The Moral Panic of Muggleborns
Moral Panics have the ability to shape a society due to the power they hold. Within the Wizarding World, Voldemort harnessed the power of a moral panic in order to wreak havoc over the society. According to Goode and Ben-Yehuda in Moral Panics: Culture, Politics, and Social Construction, a moral panic is created through “intense feelings of concern about a given threat” which is “nonexistent,” and therefore, “the agents responsible for the threat are stereotyped and classified as deviants” (Goode & Ben-Yehuda 149). One sees this within Voldemort’s control as he vilifies the muggleborns, and this vilification contains the 5 key elements of a moral panic along with employing two theories in which one sees moral panics come about.
The five “crucial elements” that define a moral panic are “concern… hostility… consensus… disproportionality… [and] volatility” (Goode & Ben-Yehuda 157-158). One sees these within the Voldemort’s moral panic in that there is a concern over the muggleborns which is spread through propaganda and this concern turns into hostility which culminates in violence and imprisonment. There is consensus throughout the general wizarding public (excluding the Light Forces, of course) that muggleborns are dangerous due to the idea that they will ‘ruin’ the Wizarding World (which causes them to be considered deviant), and that leads to a disproportionate amount of concern to the ‘threat’ that muggleborns bring about. This disproportionality is due to the fact that the threat from the muggleborns is basically non-existent, as one could actually argue that including muggleborns in the Wizarding World would actually improve society due to their blood increasing the chances of a more magical population. Finally, there is volatility in that the panic over muggleborns occurred rather suddenly once Voldemort took power – yes, there had been an underlying sense of unease within the pureblood population, but the overwhelming fear from the general population came about quickly.
Two of the theories discussed by Goode and Ben-Yehuda that bring about moral panics are that of the Grassroots model and the Interest Group theory. The Grassroots model states that moral panics “originate with the general public [and the] concern about a particular threat is a widespread, genuinely felt concern” (Goode & Ben-Yehuda 161). Meanwhile, the Interest Group theory states that interests groups “launch moral crusades – which sometimes turn into panics – to make sure that certain rules take hold and enforced” (Goode & Ben-Yehuda 165). Within the Wizarding World, the Death Eaters take on the role of an interest group, as they are an organization that brings forth “an issue which is independent of the interests of the elite” (in this case, the elite is the Ministry) (Goode & Ben-Yehuda 165). This fear, however, initially begins within the Pureblood society of the general public, and thus one sees evidence of the Grassroots model. Voldemort, therefore, comes into the Wizarding World and harnesses the fear within Pureblood society and uses his ‘interest group’ to implement anti-muggleborn regulations – thus, these two models are used to “see what fears and concerns are made use of, and … how this raw material is mobilized and intensified” (Goode & Ben-Yehuda 168).
