Defense against the dark arts

The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible.  — Severus Snape, Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts

In the magical world of Harry Potter, Defense Against the Dark Arts refers to a subject taught at the Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry. In that class, essentially the students are taught various techniques and defenses to counteract the spells, charms, hexes, and jinxes of dark wizards and witches. Obviously, Defense Against the Dark Arts is a crucial subject and the very life of a good wizard may depend on his ability to defend against the dark magic of his enemies. 

While we may not live in Harry’s world, we nonetheless have dark wizards and witches that seek to control us, confuse our minds, and bend us to their will: in the modern world they usually take the guise of politicians, pundits, and spin doctors. Although it is important to note that lawyers, doctors, businessmen, etc. may also be dark wizards in camouflage.

Simply put, the modern dark wizard is someone who uses, among others, the power of the media and false but beguiling arguments to make us do his bidding. How many times have we fallen under the spell of some charismatic politician, listened to his enchanting rhetoric, given him or loyalty and support, only to discover — when the spell was broken — that he was as corrupt, inept, and diabolic as the leaders that he rallied us against?

How many times have we been led to believe that a celebrity was the most beautiful, wholesome, generous, and kind human being ever to have walked Philippine soil only to discover later that her private personal behavior would have put Lindsay Lohan to shame? How many times have the advertising wizards confounded us to buy products that were not only overpriced but that we absolutely did not need?

We may not be aware of it but we are constantly under the dark wizards’ thrall. They do not use wands, potions, and spells like they do in Potter’s world; instead they use modern day magic — the television, radio, and, more recently, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. In fact, there is no escaping their evil reach. This is why it is so vital for us to learn a few defensive strategies against these dark wizards.

However, before we get to the defensive techniques, it is important for us to know some broad types of spells that these dark wizards use:

The first type is the Glamour Spell. Glamour Spells make a wizard look more beautiful, smarter, or more honest than she truly is. Usually dark wizards use a public relations company to craft their image in order to allow the spell to be more effective.

The usual signs that a person is casting a glamour spell is when there is a sharp increase in media interviews and articles in glossy magazines about the wizard although he has not in fact — when you really think about it — done anything remarkable. Often, terms like integrity, intelligence, and leadership will be used to refer to him. Of course, good images, sometimes with liberal doses of Photoshopping, will aid in the casting of this spell.

Another kind of dark magic that is used is the Ignominy Spell or more simply, the power of trash talk. This kind of spell induces us to cast our support to the dark wizard by destroying the reputation of his opponents. This is truly insidious and sneaky magic and usually employs gossip and whisper campaigns — often through the so-called “blind items” in newspapers or radio.

Since the spell’s attack is not a frontal one, the person or group that is the subject of trash talk often is unable to fight back, hence the effectiveness of this spell. In many instances, the gossip will relate to a person either having an extra-marital affair or that he is gay, two subjects that easily titillate good wizards who are weak of mind.

The third commonly used kind is the Confounding Spell. The dark wizard will confound and confuse us by using his eloquence and mastery of language. By using beautiful rhetoric, local Filipino idioms, great one-liners and sound bites, the dark wizard will hide his ignorance within a beautiful linguistic veil. Thus, when he is confronted by a question that demands either real expertise or must be answered categorically, the dark wizard will use his oratorical skills, double-talk, and charm to give what on the surface appears to be an incredibly clear and logical answer but is in reality nothing more than doublespeak.

Now for the defenses: the Glamour Spell is a difficult one to repel, particularly because of the power, reach, and scope of today’s multi-media. A well-crafted public relations campaign can make the most insipid and shallow appear to be the next messiah. However, the counter-spell is an equally powerful one: the Spell of True Sight.

The Spell of True Sight forces us to look beyond the surface and to not accept the media’s images, assumptions, and claims of the greatness and wonderfulness of anyone uncritically. True Sight is rooted in the power of critical thinking, which, in large part, is simply thinking for ourselves and not letting the power of media undermine our own informed judgment. Of course, we can get our information from the media, often we have few other sources, but the Spell of True Sight reminds us to treat this information with circumspection and wisdom.     

The Spell of Respect is the counter-magic to the Ignominy Spell. This defense is founded on the basic proposition that we must presume people to be innocent and that unless we have strong evidence, we will make the corollary presumption that other people are equally good like us. The Spell of Respect is not easy to use, particularly when the rumors and gossip that underly the Ignominy Spell appeal to our baser nature.

The Spell of Respect is a reminder to us not to be overly judgmental and that it far better to reflect on our own faults than to focus on the shortcomings of others.

The Confounding Spell is easily counteracted by the Spell of Wisdom. This counter-spell is perhaps the most difficult of all because it will force us to research into the subject matters that the dark wizard seeks to confound us. Remember that the Confounding Spell thrives on ignorance. The more we do not know on a subject, the easier it is for the dark wizard to sway us with rhetorical flourish. And so the Spell of Wisdom forces us to study and learn about the great issues confronting us so that we can peel behind the layers of double, triple, and quadruple speak and see the truth.

Finally, all our defenses are rooted in the fundamental idea that in order for us to be good wizards, meaning good and decent citizens, we must think critically. Part of critical thinking — perhaps the most important part — is acknowledging that we are bombarded daily by dark magic.

Particularly in the Philippines, where the playing field is so uneven, those groups, those dark wizards that seek to maintain the current inequitable status quo will always seek to subjugate us with their dark magic — and true subjugation is always a conquest of beliefs and ideas. Consequently, the true defense against these dark arts is having a mind that thinks both critically and independently. Do not fear. A strong mind can conquer all spells.

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E-mail the author at adel.tamano@yahoo.com.