the world a better place, and I don't see why they resist doing so. None of the Muggleborns ever get upset that their parents die from terminal diseases that St. Mungo's could fix in three seconds? It doesn't make any sense.
Of course, none of this really jives with the most commonly given reason for Wizarding secrecy: self-defense. The idea is that Muggles hunt them, burn them, kill them, and thus they have to hide themselves away lest the Bad Old Times begin again. But then you have Wendelin the Weird, and honestly, how could Muggles do any sort of systematic damage to people who have power of time and space and can kill you with two words? Does not compute.
Thoughts?
As a child I interpreted Hagrid as referencing the traditional story of the human who is given wishes and messes it up, a la the folktale where the woman ends up with the pudding on her nose. I think I also brought to it a vague idea that it's not good for people to be handed the world on a silver platter, and that the journey towards something is often more valuable that the having of that something once you've got there. I thought about wanting to magically be rich, magically be famous, popular, happy, ect. And any kid who's read stories about magic knows that of course it doesn't work that way, and wizards would be seriously screwing everybody up and the Muggles would demand it anyway and it would be narsty.
Okay, but somehow that Wizarding World manages to have an economy. Still not sure how that works--why don't the Weasleys just transfigure nice clothes for themselves, a huge mansion house, whatever? If you can turn an inanimate object into an animal, couldn't you transform it into a servant? Why can't you conjure up food? Money is magically controlled, so inflation's not the problem. The issue is that money is only valuable as a unit of exchange, when you have it and want something else. But if you can make as much of "something else" as you want, if twelve-year-olds can give life to non-living things and pots can easily be made to stir themselves, why would you need to exchange for it? I mean, this whole thing obviously falls apart at the seams, but I'd think that if the Wizarding World does work, there must be some sort of restrictions.
But there are so many other things wizards could do for others. They can heal wounds, protect, conceal, cure, find the lost. Can they change the weather? They can certainly effect agarian production--doesn't Hagrid "do something" to his pumpkins? So it's not too far a stretch to guess that they could put a significant dent in the problem of world hunger. You know wizards have a pretty darn fail-safe method of contraception. Why not bottle and sell potions? reduce the dangers of travel by transporting Muggles via Floo Powder?
Okay, so I'm getting a bit frivolous here. But the point still stands. These people have great power, and could really, truly make the world a better place, and I don't see why they resist doing so. None of the Muggleborns ever get upset that their parents die from terminal diseases that St. Mungo's could fix in three seconds? It doesn't make any sense.
Of course, none of this really jives with the most commonly given reason for Wizarding secrecy: self-defense. The idea is that Muggles hunt them, burn them, kill them, and thus they have to hide themselves away lest the Bad Old Times begin again. But then you have Wendelin the Weird, and honestly, how could Muggles do any sort of systematic damage to people who have power of time and space and can kill you with two words? Does not compute.
Thoughts?