OOP: Giants, Elves, Centaurs (was "Giants")

[the firey chasm from whence it came...]

No: HPFGUIDX 69375

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "T.M. Sommers" <tms2 at m...> wrote:
> Leon Adato wrote:
>  >
> > It suddenly struck me that the Grawp storyline ties into the SPEW
> > storyline and raises a possible overall plot arc: That you can neither
> > treat other people/speiceis/groups as if they are sub-human...
> > 
> > ...nor as if they are exactly human.
> > 
> > What I mean is that you cannot expect elves to live by human
standards -
> > being "free", wearing cloths, having "just a job", etc. It is (as many
> > have argued) against their nature. But that doesn't give you the right
> > to treat them without respect, dignity and the allowance to
participate
> > in society in a way which is consistant with their habits, beliefs and
> > customs.
> 
> There are those who argue that anti-black racism arose as a 
> rationalization for the continued existence of slavery.  That is, 
>   slave owners could rationalize slavery by assuming that blacks 
> were sub-human.  One has to be careful not to import such 
> arguments into the Potter world.  Slavery is vile.  It degrades 
> both the slave and the slave owner.

I think the problem with the house elves is that they're so
indoctrinated that they themselves don't want freedom. They're ARE
brainwashed, as Hermione says. And as DD says, they are what they are
because of the actions of wizards. I don't agree with the way that
Hermione is trying to help them because I don't think that forced
liberation is any kind of liberation at all. Look at how much it upset
Winky. I do think that enslaving them is wrong, but I think that
ending the slavery has to be a much more gradual process than Hermione
realizes. You first have to attack the indoctrination and their own
negative beliefs about themselves before they're going to be able to
even handle the idea of being free. 

They are certainly not sub-human. They have magic that's easily as
powerful as the wizards (Dobby manages to do quite a bit even when
he's enslaved by the Malfoys, and Kreacher certainly manages to affect
things in his own way as well). But they do buy into the whole
"wizards are superior" thing lock, stock and barrel and as long as
they have that attitude, they won't see any other future for
themselves but further servitude. In order to accomplish anything you
must first at least believe that it is at least remotely possible, and
you also must *want* to achieve it. The problem is that most house
elves really *don't* want to be free because they buy into all that
bullshit about having to serve wizards. So you have to attack their
self-image first, before you can really set them free. 

~dream