If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, or know me as a friend, you know that I love to read and watch movies. You also probably know I’m a big fan of Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and even Twilight. Well, my sexy husband Jason recently had some deep thoughts when we were watching a Harry Potter movie and I asked him to guest blog it for me. I hope you enjoy this, I think the parallels between what is going on in our country and what happens in this movie are really interesting! ~Sarah-Marie
Jason Smith: “I love Harry Potter. The books, the movies and the amazing ride at Universal Studios, which happens to be the absolute best ride I’ve ever been on…period. I know I have already written about Harry Potter once, but this one will go in a slightly different direction.My wife and I have been having our 4th or 5th Harry-Potter-A-Thon for the past several weeks and we came upon the fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I have seen these movies countless times, but I recently noticed a pattern that directly correlates with the direction of our great country.
Movies 1 through 3 are kind of the “Good ol’ days” of Harry Potter. We’re getting a glimpse into their world, there’s a lot we learn about the history of the characters and what has happened in the wizarding world relating to Lord Voldemort, the story’s main villain. Some bad things happen, but Voldemort is still contained and not on the rise. Movie 4 is when things get serious. “He’s back!” shouts Harry, as he and and a friend return from a crucial moment in the storyline. I think Hermione, one of the three main characters, said it best when she simply stated “Everything is going to change now, isn’t it?” The enemy has risen and now everything will change. Funny how we have a president that wants to “fundamentally change America.”
Please note that I am not the least bit into conspiracies or fear mongering. I also want to take a non-partisan approach to this post as much as possible. America is a free country and has been for 236 years, but will we always be a free nation? The wizarding world of Harry Potter is ruled by the Ministry of Magic, which is headed by Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. Sure, there are laws, rules and regulations, but generally, they are a free people. If you break the law, you are brought forth to the Ministry and given a hearing. If your crime is severe, you could be sent to Azkaban Prison. This is very much like America…for now.
By the time movie 5 begins, things have certainly changed a lot. Dementors (scary ghost-like creatures) are now being seen in non-magic communities, evil wizards are attacking random and innocent people and there are signs everywhere that the everyone is in danger. And how does the Minister of Magic respond to this? Passively. He swears that the Voldemort has not returned, that “All is well.” and there is no cause for fear. He even blames the occurrences on an innocent man named Sirius Black, a hero in this point of the story, who is building an army to fight Voldemort and his followers. Sounds a lot like our current government. Blame everyone else and exalt themselves into the position of the fixers. Our national debt has just surpassed our Gross Domestic Product and our president has assured us that “The private sector is doing just fine.” Much like the Minister’s “All is well.” comment.
The Minister has appointed a woman named Dolores Umbridge as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts and it is her job to get an inside look at how the school is handling the education of the young witches and wizards. This is a vile woman, who hates children and is not fond of any of the staff, with the exception of the castle’s caretaker, Mr. Filch, who also brims with hatred for the students and longs for the “good ol’ days” of torturing the students as punishment. Umbridge has her own agenda and beginning on the very first day of lessons, she has forbidden the students to use magic in her classroom. She assures the students that there is nobody that would want to cause harm to children and the moment Harry says that Voldemort is on the rise, Umbridge silences and punishes him. So much for standing up for the truth. She is working on removing the students’ ability to defend themselves, much like gun control. (Did you know that one of Adolf Hitler’s first moves in his rise to power was the removal of guns from everyone except the Nazis?)
Over time, Umbridge gains an even higher position, informing the Minister of Magic of every detailed thing going on inside the school. She begins posting countless rules all over the walls of the school and even removes teachers from their posts for reasons no one has a problem with, but the ones in control.
She gains a following from a select number of students and appoints them to positions of power. In 2008, then presidential candidate, Barack Obama said the following: “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” (Students in Charge? Civilian Force? Nazis?)
Eventually, Umbridge gains almost all of the power in the school, with the exception of Headmaster…which she eventually gains and attempts to send the existing Headmaster to Azkaban Prison. Recently, American soldiers, who gave their lives for this country, dared to exercise their freedom of speech and spoke out against the president’s policies. They were silenced and discharged from the military.
This is only the beginning of the fundamental changing that Umbridge enacts upon the school. In one scene, she is handing out literature that appears as though it’s aimed at Kindergartners (void of any depth, like the public schools’ new textbooks) and says “There will be no need for wands.” Hermione responds very appropriately, “No need to think is more like it.”
Over the past 50 years, the progressive movement has infiltrated our public school system. They have removed God and prayer from schools and began teaching the theory of evolution as scientific fact. They have even distorted the history of our great country and removed true American patriotism from the classroom. Teachers are no longer allowed to use red ink to grade papers, because of the “psychological damage” that it can inflict upon the precious snowflakes in the classroom. It’s the dumbing down of our nation.
We’ve seen it happen for so long that we are now seeing the results. Kids from Generation Me (born after 1982) are now the most ill-equipped generation of all time. They are not prepared for the real world, because they have been told all their lives how special they are, that there are no winners and losers, and that competition is bad. They are completely taken aback when they go in for a job interview and are turned down.
The point is that the progressives have severely downgraded the students to think that they are just sheep that depend on the government and other people to take care of them. It seems that schools are no longer raising a generation of independent people. If that’s the case, then there really is no need to think is there?
Umbridge and the Ministry attempt to desensitize the students until they finally rise up against them and eventually the Minister of Magic comes to see reason when he sees Voldemort with his own eyes. This is a lot like the current state of our nation. I don’t know for sure if the government is so corrupt that they are attempting to spend us into oblivion and completely destroy our country– I can’t read these people’s hearts. Hopefully, they’re not. After all, if the stubborn Minister of Magic can be enlightened of the fact that these things really are going on, can our own government wake up and do the same thing? Stop the partisan nonsense and unite to keep America great? Or will they remain trapped in their idealist bubble?
Notice how the awakening began with the students, or, in other words, the people of America. I think that if we are going to get back on track, WE have to turn the train around and then the government will follow. After all, we own the government and we own this country. We, The People need to rise and fight the tyranny of America. If we fight, we learned from Harry Potter, if we don’t fight and let the government gain more and more power, we become the Hunger Games, where the entire world has become a socialist country, completely controlled with only the elite (the government, celebrities and the media) and the people (us). Do you want to stand in the bread lines all day for your daily ration and have one potato a day for the fall season, or would you rather be independent and take care of yourself, without any help from the government?
If Harry Potter can teach us anything, I believe it has taught us how to fight for our country, when we actually do it is up to us.”