THE MAGIC OF SELF-RELIANCE
Thankfully, Harry Potter books are building a new generation of young people to distrust government
BY DOUG FRENCH

Doug French, associate editor of Liberty Watch: The Magazine, is an executive vice president of a Nevada bank. He is the 2005 recipient of the Murray N. Rothbard Award from the Center for Libertarian Studies. Other stories by Doug French

During the Ayn Rand panel at FreedomFest, considering the question: �Atlas Booming or Atlas Shrugged?� Australian author and businessman Mark Tier made the point that people were there to hear him and the other panelists consider Ms. Rand�s importance �because she wrote fiction.� 

Indeed, some lists put Rand�s novel Atlas Shrugged right behind the Bible in the list of the 20th Century�s most important books. Countless Libertarians were created after readings of The Fountainhead or Anthem or Atlas. It was 50 years ago that Atlas first appeared and it still sells 150,000 copies each year, piling on to the 6 million copies already sold. 

Getting people, especially young people, to read is increasing more difficult. And the idea that millions will ever pick up an academic nonfiction tomb extolling the virtues of freedom and liberty while viewing government with a withering eye is fantasy. 

What author can create a whole new Libertarian movement to stand on the shoulders of what Rand created with Atlas Shrugged half a century ago? Associate Professor of Law Benjamin H. Barton believes that author is J.K. Rowling with her Harry Potter series. Writing in the Michigan Law Review, Barton contends that Rowling�s Ministry of Magic closely �accords with the public-choice critique of government.� 

Potter readers are well aware of the evils carried out by the Ministry of Magic: �tortured children for lying; designed its prisons to suck all life and hope out of the inmates; placed citizens in that prison without a hearing; ordered the death penalty without a trial; allowed the powerful, rich or famous to control policy; selectively prosecuted crimes (the powerful go unpunished and the unpopular face trumped-up charges); conducted criminal trials without defense counsel; used truth serum to force confessions; maintained constant surveillance over all citizens; offered no elections and no democratic lawmaking process; and controlled the press.� 

Public-choice theory says that the actions of government can be understood by assuming that politicians and government bureaucrats always act in their own self-interest. In his article �Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy,� Barton argues that Rowling is using the Potter series to criticize the governments of the United States and Britain. �Her critique is also particularly effective because, despite how awful Rowling�s Ministry of Magic looks and acts,� Barton writes, �it bears such a tremendous resemblance to current Anglo-American government.� 

The success of the Potter series has turned the once-welfare mother into one of the wealthiest women on earth. Forbes has even named Rowling as the first person to become a U.S.-dollar billionaire by writing books. 

According to Wikipedia, Rowling contributes substantially to charities that combat poverty and social inequality, making her very un-Rand like. And the creator of Objectivism would never, like Rowlings, have said, �I think you have a moral responsibility, when you�ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.�

But Libertarians reading the Potter novels believe Rowling to be one of us. Jon T. wrote on the LewRockwell.com blog: �Harry Potter�s world closely parallels our own. In the Wizarding world, a �war� is going on between the good and evil wizards. The government, at a loss of what to do, has tightened security measures and imprisoned three innocent people in order to seem like they are doing something.� Another Potter fan, F. Moreno wrote: �There is even a discussion of property rights and non-aggression, and the justice of Means and Ends are a recurrent theme, with the phrase �for the greater good� shown as the cloak of evil it is often used as. It really does look like the author has been visiting LRC. Ideas do matter, and it looks like the tide is slowly turning.�

Professor Barton makes the case that as a former consumer of government aid, Rowling has a negative view of the bureaucracies that are set up to deal with the poor. Public assistance bureaucrats don�t care about customers; they care about pleasing legislators and higher ups. Rowling pulled herself out of poverty with her talent and work ethic, and the Potter novels focus on self-reliance and independence with government being evil. 

The final installment in the Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, sold more than 8 million copies in just 24 hours, dwarfing Atlas Shrugged sales. While Rowling is no philosopher, because of her bad personal experience with government bureaucracy, maybe she is planting millions of seeds for a new generation of young people to distrust government.