Harry and Morality

[psychic_serpent]

No: HPFGUIDX 57349

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Troels Forchhammer 
<t.forch at m...> wrote:
> At 13:53 08-05-03 +0000, psychic_serpent wrote:
> >It IS moral to BREAK immoral rules and laws, IMO.
> 
> Who gets to decide?
> When pedophiles find the prohibition against sex with children 
> immoral, should we just accept that they break the 'rule'?
> 
> Troels

That is a specious argument and you know it.  Laws that are designed 
to prevent people from hurting others--this law and laws against 
murder, for instance, fall under this category--are moral by their 
nature.  Laws which value property above individuals' freedom--such 
as laws that used to be in place permitting slavery--were immoral.  
Jim Crow laws were immoral.  The people who bravely broke those laws 
or engaged in sit-ins to protest those immoral laws behaved morally, 
and accepted their punishment.  Others, however, could no longer in 
good conscience continue to support those laws, seeing how these 
people willingly accepted punishment, and many of those arrested 
were not even people affected by the unjust laws but individuals who 
traveled long distances for the express purpose of breaking those 
laws and being arrested for it, as a form of protest.  They could 
have remained in their homes, nice and safe and indifferent, but 
they did not do that.  People breaking the sort of law you mention 
are doing it for selfish reasons and are hurting someone else.  
Apples and oranges.   

If you read the rest of my post, you would see that the issue is 
whether a person is being hurt versus whether the letter of the law 
is being followed just for the sake of following it, when NOT 
following it (helping an innocent man escape prison and the 
dementor's kiss) might be the moral choice.  If following the law 
would produce more injustice, I believe--and it's clear from the 
books that JKR believes this too--we are morally obligated to break 
those laws, and by doing so attempt to bring about change, to touch 
people who might reexamine their consciences and decide to no longer 
support the injustice.  

It is very clear that a conflict of just this type is in the offing 
in future books, perhaps as soon as OotP.  Many people in the 
wizarding world will probably be faced with a choice 
between 'following orders,' as Percy was when he worked for Crouch, 
and following their consciences.  I have no doubt as to what Harry 
will do, and while in the short run the consequences may be dire, 
when we follow our consciences we have to expect that.  In the long 
run, I believe he will be rewarded for his moral rectitude.

--Barb

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Psychic_Serpent
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb