Another Harry Potter Metaphor Is What This Debate Needs

By Klee Schay

Our discussion of this set of important issues has proceeded well enough, ladies and gentlemen, but no one is going to change his or her mind based merely on a rehashing of familiar points, as cleverly as they might be rephrased. No, my friends, if any of us is going to make a compelling case for a particular position or party, it will have to come in the form of another analogy to characters, relationships, or incidents in the Harry Potter series.

We must be honest: each of us has enough familiarity with the claims and arguments of the other side, and has accumulated enough practice to counter those claims, and we remain at an impasse, as always. The time has come to invoke Dumbledore, Voldemort, Hermione, the Death Eaters, and the Order of the Phoenix, among others, to make a point. Otherwise, I am afraid the other side will remain as unconvinced as always of the opposing position.

If we continue to eschew the power and utility of Harry Potter analogies when employing them would tip the scales, that would be akin to Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge maintaining his denial of the Dark Lord’s return despite the preponderance of evidence indicating it. We deny the reality of our situation at our peril, and risk painful failure, not to mention defeat, much in the way he-who-must-not-be-named disregarded love, elf magic, and other realities, leading to his eventual demise.

Dear friends, if we ever are to resolve our political differences through rhetoric, we cannot imperil our arguments by failing to invoke Severus Snape’s devotion to protecting Lily Evans-Potter’s son from his sworn enemy. If we fail to compare our opponents to the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange or a young Tom Riddle reveling in the suffering he inflicts on the powerless, we betray our cause no less than Peter Pettigrew choosing to side with Voldemort and betraying his friends rather than stand up against evil.

The next time your opponent appeals to authority, you abdicate your responsibility if you neglect to compare that authority to the arbitrary arrest, detention, and torture of innocents by the Ministry of Magic as it struggles to portray itself as addressing the rising power of the Dark Lord.

I could continue as Professor Binns drones on, but I believe I have made my point. Refraining from performing an Avada Kedavra curse on your opponent’s rhetoric would be truly Unforgivable.

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