Comparing "house-elfment" to slavery (Part 2) (LONG)

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 39292

Ama, all speculated out, wrote a double post on the elf's enslavement. 
Her theory can be reduced to: elves are enslaved. They're brainwashed. 
This is *wrong*. Wizards are bad for doing so. The elves must be 
liberated. It includes a lot of more detail, but (I hope), those are 
the main ideas (if I got any of them worng, I'm sure she'll promptly 
correct me. I'm looking forward to it, in fact). Not that it matters, 
since I'm going to be proposing my alternatives, before the sparks fly.

Now, for the disclaimer: The ideas that follow have already been 
expressed by an individual, in this list (namely, me). None are really 
new (haven't the time, sorry). Said individual does not, in RL, defend 
in any way slavement, oppresion or any form of discrimination. He also 
reserves the right to change ideas at some (or several) points in the 
future. If any of these theories prove to be correct, he reseves the 
right to shout "I told you so" and point accusatory fingers. Some of 
this disclaimers are not meant to be taken seriously. Have a nice day.

Getting on:


Black slavery-Elf slavery parallelism
-------------------------------------

The problem with that paralellism (and any other slave <insert here 
oppresed faction> paralellism) is that all known groups that at one 
time or another have been prosecuted *desired* to be free and equal and 
have rights, etc (even if some of the members prefered to mantain their 
status-quo). Hermione believes that the elves situation and 
circumstance could improve by way of her campaign, but the sad reality 
is that that campaign is *against* the desires of the *elves 
themselves*. They feel proud of what they are, and DO NOT WANT TO 
CHANGE. Hermione defends her position by the phrase "it will be good 
for them, even if they don't realise it". ("For your own good" is 
phrase that always fills my heart with fear, because it implies -sooner 
or later- quite a bit of pain. I also find it very shacky moral 
ground.) Hermione also talks about brainwash, but I don't belive that 
idea. The fact is that elves are a happy, proud race both with their 
lives and jobs (except for the occasional exception: Dobby), and I 
belive firmly in not disturbing someone happy just for the sake of 
giving them something they don't want (or possibly need!).

Note: If anyone can find an example of this situation (people who were 
happy with their lives and something we -occidental civilization- hold 
dear was imposed on them, resulting in improved happines for them), I'd 
be happy to hear it. The ones I can think of normally end in disaster 
(American indians, both from North America and South America and 
australian aborigenes(sp) sort of leap to mind), although my examples 
aren't about freedom but technology being imposed (which, nontheless, 
whe occidentals tend to view as a form of liberty).


The Winky situation
-------------------

My second defence of the elves enslavement comes from the observation 
of the typical elf's behaviour after the liberation (I posted, way 
back, a theory on why Dobby is the exception and Winky the typical elf. 
However, I'm not going to repeat myself. if you do not agree with this 
classification, the next point isn't valid until we discuss it)

I think we agree that Winky has NOT received well her liberation. The 
sad reality is that she's in desperate need of psicological assistence 
over the loss of her position, at first glance because of the dishonour 
of the situation, but on further study because she feels that she was 
taking care of the Crouch family. Winky firmly believes that neither of 
them were capable of taking care of themselves without her help (and 
I'm inclined to believe that that is the case, but it's beside the 
point). Winky, thus, considers her job extremelly important for the 
well-being of members of another species, and accepts that 
responsability without expecting anything in exchange.

That last conclusion deals an interesting parallel to the real world. 
I've known quite a few people who work for non-profit organizations 
(including myself), and they have the same basic impulses of Winky (and 
no-one has ever objected to the fact that those people worked for 
nothing appart from basic needs). Of course, you can counter that by 
saying that none of those were supposed to punish themselves over 
trivial matters, but (in the cases were those people helped other 
humans) they did have the moral obligation to keep the secrets of the 
people helped, and other clauses asociated to the elves enslavement.


The Dobby situation
-------------------

The trouble with the elf enslavement is, in fact, Dobby's particular  
working conditions. Would you believe Dobby (or Winky), should they 
ever work for the Weasleys, would be forced to hit their heads against 
lamps over trivial matters? No, the Weasleys would never allow it (much 
less encourage it as the Malfoys did). The problem is that we don't 
have enough cases to make a real study of the wrking conditions of the 
house elves. However, we know about 100 elves, and only one had been 
regularly punished (there is no evidence of Winky ever having been 
punished. In fact, it looks like she could bully around Crouch Sr. with 
ease). Hogwarts elves are well treated, and I don't think most of the 
wizard families would think of punishing such increadibly fast and 
efficient workers.


The Atan parallelism
--------------------

**Note: this is the weakest of my arguments, based on any number of 
shacky arguments, and included, after much self-debate, because, 
nonetheless, I'd like it to be true and because it's the only one with 
an acronym: ENSLAVEMENT (Elves Need Slavery Lest Aggression and 
Violence Erupt, Making Extinction Near Threat)**

I'm not sure if anyone remembers, but I have been working on an essay 
comparing most of the fantasy worlds I've read about (specially 
revolving on their reality rules and how they differ from real life 
reality rules). I have obvioulsy included HPotterverse. The subject of 
the elves enslavement is one that interests me quite a bit, because it 
reflects another enslavement that appeared on my favourite books, the 
Tamuli series by David Eddings. (If you haven't read them, this is 
going to sound somewhat strange). In that series, there is a race of 
humans (Atans) that, over the centuries, had bred for the perfect 
warrior (going for big, agile, and other warlike qualities when 
arranging marriages). They took it too far, and they discovered they 
were turning homicidal. To quote:

"The Atans observed that big people win more fights than little people. 
[...]Size became the most important consideration [when parents chose 
the mates of their children][...]The Atans prized other characteristics 
as well - ability, strength, aggressiveness and homicidal 
vindictiveness.[...]The Atan breeding programme finally went too far, I 
guess. The Atans became so aggresive that they started killing each 
other [...]. It got to the point that there was no such thing in Atan 
as a mild disagreement. They'd kill each other over weather 
predictions.[...]

Anyway, the Atans had a very wise king [...]. He saw that his people 
were on the verge of self-destruction. He made a contact with [another] 
goverment and surrendered his people into perpetual slavery - to save 
their lives"
      David & Leigh Eddings, Domes of Fire (Book I of Tamuli)

This situation reflects my fourth view on the Pottervese elves: they 
realized that they had too much power (and I do mean too much: they 
apparate in Hogwarts, need no wand, throw wizards down stairs with 
thought alone, etc.) and put themselves into slavery because they 
couldn't stop themselves from killing each other (or iniciating a war 
with another species). Of course, this is based on a piece of canon we 
do not have: the origins of the elves's enslavement.

However, Ama and I already ran to the ground this particular argument, 
so I'm not going to continue it (even though there is more to it. Check 
messages around 37100, the Free elves unite(?) thread).

That more or less covers my old ideas. If Ama (or anyone else, for that 
matter) decides once again to pick up the gauntlet, I'll do my best to 
answer (and maybe come up with a few more theories). Unfortunately, I'm 
about to come down with a very grave case of examinitis, so I don't 
think I'll be around too much.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who wonders if Ama had forgotten about him, or was looking 
forward to his counter-arguments and if Laura Huntley is still around. 
Also, he who hopes no-one takes him for a pro-slavery (which he isn't).