The morality question

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, <jrober4 at b...> wrote:
> ...edited...
> 
> ...  Also, I remember hearing that the characters in it that are
considered the "good guys" engaged in lying and that seemed to be okay
for them to do.  ...edited...
> 
> I must confess that the fact that Harry, Ron and Hermione lies --
with very little, if any, consequences -- still concerns me, though. 
 ...edited...  In a day when there are those who would subjugate the
importance of a solid moral foundation, I would like to see there be
more consequences in a genre that is so popular with children (and us
adults).  ...edited...
> 
> The issue of lying is certain something I have wrestled with.  I
don't believe in the concept of "the end justifies the means", which
seems to be what's involved in the HP books.  I mean, if Harry lies so
that he can do something that results in something good, that should
be okay, right?  Sorry, but I have a problem with that.  
> 
> ...edited... I believe that parents have the right to raise their
children as they see fit ..., including those who don't like the
witchcraft in the HP books and movies and so deny their children
access to them.  ...edited...
> 
> Comments?
> 
> Judy       


bboy_mn:
Let me start on a dangerous side track, dangerous because it treads
into the area of religion which is dangerous under the best of
circumstances.

We are ALL sinners. That's why we have religion and churches. That
where we turn for the fellowship and support to help us strive to be
better than we are while at the same time accepting that we will never
be morally perfect. The goal is not to be a saint, but to TRY to do
your best to be as saintly as we are able.

It is the trying, the striving toward a goal, the genuine desire to do
what is morally right that makes you a good person. And each and every
one of us will surely fall far short of that goal. Each and every one
of us will fail at moral perfection. Because God knows we are only
human, he forgives our failings as long as in our hearts we truly want
to do what is right.

Have you ever lied? Has your mother ever lied? ...your father? ...his
father?

Have you ever met someone who is old enough to speak, who has never
told a lie in their lives? If you have, then you can take their
statement that they haven't lied as being at least the second lie
they've told in their lives. Be very wary of anyone who claims or
implies moral perfection, because in the long run, you will discover
that they are the MOST morally flawed of all.

Harry is not a saint. He's a little kid with very poor upbringing,
poor role models, limited socialization, generally abused who, on the
whole, is far better behaved than the average kid, and has far better
moral character than most of the kids who will read these books. Lying
is rarely shown without consequences or guilt. 

Morality is not about obedience and disobedience, it's about right and
wrong. Was Harry right or wrong to go after the
Socerer's/Philosopher's Stone? Was Harry right or wrong to try and
prevent an evil person from gaining something that would have allowed
their evil to terrorize the world? Was Harry right or wrong to try and
prevent the lose of countless innocent lives? Was he right or wrong to
go out of bounds in an effort to save his best friend (Ron) from being
killed by what he precieved to be a very big vicious dog? Was he right
or wrong to go down to Hagrid's to offer him comfort in a time when he
was certainly distressed and in desperate need of a friend? 

The true moral question is never, did the person obey or disobey; the
question is, did they make the morally greater choice; the morally
better choice. The failing of so much religious literature aimed at
kids is that it portrays an unrealistic Disneyfied version of life,
and kids are not fooled; they know life doesn't work that way and that
discredits the whole message. JKR portrays Harry as a real kid, doing
real kid things, making real kid-real life choice, and sometimes
getting it wrong ... JUST LIKE REAL KIDS. Kids can identify with this
because life is not a Disneyfied Pollyanna cartoon; it is full of
struggle, uncertainly, diffcult choices, and lot and lots of gray
areas where right and wrong are not clearly defined. 

Did you really expect Harry to be perfect, and if you did, do you
think anyone would have believed it when they read it? The judgment of
Harry is not judged by single events view individually, the judgment
of Harry is, in the long run does he make the morally better choices?
Kids aren't going to remember when some small lie that Harry most
likely regrets, they are going to remember when Harry put the greater
good of all at a higher value than his own life. They are going to
remember when he selflessly risked his own life to save Ginny, Ron,
Sirius, Hermione,...

So you need not ask yourself did Harry lie, because of course, he did,
and so did I, and so did you and so did everyone else. You need to ask
yourself if Harry is a good boy. In the long run, does he have good
moral character. I would say the his morally character is better than
virtually all the people who read his story. That's why we see him as
a hero, some one to look up to, some one who inspires us to try to
strive to reach a higher moral plain. In that sense, Harry Potter is
exactly like religion, he inspires us to do better; to be better.

People claim Harry gets away with breaking the rules, even getting
rewarded for breaking the rules, but I have to come back to the fact
that blindly following the rules is not a reflection of high moral
character. Harry gets rewarded not for breaking the rules, but for
breaking the rules because at that moment in time, breaking the rules
was the morally right thing to do. It is his heroic actions, his
selflessness, and his high moral character that are being rewarded. 

Rules are not absolute, we change them all the time, we frequently
change them arbitrarily, we frequently change them for selfserving
reason, or change them unjustly. Many time the rules themselves are
morally wrong. As far as I am concerned blindly obeying the rules is a
failure of moral character. It is the abdication of your own personal
responsibility; the failure to look inside yourself and make moral
judgments base on what you find there. 

I say without hesitation or reservation that in the broader view,
Harry set a moral standard that few of us are able to live up to.


That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

bboy_mn