ROSS DOUTHAT: Of “Meritocrats” And Muggles:

So even from the perspective of the enlightened, progressive wizarding faction, then, Muggles are basically just a vast surplus population that occasionally produces the new blood that wizarding needs to avoid becoming just a society of snobbish old-money inbred Draco Malfoys. And if that were to change, if any old Muggle could suddenly be trained in magic, the whole thrill of Harry Potter’s acceptance at Hogwarts would lose its narrative frisson, its admission-to-the-inner-circle thrill.

Which makes the thrill of becoming a magical initiate in the Potterverse remarkably similar to the thrill of being chosen by the modern meritocracy, plucked from the ordinary ranks of life and ushered into gothic halls and exclusive classrooms, where you will be sorted — though not by a magic hat, admittedly — according to your talents and your just deserts.

One difference is that in Potterland the magical elites are actually magical, while in our world our “meritocratic” elites don’t seem to be all that merit-ful, at least if one judges by results. Nor the combination of ETS and Ivy League admissions officers a match for the Sorting Hat. In fact, we should probably abolish the Ivy League outright if we actually care about fairness.

Douthat’s column is really quite good, and might even open at least a few NYT readers’ eyes. But the ultimate take on Harry Potter politics is still my colleague Ben Barton’s Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy.