Dishwasher huddle

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 47134

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Melody" <Malady579 at h...> wrote:
 I don't
> understand why it is a problem that Dumbledore misleads.  
Seems it is understood he is in the position to do that being that 
he is the known leader of the opposition.  It is his job to misdirect 
the bad guy. Just the WW does not know the bad guy is back, but 
when he is, Dumbledore *does* tell them."

<snip>
 They don't want to believe in a Dumbledore that
> is not a good old grandfather patting his favorite grandson 
Harry onthe head.  We will *never* be able to convince them 
otherwise."
<<

I don't have a problem with human!Dumbledore. In fact, if we can 
stipulate  that MD!Dumbledore *may* be either an egotistical 
maniac or  simply carried away by his own cleverness (Sirius 
Black!), I will have no further objection to the theory. Not that I 
would agree with it, but it would be at least plausible to me. 

 Suppose there is a brilliant but aging doctor who discovers that 
the enemies of his country are amassing a supply of 
weaponized virus. As a result of his secret researches, he 
realizes that the virus is not as deadly as the enemy thinks. If it
is released now, the virus may not spread fast enough to cause 
an epidemic, but as time goes on, the residual immunity of the 
population will diminish, leaving them vulnerable. The enemy 
may also discover the flaws in their research and come up with a 
deadlier form of the virus. The virus in its dormant form is 
immortal; it will always be a danger.


Knowing he will die of old age and seeing himself as  the  only 
hope of managing the inevitable outbreak, our doctor tricks the 
enemy into releasing the flawed virus. He does not vaccinate the 
population because that would alert the enemy, and besides, if 
his plan works, fewer people will die from  the weaponized virus 
than from the vaccine.  He does not tell his colleagues what he 
is going to do, since that would jeopardize the secrecy of the 
plan. Things go wrong almost at once. The flawed virus does not 
spread quickly at first, but it strikes down the most vulnerable 
members of the population: the young (Cedric), the aged (Frank) 
and the weak (Bertha). Aged himself, the doctor unexpectedly 
sickens also. 

At death's door the doctor confesses to his colleagues what he 
has done. They are shocked, and while they are demoralized the 
disease takes hold, mutates into a more virulent form, and 
begins to spread quickly. They have to vaccinate the population 
at once, but when word of the old doctor's scheme gets out, no 
one trusts doctors any more. The virus does its work and the 
enemy wins.

Was the doctor wise, or good? 

Of course, JKR is unlikely to let Voldemort win.  But bar 
meta-thinking, one ought to admit that defeat is at least as much 
a possibility under Dishwasher as it is without it. 

Dumbledore is, after all, not "doing nothing" . He is training the 
next generation to resist evil, he is working tirelessly to 
encourage people to unite and to forgive their differences and he 
is doing everything in his power to alert people to the danger, 
including sending his spy out to discover what Voldemort plans 
to do next.

Pippin
thinking that maybe she shouldn't have baited Cindy by claiming 
not to be afraid of the paddle and hoping this post does not 
sound menacing.