Hermione's career

[B Arrowsmith]

No: HPFGUIDX 80915

Laura:

Goodness, have you no hope for Hermione?

I see her making the kinds of mistakes that very bright, very
principled kids make. She has the right ideas but she has yet to
develop tact and diplomacy. (I'm assuming you agree that keeping
house elves in slavery is not a good thing.) And she has to learn to
work with people (or whatever) rather than try to roll over them. We
see her make these mistakes both in her approach to the house elves
and in her dealings with the centaurs. She doesn't come to them
where they are but rather she tries to make them adopt her point of
view, and it will not work. Nor is there any reason why it should.

One thing about Hermione, though, is that you can rely on her to
solve problems. She comes up with a very nice way to handle Rita
Skeeter, for instance, and she definitely did some quick thinking
with Umbridge toward the end of OoP. So I think there's hope that
she'll learn some more constructive tactics as she tries to put her
principles into practice.


Kneasy:

What can one say about Hermione? Bright, motivated, idealistic and 
bloody dangerous.

I have a slight suspicion  that you might find the final description 
somewhat contentious.

Me, I'm a cynical old fart, steeped in disillusion, disappointment and 
distrust of idealists. Hermione is just the type I try and  keep my 
distance from. Unfair? Only partly, and only partly an exaggeration on 
my  part.

Bright, we won't argue with. She's demonstrated that often enough.

Motivated, now. Motivated to do  what? She works really hard  in class 
and in exams; but with what end in view? None, apparently.
No career plans; Muggle Liason? Maybe, have to  think about it. SPEW? 
Perhaps, have to think about it. She's taken extra classes increasing 
her workload to overload; why? What  is she trying to  achieve? Just 
academic distinction? But the few career paths in which she's expressed 
even mild interest don't require it. It  could actually be  
counter-productive. Muggle  Affairs is not going to be a happy place if 
some bright spark just out of school comes along and tells them they're 
doing it all wrong. An employer would find Hermione a very 
uncomfortable employee.

SPEW perhaps. Well, first she's got to show she knows what she's 
talking about. So far that's not been so. Consider, she starts her 
crusade after  hearing about Dobby. She immediately assumes all House 
Elves  are  badly treated and exist in a state little different from 
slavery. Evidence please! Even Kreacher doesn't fit these criteria 
comfortably. He *loves* his evil mistress, everything would be 
wonderful, if only she  were back or  Sirius was like her. Winky I've 
covered in a previous post, but by the accepted standards of Elvish 
behaviour as enunciated by Elves, she failed her family and deserved 
clothes.  In this crusade she has jumped to conclusions, refused 
suggestions to think about it a bit  more and has received no support, 
even from such as Dumbledore, the apparent epitome of compassion.
Dobby, Winky and Kreacher think she's wrong. As do the Hogwarts Elves. 
As does Hagrid, who seems to love every creature  around.

There has to be a reason. We don't know it, Hermione doesn't know it, 
but it's going to deflate a lot of highly developed principles when it 
comes to light. As things stand, if she launched a SPEW campaign onto 
the WW, she's liable to end up  with egg  on her face and lose all  
future credibility into the bargain. But she  steamrollers on- "I'm 
right! I'm right!" Sorry, she's lost me.

Every poster who  fulminates about the iniquity of Elvish slavery 
mirrors only one point of view - Hermione's. No-one else's. That point 
of view is the one taken by a radical idealist jumping to conclusions 
on very limited evidence to demonstrate her social conscience. I'll 
have no truck with  slavery  or involuntary bondage; such are truly 
evil, but  I'm convinced the  Elves are something else. They are too 
magical not to be. Hermione is heading for a fall, like many a bright 
teenager who think they  have a monopoly on interpretation of social 
structures.

I don't trust idealists. All too often the  ends justify the means.
And they rarely listen. They know they have all the answers when often 
they haven't considered what the question really is. Sure, Wilberforce 
and Elizabeth Fry did a great job banning slavery wherever the British 
Navy could reach. But they didn't do it like Hermione, they got the 
facts first. They tempered idealism with practicality and accurate 
information.

Hermione could cause more problems than she solves.

Mind, it could be fun. Hermione raises bloody revolt and  Dumbledore is 
roasted on a spit in the Hogwarts kitchens. Hmm..
C'mon Hermione!

Kneasy









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