Dumbledore's Philosophy (WAS: MAGIC DISHWASHER: Spying Game Philosophy

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 81322

Debbie wrote:

> In fact, one of the reasons I hated chapter 37, The Lost Prophecy, 
> was because I didn't – and still don't – see Dumbledore's decision 
> not to tell Harry about the prophecy sooner as a mistake.  What 
> Dumbledore now sees as a *mistake* was to treat Harry as a human 
> being and not as a weapon.

David:

I don't understand the argument here.  You seem to be saying that 
Dumbledore has a dilemma: either keep Harry in ignorance, and allow 
him the freedom to make his own choices, or tell him the truth and 
so manipulate him; to turn him into a weapon, as you put it.

This seems a false dilemma to me.  True, when Harry is very young, 
to burden him with too much knowledge might be to paralyse him, but 
as he gets older he should be able to bear the truth without losing 
his freedom - indeed knowing more makes him more free because his 
choices are better informed.

It seems to me therefore there is a crossover point - encountered by 
every parent - when it is better to let a growing child into a 
secret.  What Dumbledore is lamenting is that he delayed past that 
crossover point, as IMO he makes clear by recounting the details of 
the first four books and describing the ever weakening justification 
for remaining silent.

If, at the end of GOF, Dumbledore had told Harry aboutt the 
prophecy, how would that have reduced him?  If so, how, at the end 
of OOP, does Harry knowing about the prophecy *not* do so?

David