Skip to main content

harry potter - Was the Ministry of Magic corrupt?


There seem to be several instances in the books where the judgments of the MoM seem questionable.



  • The execution of Buckbeak


  • Harry's trial for underage magic

  • The show trials of the Death Eaters

  • Umbridge's appointment and methods at Hogwarts

  • The denial and cover-up of Voldemort's return for so long


Are there actually element's of corruption in the ministry? Had it secretly been under the influence of you-know-who for some time? Is this simply meant to imply well meaning incompetency?



Answer



It's hard to answer this, so I'll focus on the points you listed, except the third because I don't get it/remember.



The execution of Buckbeak




Buckbeak attacked Draco, and he told his father, Lucius, who happens to have great influence in the ministry (this may be a sign of corruption).


... BUT, if you think about it, Buckbeak did bite a young student (although it was Draco's fault). It is not unreasonable to tag the creature as dangerous. Execution may be a bit too extreme, though - however, this may be a sign of a super strict and firm ministry rather than a corrupted one.



Umbridge's appointment and methods at Hogwarts



Umbridge just followed the orders of the ministry, so technically she didn't do anything wrong. She's just ultra insane with an obsession for status - but technically she's not trying to crumble the system or support Voldemort.



The denial and cover-up of Voldemort's return for so long




This was done in a pitiful attempt to maintain Fudge's reputation - yeah, probably adds up to a corrupted system.



Harry's trial for underage magic



Umbridge sent the dementors. Her intention was revealed to be that she was doing her best to shut Harry up - remember that it was the ministry's prime objective to hide all information about Voldemort, so Umbridge just did her best to accomplish this objective (very extreme and insane however). She didn't do it to help Voldemort though.



First of all, the Ministry has had some Death Eaters infiltrated. And Lucius as well. This of course affects the way things work in the Ministry.


Then, it was obsessed with keeping its reputation (Fudge and Umbridge). It's up to you to judge if that makes them corrupt or not (probably yes since they endangered everyone by shutting up Dumbledore).


And finally, it has some insane high-ranking staff like Umbridge. But she's just crazy.




Conclusion? Comparably, it is a pretty standard government...


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more