Allen in South Africa: Harry Potter Brings out Society's Inner Witch?
Written by Allen Linton
Note: I do not like Harry Potter at all. I read the first two books and did not think they were that good. Supporters tell me that the series really gets going at book three; how am I suppose to be hooked at book three if books one and two are not that good? I digress...
Witchcraft. That elicits many different emotions often of Africanity, mysticism, sorcerers, and primitive beliefs characterized as taboo. Whatever the emotional and/or intellectual thoughts you
have, I am in conflict and frustration with myself. I view witchcraft as an increasingly complex system of lifestyle, more interestingly, that permeates throughout the globe throughout history and exists today. Recall that Asia dealt with spirits embodying people, compelling them to commit criminal acts. Europe (England in particular) fought problems of witchcraft throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries. Let’s not forget the power of the Salem Witch Trials in the United States. Arguably one of the modern witch hunts involved our obsession with Communism and the prevalence of McCarthy’s trials against potential communists. (By the way, the development of McCarthyism is one of the most underrated moments in 20th century history of the United States. It can be accurately equated to people in America being accused of acts endangering national security following the attacks of 9/11. Can you imagine being accused, with minimal evidence at best, to embodying a belief system that could lead you to jail? Fascinating! More people need to learn about this but this often gets over looked because it is not nearly as interesting compared to War -WWII, Korea, Cold War, Vietnam- and social movements, namely strengthening women’s rights and development of civil rights.) Witchcraft, however, functions as a particularly difficult thing to analyze because it is engrained in the functions of society and extends beyond the realm of simple logic. Being a rationalist (WHATEVER THAT MEANS), I need to explain my thoughts on the issues and discuss their limitations.
Ultimately, I view witchcraft as the means to explain actual happenings that exist beyond the realm of reason/logic. For instance, witchcraft does not focus on why the hut fell on the people (we know that is from termites), but why the hut fell on those people AT THAT TIME. This leads into a discussion, albeit an obsession, for humans to know everything, particularly everything that impacts the individual. Logic can explain to a certain point the empirical acts within a given life, but one never keeps all the answers and needs to seek them out. Alas, witchcraft gives tangible answers for life’s happenings: bad spirits, jealousy, envy, etc. The specific reason is given. All the holes are filled. Humans, by the power of the logic of witchcraft, maintain an understanding of life. Please do not perceive me to be simplifying the system of witchcraft throughout Africa as well as any other place in the world. I believe and know that systems of social organization maintain complexities beyond the realm of individual understanding; my point, however, is to suggest that witchcraft - a component within a greater social system - may serve the purpose of fulfilling the quest for certainty and quenching the thirst for knowledge. My personal frustration and inner conflict between my process of thinking coexisting with the need to be open-minded arises out of the idea that I am not processing “accurately” the ramifications of witchcraft in society. Quite disappointing.
Witchcraft embodies a key feature that I adore, that being the ability to customize reason to your given experiences. For instance, I leave open the doors of chance to govern my interactions between myself and people (we all live in interaction with the world but that does not mean we cannot be individuals, Andy) but I also like to believe that reason can be used to explain the happenings of these interactions to a certain extent. I have often been confronted with people suggesting: “given the state of individuals, it’s a miracle that people do not get into car accidents on the expressway.” On the contrary! People recognize that they need to coexist in a popular way to avoid accidents, injury to others, and/or in the most selfish sense injury to self. Therefore we all give up some freedom in order to maintain order. No miracle, just a series of good decisions governing the entire system. For whatever the cause may be, the individual can justify a situation in different ways with the goal of answering the question. Witchcraft picks begins where laws end, and I love it.
Ultimately, this takes me into a very subtle interaction between the urge for autonomy defined as choice and the need for stability in a chaotic world. Consider the slippery slope of the butterfly effect (not the awful movie and its worse sequel but the theory). Small changes at some point A (such as a butterfly flapping its wings) may create a much greater impact at some point B (such as a hurricane). It is the ultimate game of “What If…” but it highlights that we can only control so much, and that which we control is pretty darn small in the grand scheme of things. The prospect of existing out of control is quite distressing; imagine, if you will, every action of the last 10 minutes being replaced by infinite other actions either better or worse - including reading my blog! The nature of chaos becomes a difficult thing to reconcile so (in local circumstances) we limit out options by giving up some choices and keeping others. Upon birth, we are American citizens - if you were born in America. You do not have a choice, sorry. BUT, you can decide to leave the stars and stripes to become a citizen elsewhere; your previous situation of no choice is now replaced by some choice, that being where you want to be recognized as a citizen. Congrats! All of this goes to suggest that the back and forth of choice versus chaos impacts our overall quest for knowledge, better stated as the extinguishing of the fires of uncertainty. I know that witchcraft represents various things for those who follow it, but I think most people can agree that it certainly functions as a bridge between empirical happenings and that which cannot explain them.
Last night one of my favorite movies came on the television and I stopped what I was doing (my 100+ pages of reading) to watch it. The movie is of course Pulp Fiction! Watching this movie while being censored was interesting as it allowed the words b*tch, sh, and n*gger but disallowed d*mn, f*ck. (Tangent: I needed to type the profanities as such so I can ensure my blog is family friendly. I always wondered why the vowels always get replaced by the ‘*’ and not the consonants. Seems like an arbitrary thing. Oh well…) The movie is just not the same but regardless of the foul language this movie really represents people’s ideas on America. I remember talking to people about Chicago when I visited Oxford and Istanbul; the most amazing things I remember everyone saying were 1) people could not believe Chicago sat near a lake and 2) everyone is obsessed with the ideas of Al Capone. Not Capone in the sense of taking a shot at our wonderful Mayor Daley, but the real Al Capone and mob life. People think that Chicago is still this mob city with well-dressed gangsters and such. Amazing! (Tangent: I like the idea of the well dressed gangster. How cool is it to be in a three-piece suit but knowing that you will probably be running, fighting, and possibly bloodying up that suit. Good point, not that cool.) The power of movies and images really sets in when being someplace else and people constantly bring up these images. I suppose it raises more legitimacy to movie portrayals of different cultures and ethnic groups (similar to what happened regarding Slumdog Millionaire, which is still VERY OVERRATED!)
I just got back in from golfing at the wonderful River Club. It is a nice little place with a cute 9-hole, 27 par course. We only did the driving range, but we plan on hitting up the course. Over/Under for my score set at +11.
ALL II
P.S: I began this RIGHT after class, so pardon the grammatical errors.
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