Fudge Naive or DE? (was "is there a reason?")

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 77385

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jwcpgh" <jwcpgh at y...> wrote:
> >  Fran wrote:
> > 
> > > Everyone seems to think that Fudge is just naive but I think he 
> is 
> > a 
> > > LV supporter if not a DE.
>   
> > "Kelly" <keltobin at y...> wrote:
> 
> > You have some very good points.  I think that there is a chance, 
> > albeit slim, that Fudge may be a DE after all.  Personally, I 
think 
> > he is representative of a bureaucratic politician who 
> > prefers "business as usual" and will avoid "rocking the boat" at 
> all 
> > costs.  I also get the feeling that he is almost completely 
unable 
> to 
> > make decisions on his own.  Instead, it appears that he takes 
other 
> > peoples solutions and acts on them.  <snip> 
> > The most obvious examples of Fudge's incompetence are in OoTP.  
He 
> > blindly passes the "Educational Decree"s seemingly based on 
> > Umbridge's recommendations.  His relationship with Malfoy seems 
to 
> be 
> > a surrogate for his lost relationship with Dumbledore (i.e. he 
> needs 
> > a person to help him make decisions).
> <snip>
> 
> Laura:
> 
> I would again suggest the relevance of the "banality of evil" 
> theory.  Most of us are neither outstandingly evil nor 
outstandingly 
> good, it seems to me.  We do our best and try to make the right 
> decisions, and we're vulnerable to lots of different kinds of 
> pressures that can allow us to convince ourselves that "right" 
> means "what's best for me".  That's how evil can take power-by 
> putting people in a position to, as DD put it, choose between what 
is 
> right and what is easy, and giving them reasons to choose the 
> latter.  LV and those real-life villains with whom we are all too 
> familiar don't need everyone to be a party member, as it were.  
They 
> just need people to go along and not fight back.  That's Fudge's 
> sin.  It appears from a couple of his interactions with DD (for 
> instance, at the end of GoF when he says "[Voldemort] can't be 
back, 
> Dumbledore, he just can't be" (GoF p 709 US) that he knows in his 
> heart what's going on, but to avoid controversy that might cost him 
> his job, he covers it up.  Yes, Fudge has that stupid pure-blood 
> thing, but that doesn't make him a DE, just a bigot.  
> 
> I'd also suggest that Fudge isn't looking to Lucius so much as a 
> replacement for DD as for someone who will suck up to him and 
support 
> his wretched decisions.  (An occasional pocketful of galleons never 
> hurts either.)  Malfoy may be manipulating Fudge, which would be 
> pretty easy to do, but I think Fudge likes the idea of this old-
> family pure-blood bigshot toadying to him.

Me:
There is an old saying which I am sure many of you have heard:

"For evil to triumph, good men only have to do nothing." or words to 
that effect. I distrust Fudge but he is ,as someone said, a typical 
politician who looks over his shoulder to see if his position is safe 
and wants a quiet life -  a latter day Neville Chamberlain perhaps?