Hermione's mistakes (was Hermione's career)

[dcyasser]

No: HPFGUIDX 80935

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, B Arrowsmith 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> Laura said:
 
> 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. <snip> And she has to learn to
> work with people (or whatever) rather than try to roll over them.  
<snip>I think there's hope that she'll learn some more constructive 
tactics as she tries to put her principles into practice.
> 
> 
> To which Kneasy replied:
> 
> What can one say about Hermione? Bright, motivated, idealistic and 
> bloody dangerous. 

<snip> 
> 
 Hermione is heading for a fall, like many a bright 
> teenager who think they  have a monopoly on interpretation of 
social structures.

<snip>

> 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. 



Now dc:  

Gracious, Hermione's behavior inspires a great deal of dialogue.  
Let us not forget that she is 15, and therefore entitled to behave, 
on occasion, like an inexperienced child. 
Yes indeed, Hermione pursues her own agenda with great passion, sure 
she is right and everyone else is wrong.  Just like a billion other 
teenagers trying to discover their role in a society that has 
already been established.  Will Hermione learn to temper her 
idealism with realism? I believe so. I hope so.  Because otherwise 
she is "bloody dangerous," due to the fact that she and her cohorts 
live in a dangerous world that is not going to cut any slack for 
typical adolescent mistakes.  We can't, however, expect Hermione and 
her fellows to give up on idealism altogether, or we might as well 
close Gryffindor House and roll over to Voldemort. Heaven help us if 
every idealistic teen who discovered an impassioned social 
consciousness, only to be brutally disillusioned, then swore off 
activism of any sort. 
Ah, the old days, when I was bristling with the absolute certainty 
of righteousness!

cheers

dc