Why
would I want to compare America to Dolores Umbridge, perhaps the most
reprehensible character in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series? Senior
Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, and High Inquisitor, she
does very unpleasant things with a pleasant smile, and looks at the world
around her as an assortment of inferior creatures, whose main function in life
is to do what they are told by the supreme authority which she represents.
I
wonder what Ms. Rowling had in mind creating this uncannily comparable personage,
but I eagerly invite my reader to track each episode of the Harry Potter septology,
where she makes an appearance, under the angle which I am presently suggesting,
and I promise an abundance of totally unexpected surprises. For this occasion,
however, let us look at just one episode in Chapter 33, Book Five: Harry
Potter and the Order of Phoenix.
In
this scene Umbridge is addressing the centaurs, the intellectually superior
creatures into whose part of the forest she has just trespassed, in pursuit of
Harry and Hermione’s “secret weapon.”---
“I am Dolores Umbridge! So be very
careful! By the laws laid down by the Department for the Regulation and Control
of Magical Creatures, any attack by half-breeds such as yourselves on a human…
“(What did you call us? shouted a wild-looking centaur.
There was a great deal of muttering and tightening of bowstrings around them.
But Umbridge continued.)
“…Law Fifteen B states clearly that
Any attack by a magical creature who is deemed to have near-human intelligence,
and therefore considered responsible for its actions…
“(Near-human intelligence?… We consider that a great insult,
human! Our intelligence far outstrips your own… What are you doing in our
forest? Why are you here?)
“Your forest? said Umbridge shaking with indignation.
I would remind you that you live here only because the Ministry of Magic
permits you certain areas of land… (An arrow flew close to her head. She
let out an earsplitting scream…) Filthy half-breeds! Beasts! Uncontrolled
animals! I am Senior Undersecretary!!!… You cannot…”
There’s
an uncanny resemblance here to the way America has been talking to the rest of
the world since the days of the erstwhile Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; the torch now having
been passed to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice.
Generally speaking, the revolting character of Dolores Umbridge comes across as
a dead-on allegory of the currently existing “unipolar” world order, recently
with that same “great deal of muttering and
tightening of bowstrings around them”
as depicted in the enlightening scene above… But I am afraid that if you
really want to find out what happens
next to the American Dolores Umbridge, you really need to read the rest of Harry Potter…
I can't wait for this American Umbridge to be taken away by the centaurs.. if only life was like that.
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