Dumbledore's Vision for Society

So far I have primarily focused on what did Dumbledore know when, what should he have known when, and his use of power. I have only touched on his actual goals. If we agree with his goals, then his ineffectual leadership is a problem. If we disagree with his goals then his ability to persuade and delude people is a problem. There are few circumstances in which both are ever simultaneously a problem. Arguably the two wars precipitated by Riddle are, unfortunately, just such an event.

The Limits of His Authority

We know very little about the actual authority of the Chief Warlock, the Supreme Mugwump, or the Hogwarts Headmaster. What is the relationship, in modern times, between the Wizengamot and the Ministry of Magic? Is the Chief Warlock like the Speaker in the Muggle House of Commons? If so the power is real, minimal, and subtle.¹ In a similar vein, what is the relationship between the Headmaster (or mistress) and the Hogwarts Board of Governors? What powers does each have? What discretion does each have? Does each have distinct areas of authority, or is it more like the relationship between the president of a company and the board of directors? I think even in the corporate world that different companies have different answers to this question based on the way they are chartered, so I cannot begin to guess how a school founded in the tenth century might operate. The ICW is even more mind boggling.

All this means that the pages I’ve devoted to trying to guess what Dumbledore could or could not have accomplished is largely guessing.

Grindelwald

We know that Dumbledore was friends with Gellert Grindelwald.² He broke with Grindelwald, and the precise nature of and grounds for their break are unknown and unclear. However, it seems clear to me that it was his sister that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, not a philosophical difference. Dumbledore could not accompany Grindelwald, and never would be able to.³ Ariana died sometime around 1898, based on Albus being born in 1881 and being 17 when she died.⁴ Assuming Grindelwald’s defeat roughly coincides with the end of World War II in Europe, then Dumbledore finally confronts him in May of 1945, some 47 years later. That is a phenomenal amount of time for Dumbledore to have allowed Grindelwald to go unchecked if they actually disagreed. I have not seen them, but apparently part of the reason for the Fantastic Beasts prequel movies is to explain this inaction.⁵ I will not give credence to this late addition to the time line.

More interesting is the question that is implicitly raised in the Deathly Hallows itself. If Grindelwald has the “unbeatable” Elder Wand, how does Dumbledore defeat him in a duel? He is famous for the duel, so one would think it would be well established as part of the historical record. If so, then the power of the Hallows is already broken, and he need not have the elaborate plot with Snape to ensure that he (Dumbledore) dies undefeated. The wand has already been defeated. This makes me think that there is something to Rita’s claims that there was in fact no duel.⁶

Why lie about having duelled Grindelwald? To paraphrase Dumbledore himself, I am now leaving the few facts I have for the murky grounds of speculation. Grindelwald had become notorious, the outcry against him was such that their joint ideas for society were never going to gain ground under his leadership. Even if Grindelwald won the war, his government had no popular support, and would not stand. Dumbledore could see that even if Grindelwald either could not or would not. That is a far cry from actually disagreeing.

On the other hand Dumbledore himself was a half blood.⁷ I think his blood status was too well known for him to get significant power in the pure blood dominated society of the early 1900s.⁸ He would not become Headmaster until the 1960s or early 1970s, I suspect he had been passed over at least once. It was his defeat of Grindelwald that gave him the stature to overcome his background and gain ground in the Wizengamot, to have become Headmaster at all, to have become Supreme Mugwump.

So if Dumbledore was going to advance the future that he and Grindelwald had mapped out in their youth, or at least the version of it that Dumbledore wanted (since they disagreed to some extent), the power of the old guard had to be broken.

What Would Replace It?

But what would replace it? Democracy is a poor choice from Dumbledore’s perspective. He has never trusted people, but has grown up in an atmosphere of secrets and lies.⁹ He alone is intelligent enough to see what must be done for the good of all. Sacrifices must be made, and the muggle born cannot be trusted to realise that their families must be subjugated. Dumbledore has done home visits. Sure he has seen situations like that of Riddle, but he has also seen situations like the Grangers or the Creeveys. Muggle born cannot be trusted to understand the dangers muggles pose. Future girls like Ariana must be safe. Magical blood, those of magical ability, are much more valuable to society then some mere muggles. Who knows what the muggle born would vote for! Why, they might want to give muggles rights!

So if not democracy, what do we replace it with? This is where fan fiction goes all over the place. Has Dumbledore been removing classes from the Hogwarts curriculum? Has he used the ICW to ensure other schools do the same, or perhaps other longstanding agreements among European schools? Has he manipulated the student population more directly? Set up one student for failure, another for success? A love potion here, a compulsion spell there? Has he embezzled funds? Blocked attempts at teaching muggleborns about the wizarding world, or the wizarding world about muggle society? I think that is what I like most about Air Elemental, Dumbledore is subtle, McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick realise only after decades that Dumbledore is prejudiced and does not in fact want muggleborns to fit in.¹⁰ He does not subvert the Goblins, he simply trusts their nature not to tell a wizard about something he or she does not ask about (other vaults). Harry is missing critical information about the society around him, but its effects are such that you can see the connection to the way the books turned out (with a few exceptions like Ron). There is a hidden (non-Gringotts) vault full of stuff that book Harry might well never have found, but which you can picture actually existing. Subtle, understated manipulations that let people fool themselves. That I think is a very very canonical representation of Dumbledore.

What about the Wizengamot? Has he really done nothing with his seat? Or has he played off one faction against another, manipulated people behind the scenes? Is his public face at all related to his private goals?