An odd musing about Harry's attitude

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 53871

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jon" <jrpessin at m...> wrote:
> ...
> Harry's treatment of authority figures he doesn't like.
> I've noticed that if Harry doesn't like a person who is in 
> authority, he shows complete disrespect to them; this despite any 
> qualifications they may have or any reasons that they SHOULD be 
> respected.  I can think of two examples off the top of my head:  
> The Dursleys, and Snape.  ...edited... 

bboy_mn:
True, respect for your elder and people in general should be the
default, and as far as I can see, Harry does respect people until they
have given him reason to do otherwise. Considering what Harry's had to
put up with I would say he is more respectful than most people would
be of the Dursleys and Snape. I certainly can't agree with your
statement that he shows 'complete disrespect'.


Hobbit-guy:
> Now, maybe I was brought up oddly, but I distinctly remember my 
> parents drilling "respect your elders" into me for as long as I can 
> remember.  Harry's had almost the opposite lesson, it seems; from 
> his actions, it looks like he learned "respect those elders who are 
> nice to you and whom you like."  


bboy_mn:
There is a difference between respect and blind respect. We need to
make a judgements about a persons respectability; some people just
aren't very respectable. While you should always respect a person's
basic humanity, that doesn't mean you have to respect a mean vicious
dishonest abusive person. I would still show basic politeness and
Harry certainly is more polite than most people I've meet, but I don't
respect people who do not conduct their lives in a respectable manner,
and that seems very reasonable to me. 


> It's been getting even worse; in GoF, not only does Harry not obey 
> the diet the Dursleys are on, but he brazenly insults Uncle Vernon 
> ...edited...
> 
> Hobbit-guy (who, despite his defence of the characters, dispises the 
> Dursleys almost as much as he does school essays)


bboy_mn:
I have a saying, 'Tyranny is the architect of it's own doom'. At some
point oppressed people will always rise up against their oppressors.
Harry is not a little boy any more. He's becoming his own man, and
like a man he is standing up against his oppressors and refusing to be
oppressed. That is a just and right thing to do.

Again, there is a difference between obedience and blind obedience. We
had a discussion a while back where someone talk about levels of moral
development. People who blindly obey have a lower level of moral
character than people who make their own judgements and do what they
think is right. Sometimes the right thing to do is to disobey the
rules; sometimes the right thing to do is to disrespect those who do
not act respectably. 

Harry didn't obey the diet? So does anybody reasonably assume that
anyone in the house was following Dudley's diet? No one seemed to lose
any weight. And why should Harry obey the diet, he's not fat. In fact,
if he had, it could have been unhealthy give how little food they
seemed to be giving him. So his friends sent him a birthday cake for
his birthday, that's hardly an act of civil disobedience.

As far as, Harry 'brazenly insults Uncle Vernon', I don't recall
reading that anywhere. He certainly is not taking crap from Uncle
Vernon the way he did when he was a little boy, but personally, I see
that as a good thing. He might have given a little cheek, but I don't
remember any insults.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I think you are
reading way to deep between the lines and finding a level of
disrespect that just isn't there in my opinion.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn