Harry the realist

[Lumen]

No: HPFGUIDX 26158

(A little note on what follows. At our discussion board some of the young people were having difficulties sorting out the ramifications of the attack and the very real war into which it launched America. One of the adults was at her wits ends by the time I could get back to the board. I wanted to use the books to illustrate some points, and for that reason thought it would be interesting here. Much has been omitted since it dealt with direct questions by the youngsters..)

"SO WHAT" Harry shouted. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"

Isn't it strange how a child's book can render in such simple terms the only answer for the West at this time; certainly none other is possible for the United States. This is what we face: for the force at work behind this particular terrorism is no different from the story-book Voldemort. 

America is a bit like Harry lying on the cold floor in that hut on the rock. We don't want to open our eyes on a day that might tell us the Golden Gate Bridge is down, thousands in Chicago have been died from poison gas, or downtown Dallas is in flames. Our President made it clear in his address on September 15, we are at war and we have to prepare ourselves for things we have not known since the civil war. Peace is no longer a possibility for us until the enemy has been conquered.nor for the rest of the world.

I am an idealist too, which means at this moment I have to cope with a burning desire to swing myself on to the nearest military truck, have someone show me how to use a semi-automatic and hopefully die fighting for my country, for my world. The world in which I grew up was still very much under the spell of World War II, all the horror of the concentration camps and all the magnificence of the men and women who gave their lives to save people they did not know, lands they had never seen before they hit the beaches on D-Day. As one of the generals in those boats (yes, our generals went into those boats too) said to the men: There are two kinds of men in this boat today: men who are going to die, and men who are going to die today. There are many ways to be an idealist. There are fewer ways to be a hero. The later often requires the giving of one's life. Any idealist can be a hero, but the idealist who is also a realist is more likely to become one. The idealist/realist takes the steps necessary to make the dream live. Harry has become such a person, precisely because his own parents have died.  

Yes, there is a connection between what is happening and the portrait of Voldemort. Some have racked their brains over Quirrell's utterance in the last chamber: 

"A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it...." 

Bin Laden, like Voldemort, has reached that point of evil where, indeed, good and evil no longer exist. This is the quintessence of evil: when there is nothing left but a burning desire for power. Why? That others might worship you. You are the "god" on whom their existence relies. The one who can fulfill all their desires. It must be said that Bin Laden has far surpassed Voldemort in achieving the goal of the ultimate evil. Voldemort can only get the Death Eaters to crawl on their knees to kiss his robe. Bin Laden can get them to die for him. Now that is worship.. For all Bin Laden's rhetoric, nothing really exists for him anymore than the acquisition of power and to exercise it in whatever way feeds his unquenchable egoism.

Maria

www.the-sorting-hat.com



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