Intrinsically Good magic, and motives over ends (Fwd from OTC)

[Haggridd]

No: HPFGUIDX 59357

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "abigailnus" <abigailnus at y...> 
wrote:

> I think I have an example that illustrates Amy's point.  Two weeks 
> ago I took my mother's car to the bank where I ran a few errands.  
My 
> bank is right near a very good bakery (which is why I try not to go 
to 
> the bank more than absolutely necessary) and upon leaving, I 
decided 
> to go into this bakery and buy some cookies - just for my brother, 
of 
> course!  I then got in my mother's car and, while trying to make a 
left 
> turn, didn't yield the right of way to a car coming from my right, 
and 
> we collided - I'm fine, the other driver's fine, but I put a dent 
his car.  
> 
> Now, if I hadn't gone into the bakery, I would have arrived at the 
left 
> turn a few minutes earlier, and the driver I ran into wouldn't have 
been 
> there.  It's entirely possible that I still would have had an 
accident, 
> maybe even a worse one.  Any number of things could have happened 
> as a result of my leaving the area without being delayed by either 
pastry 
> or exchanging insurance details, but they didn't.  The fact remains 
that 
> my accident is a consequence of my choice to go into the bakery.  
It is 
> also a consequence of my choice to go to the bank, of the fact that 
my 
> mother lets me drive her car, of the fact that I was born 22 years 
ago, 
> and of the fact that I didn't yield the right of way.  Only that 
last choice 
> makes the accident my fault, but all the other choices (made by 
myself 
> and others) led up to it.
> 
> By the same token, Lily's choice to sacrifice herself for Harry set 
in 
> motion a chain of events which led to many results.  One of those 
> results was that Cedric Diggory was in the position to be killed by 
> Voldemort at the end of GoF.  His actual death was a choice made by 
> Voldemort and Wormtail, and they carry the blame for it, but it is 
> still a consequence of Lily's choice 15 years earlier.  
> 
> Abigail

I tink that the roup is being too deterministic, to "Newtonian", in 
their analyses of the what-ifs.  I think you can make a case that 
there is a good measure of quantum physics-like properties in all 
these "shoulda-woulda-coulda" scenarios, including something akin to 
Heisenberg's uncertainty princile.  It is not necessarily so that the 
choice to buy the pastry as a good deed in any way altered the 
destiny of the automobile paths.  The actual outcome may have been 
floating around in quantum heaven until it became concret, with no 
causality involved.  The "good deed" of buying the pasty stands on 
its own, unalloyed by any blame for the ensuing fender bender.

Haggridd