Selfish Mungo
by MW Cook
One of the most interesting places in the Harry Potter universe is St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. The tour the reader get in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is incredible. You get the impression that the Healers at St Mungo’s are pretty much capable of handling any injury or illness that comes their way. Broken arm? Fixed in seconds. Lost limbs? Regrown easily. Nearly anything short of death can be cured at St Mungo’s.
Suddenly, after reading this, I had a deep feeling of animosity for the wizards and wizard culture in the Harry Potter universe. Can you guess why?
If they can cure so much, why aren’t they curing AIDS in Africa? Why aren’t they curing polio in Egypt? Why aren’t they using their amazing powers to make the world a better place? I mean, can you imagine what a wizard could accomplish in a country like India where 217 million people aren’t getting enough to eat? What a bunch of jerks these wizards are, eh? Blessed with supernatural powers, they hoard it all and keep the blessings to themselves.
Sadly, it kinda reminds me of the Church.
What do we have? Money, education and (apparently) the almighty power of God. That’s what we have. How do we use it? The vast majority of our money is spent on ourselves (this includes the money we give to the church). We use our education to make ourselves more money. And the almighty power of God that we claim can move mountains and change the world? We use that for singing.
Let’s get out of St Mungos, out of Hogwarts, and into the world. There is so much pain that can be cured, if only we are willing to cure it.
This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com
Matt W Cook 