RSS 2.0 FeedHarry Potter’s Secret Libertarian Message
by Doug MataconisAt least one person, a law professor in Tennessee thinks there’s a hidden libertarian message in the Harry Potter series:
KNOXVILLE — “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in the series, will be published on July 21, and University of Tennessee law professor Benjamin Barton will be standing in line to get it.
A big fan of Harry Potter, Barton has become a true student of the series, and he says he’s found some politically charged lessons written between the lines.
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Barton wrote a paper entitled “Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy” that was published in the Michigan Law Review in May 2006. The paper is being reprinted as a chapter in the book, “Harry Potter and the Law” (Carolina Press), due out this summer. He also has lectured on the topic at a “Power of Stories” seminar in Gloucester, England, in July 2005.
In “Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy,” Barton details the political messages he’s discovered in the Potter books:
“What would you think of a government that engaged in this list of tyrannical activities: tortured children for lying; designed its prison specifically to suck all life and hope out of the inmates; placed citizens in that prison without a hearing; ordered the death penalty without a trial; allowed the powerful, rich or famous to control policy; selectively prosecuted crimes (the powerful go unpunished and the unpopular face trumped-up charges); conducted criminal trials without defense counsel; used truth serum to force confessions; maintained constant surveillance over all citizens; offered no elections and no democratic lawmaking process; and controlled the press?
“You might assume that the above list is the work of some despotic central African nation, but it is actually the product of the Ministry of Magic, the magician’s government in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.”
Barton said he thinks the anti-government thread that runs through the Potter novels is significant because the books have great potential to sway public opinion.
I’m not a fan of the Harry Potter series. Haven’t read a single book, or seen a single movie, and I’ve got no plans to. So, I have no way of knowing if Barton’s hypothesis about a secret anti-government message behind the series is true or not. More likely than not, though, he’s just reading his own political ideas into a series of books and movies that most people are just enjoying for their entertainment value.
Nope, I disagree. I think that the massive popularity of the book is at least partly due to it echoing the moral dilemmas that the reader can recognize as reality. Another part is it being serialized and “growing up” with the reader.
Also, I tend to think the former is the reason that the churches are so set against the book. The libertarian message spells death to the church, an institution which makes subservience and not thinking seem like a good choice.
Comment by Jelly Degauss — July 10, 2007 @ 6:15 amI noticed that, it does seem that there is a bit of anti-government themes in the books, the problem is that what we see as anti-government themes might just be the writer making a good plot, governments never fail to be great punching bags for authors. Who knows, maybe J.K. Rowling will come out of the political closet one day and express her opinions. Who knows, she might be a libertarian, but if she isn’t, than she is most likely a liberal.
Comment by me — July 10, 2007 @ 7:28 amYou state, “More likely than not, though, he’s just reading his own political ideas into” the series.
I’m curious why you think so.
Comment by Kevin Parker — July 10, 2007 @ 7:27 pm