"Would" versus "Was"

[fourfuries at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27454

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., s_luhtanen at h... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., prefectmarcus at y... wrote:

>>  It seems that many of us take the words of the Sorting 
Hat, "...you [Harry] *would* have done well in Slytherin." to mean 
that the Sorting Hat WAS going to put him there ... The belief seems 
to be that Harry only missed getting placed there by his strong 
opposition.

> I don't think Harry said NOT Slytherin merely out of prejudice, 
> but because he does NOT want into the same house as Malfoy.

Who says prejudice is bad?  The word literally means prejudgement, or 
advance determination, about a person, place or thing.  We all have 
prejudices that we act on hourly: against spiders, or snakes, or 
anchovie pizzas, or whatever.  People who are allergic to chocolate 
or peanuts are prejudiced against certain candies.

This applies to people as well.  A convicted felon is denied the 
right to vote or denied certain jobs because his history as a felon 
is suggestive of what kind of person he or she is.  We often try to 
predict what a person will do by considering what they have done in 
the past.

What makes prejudice a problem is when it is not founded on any 
facts.  Race and gender prejudice are against the law because the 
fact that someone is colored or female does not tell us anything 
valuable or meaningful about how they will behave.  

Harry's judgement about Slytherin was based on Malfoy's actions, and 
what Harry had heard about the actions of other Slytherin alumni.  I 
think some prejudicial caution was in order.


4FR (disturbed by the tendency of "political correctness" and the 
push for "tolerance" to blunt the edge of otherwise perfectly good 
analytical tools, like prejudice and moral conviction)