Harry Potter

* I am in no way a big Harry Potter fan. I am a casual fan so I may get some technical aspects of the series incorrect.
* I do not own any part of the Harry Potter franchise. I do not own any part of the documentary being referenced here.
* Harry Potter and the documentary are just being referenced for discussion purposes only.

Do you enjoy Harry Potter? Do you believe that it is a harmless story of magic and wizardry?

Believe it or not, there are some who believe that Harry Potter is a detriment to society. Honestly, I don't believe that this is the case.

If anything Harry Potter is actually something positive for the youth of this generation as it gives something to related to other people, enjoy themselves, learn not to fear being able to express yourself, and gain an sense of appreciation through others.

I stumbled upon this documentary which is where this Harry Potter topic came from.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/62149/we-are-wizards

"It just kinda gave me a place to belong. It gave me a group of people I'm part of. I probably have more friends through Harry Potter than I've made anywhere else."

Much of this documentary is riddled with fandom brought to an extreme and where fans and corporate "owners" of the Harry Potter documentary battle it out.

In all honestly, I fail to see the significance of this controversy.

The fans of the franchise are expressing their enjoyment out of Harry Potter, yet the corporate owners of the IP (initially) go after them for many reasons only to eventually decide that maybe it's time to re-evaluate things.

In the beginning portions of this documentary, the woman claims that Harry Potter "...entices children to dabble into the ocult." and that it "...ultimately will destroy society."

How so? I understand where she is coming from in regards to the occult issue, but that's really taking it from a surface-only point of view. If one were to read the books or watch the movies, one would quickly realize that there are more themes and morals that are discussed in the movie. In a sense, the magic and wizardry are just the icing on a cup-cake (for lack of a better metaphor). The "core" cake portion of it (i.e. the themes and morals) are what is important.

However, I will acknowledge that this woman who made the comment may be getting at something that is possible. Many of Harry Potter fans are younger children. Children, especially at the younger age, tend to take things that they see, hear, and experience from a face-value perspective; that is there is little to no processing of underlying meanings.

Even still, I believe that as life progresses, and as long as the child has a relatively stable childhood and is able to progress into young adulthood without much turmoil, the child will develop into a mature individual who is able to differentiate between "good" and "bad" morals.

It's quite shocking how something that may appear to be "just a movie" or "just a book" to cause such a ruckus. But, in the society that we live today, imagination is nearly crossing the boundaries of what appears to be real.

Most are capable of being able to distinguish what is moral & amoral, and what is "real" and what is "imaginary".

But, we see here (with the documentary) that there is always room for discussions and interpretations of the ramifications of massively popular items in a culture; of which can be extremely impressionable on an individual.

What do you think about this? Please comment below.