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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 81491

Debbie:

> It does seem odd that he doesn't tell the students how to 
protect  themselves from the basilisk, though I think his 
knowledge that  there's a basilisk comes partly from performing 
legilimency on Harry (witness the scene in Dumbledore's office 
after Justin is attacked).  
> However, Dumbledore cannot counter the basilisk alone.  
Because he is  not a parselmouth, he can't simply go down to 
the Chamber of Secrets  himself.  Harry, as a parselmouth, is 
the only weapon he has, and  it's to Dumbledore's credit, I think, 
that he doesn't use him as  such.  
> 

Pippin:
Dumbledore knows nothing about Diary!Riddle. From his point 
of view it looks like Voldemort has managed to penetrate the 
school's defenses from a thousand of miles away, is flaunting 
his ability to do so by using a weapon he knows Dumbledore will 
associate with him, and is timing the attacks in order to implicate 
Harry. Dumbledore may be forgiven for thinking that Voldemort is 
baiting him and that his best strategy will be to wait him out.

In any  case, basilisk-proofing the school will not protect 
anybody, since the real danger is not the basilisk but the person 
controlling it. It would be like stealing one bullet from an enemy 
gun.

Debbie:
> > 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 responded:
> 
> 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.
> 
> 
> Debbie:
> 
> Harry already understands by the end of PS/SS that Voldemort 
is after him.  But it's one thing for a child to have the knowledge 
that he will be forced to defend himself, and it's another to know 
that the entire WW is depending on him to vanquish Voldemort. 

 Dumbledore was right to withhold that, I think, until Harry better 
understood his own will and knew the WW a bit better.  
Dumbledore says he made a mistake by not telling him 
everything five years ago, and I simply don't agree with this.

Pippin:

Dumbledore says the happiest man is the one content to see 
himself exactly as he is. Keeping back the truth in order to spare 
Harry's feelings was no kinder in the end than it would have 
been to let him go on staring endlessly at his lost parents in The 
Mirror of Erised. 

And Voldemort *is* going after Harry anyway. Are you saying that 
Harry should let himself be killed because the Wizarding World 
isn't worth fighting for? He could hide out on Privet Drive instead 
of challenging the Dark Lord, I suppose. But as he said in 
PS/SS, "It's only  dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm 
never going over to the Dark Side!" Those who don't resist 
Voldemort can still be victims of him.

Nor is it a question of whether Harry ought to be considered as a 
weapon  instead of a human being.  Harry is going to suffer just 
as much as anybody if Voldemort wins. According to 
Dumbledore's own beliefs, his genuine concern for Harry's 
happiness and well-being would have been better served by 
telling him everything.

What led Dumbledore astray was empathy. With hindsight, 
Dumbledore sees that he took so much delight in Harry's  
feelings of triumph that he kept telling himself that Harry wasn't 
ready to know the truth.  

And Harry did need to know. It was because Harry didn't know 
about the Prophecy that he fell into the Dark Lord's trap. If Harry 
had known about the Prophecy, he would have realized 
Voldemort was lying ("I can not touch it.....but you can") and he 
never would have gone to the Ministry, or he would have gone 
more warily. Whether as weapon or individual, Harry cannot 
afford to know less about his situation that Voldemort does.

It seems to me that JKR is exploring the relationship between 
empathy and compassion. She sees the ability to show 
compassion, to care  about the suffering of  strangers as our 
ultimate strength, and the power that Voldemort knows not. We 
develop this power through empathy: our ability to identify with 
other people's feelings. 

Since Voldemort denies empathy, he knows nothing of 
compassion at all. But Voldemort understands that those who 
feel empathy have a weakness. It is  easiest to empathize with 
people  who are similar to ourselves. Indifference towards the 
suffering of others leads to injustice, and thus to a sense of 
injury that Voldemort is all too ready to exploit.

Pippin