Are wizards truly superior to Muggles?

[donnaimmaculata]

In his latest re-read of PS, pauraque pointed out how the possible positive effects magic would take on the Muggle world are disregarded by wizards, who are only concerned with their own safety: It seems likely that magic wouldn't just be of minor use to the Muggle world, but could also resolve major issues such as deadly disease and injury. Hagrid doesn't consider that, though -- it's about the wizards' convenience.

While I've got no doubt that this is the way wizards think, my opinion on the power balance between wizards and Muggles is rather different. Since my answer to pauraque filled two comments, I figured I could just as well repost it here.

Death and disease do exist in the wizarding world; they merely assume a different shape. We don't know how wizards handle diseases such as, say, influenza or cancer, but we know that they have a whole lot of their own, very specific and very nasty disease varieties. They might not have AIDS, but they have lycanthropy. St. Mungo's is full with patients who suffer from exotic diseases which don't exisit in the Muggle world, but which would follow the wizards there if a merger between the Muggle and wizarding worlds took place. I'm inclined to compare this process with the introduction of smallpox etc. by the white invaders to the natives in America.

Seeing as there is a fairly large number of wizards wearing glasses, we know that poor eyesight cannot be cured - nor pimples, when it comes to that, which indicates that magic is a very insufficient means when it comes to fighting "natural" handicaps.

Also, there is Mad-Eye Moody, who lacks a leg and an eye. While replacing the missing eye with a magical one might be very convenient, I don't think that Moody would have opted for a wooden leg if he had a choice. It seems that here the wizarding medicine encountered an injury that cannot be treated.

In conclusion, I think that inflicted injuries such as broken bones can be healed, but hereditary diseases, physical handicaps and magically inflicted diseases would prove rather more tricky.

fernwithy said: Here you have a group of people who can essentially do anything (not really, but it would seem that way at first) and who can blithely walk into a situation, wave a wand, and make people behave (and so on).

The thing is, they have to be properly trained to do so. The wizarding world is full of not highly qualified witches and wizards: the school drop-outs, for once, and possibly also the waiters, inn and shop keepers, conductors etc. I assume that they are able to use magic within their profession in a rather limited manner; Madam Malkin is probably good at charming material into shape, but she might have no clue how to transfigure a mouse into a tea cup. Plus, wizards depend on tools and instruments which were charmed prior to use to match specific applications, e.g. broomsticks. It's not possible for your ordinary wizard on the street to simply take an old broomstick, put a charm on it and use it as a means of transport.

This opens the whole and widely discussed question of magical education and the lack thereof, including the question of what would happen to Harry if he was forced to leave Hogwarts. At some point, he wonders whether he'd be allowed to stay as Hagrid's assistant. He would not be allowed to use magic and he would not know how to control his powers.

Essentially, what I'm trying to say is that, as a social group, wizards are not necessarily more powerful than Muggles. A highly skilled wizard with a wand that matches his skills and a profound knowledge of incantations - yes. But as we learned from Moody, "you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nose-bleed" (GoF, Chapt. 14).

In addition, the magical world is not further developed than the Muggle world, nor do they struggle less with every-day difficulties. In spite of the fact that Hermione's "Muggle Studies" book features "a diagram of Muggles lifting heavy objects", we know that wizards, too, have to physically lift things: in PS, Fred and George heave Harry's trunk on board of the Hogwarts Express; in OotP, Tonks straps the trunk into a harness attached to her broom and Lupin and Tonks carry the trunk between them to the door. They don't levitate it (or shrink it to carry it in their pocket, for that matter). And what sort of transport are broomsticks anyway? As we see in OotP, long-distance flights on broomsticks are no fun at all. (And Surrey-London is not really such a long distance, at that.) Plus, there is always the possibility of being spotted by Muggles, which is something to be avoided by all costs.

The other (legal) means of transport we saw include the Floo network, which is monitored by the Ministry and not safe to use if you are on the Ministry's black list, the Portkeys, which are monitored by the Ministry, Apparating, which is dangerous, requires an exam (hence, only available to highly qualified wizards) and, according to Arthur Weasley, is disregarded by many wizards in favour of broomsticks ("slower, but safer"), and the Ministry of Magic cars, which, well, belong to the Ministry of Magic. A pattern seems to emerge, no?

As to a direct confrontation between Muggles and wizards: Muggles might not have curses, but they have weapons. And what's more: they do have the notorious weapons of mass destruction, which wizards seem to lack. Wizards kill individually, using Avada Kedavra. IIRC, the only curse that killed many people at the same time is the one used by Peter to cover his escape, and that seemed to be an explosion rather than a curse targeting humans directly. Now, taking your opponents out one by one is a method of warfare that was abandoned by Muggles centuries ago.

I think that the wizards' conviction of their own superiority goes back to the times when Muggles were indeed weaker than wizards. However, after the separation between both worlds took place, Muggles have developed their own rather advanced technology, which could well be a match for magic.

Proud to be Muggle, yo!

ETA: This widely refers to the conviction voiced by Hagrid in PS: Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magical solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone.'

Comments

Re: here via daily snitch

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

We have a jet plane that can go 10,000 mph. You could go from New York to Tokyo in about an hour. I'd like to see them try that with a firebolt.

Best.Line. Of. The. Day.

And as for genetic/acquired diseases, I think that pureblooded wizards and witches may be prone to dieases that we see in bred people- like madness, liver dysfunctional, metabolic oopsies and cancer.