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Freedom Book of the Month for July, 2003:
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
by J.K. Rowling
Scholastic, 2003, hardcover, 870 pp.
Guest review by Don L. Tiggre
No, I'm not crazy -- the latest Harry Potter book could well deserve a Freedom Book of the Year Award.
To understand why, first consider the scope author J.K. Rowling has achieved with her books. There probably isn't a school-aged child anywhere who hasn't at least heard of Harry Potter. Industry experts have said that even the huge sales expected of Hillary Clinton's book are nothing compared to what is expected of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. These books were a phenomenon, even before the movie tie-ins. The books have spawned a whole genre of knockoffs, even in Russia!
Second, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling's previous book, in which the evil wizard Voldemort returns from near death to threaten the world again), the major obstacle to fighting the resurgence of evil turns out to be ... you guessed it; government interference. Bureaucratic office politics and political pandering cause Harry Potter's warnings of the return of the most powerful evil wizard in centuries to go all but ignored by the magical subculture Rowling depicts existing beneath the surface of modern times. The bureaucrats running the Ministry of Magic would rather dream up new regulations to "protect" wizards and witches from "dangerously" thin cauldrons than confront a reality that they fear will be wildly unpopular.
This theme is continued and intensified in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Not only do the regulatory zealots steadfastly refuse to hear any bad news, and default on their responsibilities to the people they are supposed to protect, they begin persecuting those who dare to contradict the official take. Harry Potter finds himself the target of a vicious smear campaign, with officialdom censoring the news and actively using the single major newspaper to push its propaganda.
But wait, it gets better: the Ministry of Magic decides to take direct control of Harry Potter's school. A supremely nasty bureaucrat takes charge of the curriculum, trying to make sure Defense Against Dark Arts goes untaught, sacking teachers she perceives as opponents, and doing everything possible to provoke Harry Potter to do something that will get him expelled -- or even sent to prison.
Consider the following passage, an exchange between Potter's friend Hermione Granger (the most brilliant student in the school) and the evil bureaucrat (who doesn't want Hermione questioning her authority, and has ignored her hand for some time):
When more than half the class were staring at Hermione rather than at their books, Professor Umbridge seemed to decide she could ignore the situation no longer."Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" she asked Hermione, as though she had only just noticed her ... .
"I've got a query about your course aims," said Hermione.
Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows. "And your name is -- ?"
"Hermione Granger," said Hermione.
"Well, Miss Granger, I think those course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully," said Professor Umbridge in a voice of determined sweetness.
"Well, I don't," said Hermione bluntly. "There's nothing written up there about using defensive spells."
There was a short silence in which many members of the class turned their heads to frown at the three course aims still written on the blackboard.
"Using defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"
....
"Surely the whole point of Defense Against Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells?"
"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?" asked Professor Umbridge in her falsely sweet voice.
"No, but --"
"Well then, I'm afraid you're not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way --"
"What use is that?" said Harry loudly. "If we are going to be attacked, it won't be in a --"
"Hand, Mr. Potter!" sang Professor Umbridge.
Harry thrust his fist in the air. Professor Umbridge promptly turned away from him again, but now several other people had their hands up ... .
"Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about ..." [all emphases in original]
Please forgive the lengthy quote, but the passage so perfectly reflects the general lesson which seems to be Rowling's theme for the book. As Harry Potter learns to deal with his own weaknesses and errors, he also learns that he must deal with those of others, especially when they manifest themselves in the aggregate form we call bureaucracy.
There are other themes in the book: loyalty and betrayal; personal responsibility; honesty and when it is moral to withhold the truth, or even to lie (a criminal -- or a meddling bureaucrat -- may not be entitled to the truth). However, it's the fight of the individual against the cumbersome machinery of the state, and his victory against it, even with all the weight of law on its side, that makes this book such a great pro-freedom read.
Which brings me back to my first point: Rowling's vast readership. She has outstripped Ayn Rand, and is reaching readers at a more impressionable age -- and beyond, as the books have proven to be great fun for adults too. This could be really big.
Even if the Ministry of Magic gets its act together in the next book, that won't undo the powerful suggestion that it's personal responsibility and individual action that matter most. And it's hard to imagine that the Ministry is going to come charging to the rescue, as the whole series centers around Harry Potter's school, which is run by the most powerful wizard living -- a man who declined to become the Minister of Magic.
Am I saying that Rowling is a libertarian? No. I suppose she probably isn't. What does seem plain as day is that she holds, and is trying to teach, many of the values libertarians hold dear.
And she does it damn well, for many millions of young people.
That's why I think Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix deserves to be this month's Freedom Book of the Month, and may well be the most important pro-freedom book of 2003.
Order Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from Amazon.com, $17.99
More book information for July 2003
edited by Sunni Maravillosa
June 2003: Eco-nomics by Richard L. Stroup
May 2003: The Worm in the Apple by Peter Brimelow
April 2003: Shattered Dreams by NCPPR staff
March 2003: The Rule of Lawyers by Walter K. Olson
February 2003: Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths, edited by Ronald Bailey
Freedom Book of the Year 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
December 2002: Blood of the Roses, by Alex Gabbard
November 2002: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, by Ludwig von Mises
October 2002: The Haunted Air, by F. Paul Wilson
September 2002: Lead Astray and Out of Bounds, Out of Control by Peter Samuel and James V. DeLong respectively
August 2002: Boston's Gun Bible II by Boston T. Party
July 2002: Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan
June 2002: Net Assets by Carl Bussjaeger
May 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz
April 2002: Toward Liberty: The Idea that is Changing the World edited by David Boaz
March 2002: Liberty for Women edited by Wendy McElroy
February 2002: The State vs. the People by Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe
Freedom Book of the Year, 2001: Hope by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
January 2002: Death by Gun Control by Aaron Zelman and Richard W. Stevens
December 2001: The American Zone by L. Neil Smith
November 2001: Ayn Rand and Business by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni
October 2001: Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy
September 2001: Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland
August 2001: Hope by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
July 2001: Dissenting Electorate edited by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner
June 2001: Tethered Citizens by Sheldon Richman
May 2001: Lever Action by L. Neil Smith
April 2001: The Cato Handbook for Congress from the Cato Institute
March 2001: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley
February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy
January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester
October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz
September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo
August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell
July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
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