Muggles, David hunting, killing wizards, humanism, House-Elves, Parselmouths

[jennyandraul]

No: HPFGUIDX 31152

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
 
>Some humanists have a very optimistic view of human nature, believing 
that humans are born good; others, including yours truly, believe that 
evil is inborn and real but that the religious task is to realize our 
"best selves."  True integrity therefore leaves no room for evil, and 
Tom Riddle is not being true to his deepest self.  This squares with 
my understanding of him as someone who is fundamentally alienated from 
his own true nature, as seen in his bitter hatred of his father and 
his own Muggle heritage.  There is a distinctly humanist message in 
the story of TR, namely that one cannot be a whole nor a good person 
as long as one denies one's true nature.  It's a message that's 
perfectly compatible with Christianity, to be sure, but it's also 
humanist.>

Sorry for not snipping more, but if I snipped any more, it wouldn't 
make any sense.

I feel guilty disagreeing with anything Amy Z says, but here I think 
differently - at least partly, anyway.  I agree that evil can be 
inborn, because, IMO, we cannot have any good if there is no evil to 
go with it (you know, how we can't understand one without having the 
other).  We are all capable of doing evil things, and certainly of 
thinking evil thoughts - I know I do - bwahahahaha!  I digress.  
However, I think much evil behavior is related to how one was raised.  
Obviously, Tom Riddle had some major issues with his family, and from 
what I've seen with people I know, their behaviors seem to go directly 
back to their families and how they were treated.  Harry, of course is 
an exception, but then again, he usually is.  *Sigh* - I do love him.

I also think that there is always the mental health factor that may 
result in what we perceive as evil behavior.  Barty Crouch Jr is 
specifically described as having as "insane" smile after he recounts 
the terrible things he did to his father and with Voldemort in GoF.  
It bothers me that he is described that way, as it implies to me that 
he wasn't *really* responsible for his actions, but in reality, there 
are some crazy people out there who do some terrible things.

I'm also a bit confused about what Amy said about Tom Riddle's 
"deepest self".  Does that mean that maybe Riddle is ignoring the warm 
and fuzzy feelings he is capable of getting?  Or does it mean that he 
has worked extremely hard to squash the empathy out of himself?  
Perhaps that's what true evil is - the way Riddle devoted his entire 
life to death and destruction, and has trained himself to delight in 
it.

--jenny from ravenclaw, who hates what Yahoo did to our names 
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