Dumbledore, Leader of Men (and Women) (was: Chapter Discussions: Chapter 4)

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 83841

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "abigailnus" <abigailnus at y...> 
wrote:
> Laura and I came down rather hard on Dumbledore.  <anip> 
> I can't speak for Laura, but I'm being hard on Dumbledore because 
he has effectively taken the fate of the world onto his shoulders.  
It's only to be expected that he be held to a higher standard then 
other people.  <snip> But as a leader of men, a general of war, 
Dumbledore falls tragically short of the mark. <snip> 

Among his so-called adult supporters, Dumbledore is quite heavily 
criticized.  Snape doesn't understand why Dumbledore trusts Lupin and 
tolerates Sirius.  Molly feels the same about Sirius and Mundungus, 
and Sirius has grave reservations about Snape (apparently, so does 
Bill Weasley).  Sirius openly criticizes Dumbledore for forcing him 
to remain cooped up in Grimmauld Place, and Harry criticizes 
Dumbledore quite frequently in OOP.  

<snip> ...an organization such as the OOP is not a democracy, and 
disgruntlement with a leader as we see it expressed in the book - as 
grumbling among the troops - is not a good sign (admittedly, we never 
see Dumbledore interacting with the order, but the peripheral results 
of his leadership paint a disturbing picture).  And indeed, the 
results are disheartening.  Sirius and Snape nearly come to blows.  
Mundungus blows off his shifts to conduct shady dealings.  Harry 
slacks off in his Occlumency practice, which Snape eventually 
terminates, despite Dumbledore specific orders. 
 
><snip>  In short, Dumbledore has collected a group of talented 
people committed to the cause of defeating Voldemort, but he has 
failed to form them into a cohesive unit.  Paula is right to point 
out that Dumbledore is not a confrontational person - he always 
prefers the path diplomacy and discourse to that of argument and 
battle (although he is willing to take the latter when and if it is 
> necessary), but avoiding necessary confrontation and allowing his 
followers to pursue their destructive behavior is not a good quality 
in a leader, and in this case it has lead to disastrous results.
> 
<snip>  Dumbledore is a remarkably unemotional man, sometimes 
> maddeningly so.  This makes him remarkable, but it also blinds 
him.  He expects his followers to act as coldly as he does, simply on 
his say-so. <snip>...he's focused on the big picture, and fails to 
take into account the petty concerns and bruised feelings of his 
soldiers. <snip>

Laura:

Having Abigail speak for me is an honor!  

I'd like to add a couple of things here.  I wonder if one of DD's 
problems is that he's trying to be all things to all of his people.  
That is, he wants to be a general, devising strategy based on 
knowledge only he has.  But he also wants to be a parental figure, 
trusted implicitly and able to care for everyone's needs.   The 
general doesn't need to be responsive to the concerns of the troops 
but the parent does need to be responsive to the feelings of his 
children.  He treats people like Harry and Sirius like battle-
hardened, experienced troops when they need to be treated like 
injured and lonely children.  (Sirius was emotionally abandoned by 
his family early on and imprisoned during his early adulthood, so he 
still has lots of problems from his childhood weighing on him.)  For 
the sake of holding onto all the threads himself, he keeps 
information from his supporters that might ease some of their 
tensions-for example, what the story is with Snape.  He makes himself 
inacessible to people who need him, although he could very well find 
ways to communicate if he chose to.

I'm not sure that I'd agree with Abigail that the Order isn't a 
democracy.  Well, maybe it's more of a republic, in that it's created 
not only by DD but by the other members who see the need for an 
organized defense against LV.  I think they choose DD as much as he 
chooses them, and for that reason he owes more to them than he gives 
them.  

Also, I'm not sure all of the tensions among the Order members can be 
called petty.  Yeah, Molly is way out of line throughout OoP.  But we 
learn in this book that maybe Snape really did have good reason to 
hate the Marauders, and his anger has never been addressed or 
satisfied.  And Harry been taught by DD himself to trust DD and look 
to him as the ultimate source of knowledge and support.  So it's 
hardly petty to feel rage and utter frustration when DD takes himself 
out of the picture and refuses to explain why.  As for Sirius...we 
listees have our differences about whether he was justified in 
feeling and acting the way he did, and many of you may know that I'm 
completely on Sirius's side.  Was the use of Grimmauld Place worth 
Sirius's life?   Yeah, DD has a lot to answer for.  

Laura, who apologizes for snipping so much of Abigail's terrific post