Harry Potter and The Soul of America

 

Harry Potter and the Soul of America   

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Dementors, dark creatures who feed on human happiness board the Hogwarts Express: “Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth … they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them… every good feeling, every happy memory, will be sucked out of you.” A Dementor’s kiss will not kill you — it will suck out your soul.

What is the soul? Socrates defined the soul as the animating force of reality. The Bible defines it as the living breath of creation. The soul defines a person’s very being. People have individual souls. Nations also have souls — animating forces that define them as one people with common beliefs. 

In The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, Jon Meacham defines the soul as a “belief in the existence of an immanent collection of convictions, dispositions, and sensitivities that shape character and inform conduct.” The soul is “the vital center, the core, the heat, the essence of [American] life.”

What is animating the soul of America today? What values do we hold in common? Who and what is shaping our national character? What defines the essence of American life? 

Political animus is battering the American soul. Fractures in the government and the nation chip at our common values until our unity is shattered. Attack replaces debate. Fractions replace consensus. Fear replaces convictions. 

Edmund Burke wrote, “No passion so effectively robs the mind of all of its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” The current political atmosphere feeds on our fears. Meacham writes, “Fear feeds anxiety and produces anger… Fear is about limits…  Fear points at others, assigning blame.” A nation’s soul withers when fear rules. Can the American soul be saved?

To defeat the Dementors, Harry summons a Patronus, an embodiment of hope. Will hope also save our American soul? Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, “Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than to not try.” Meacham writes, “hope… breeds optimism and feelings of well-being… hope is about growth… hope looks forward, toward the horizon… hope points ahead, working for the common good. Fear pushes away; hope pulls others closer. Fear divides; hope unifies.”

Harry summons his deepest hopes and defeats the Dementors. His soul is safe.  Meacham concludes, “Hope is sustaining. Fear can be overcome.” Hope triumphs over fear wherever people listen to one another, work together for the collective good, or walk forward with a common goal. As long as citizens summon their deepest hopes to defeat their fears the American soul is safe. We must not allow anger and fear to direct our actions. A unified purpose, based on common convictions, animates our American soul and shapes our American character.

Harry Potter’s teacher explains: "You can exist without your soul, … But you'll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no...anything. There's no chance at all of recovery. You just — exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever…lost." Will America lose its soul? We must remember our common purpose as a nation and rely on our “better angels” to guide us. 

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, “The course of history is directed by the choices we make and our choices grow out of the ideas, the beliefs, the dreams of the people.” Harry learns, “It is our choices … that show what we truly are.” 

Our nation is shaped by its choices. Let us choose hope. 

(All quotations are from The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham (2018) and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.)