Dumbledores Philosophy (was MAGIC DISHWASHER...)

[B Arrowsmith]

No: HPFGUIDX 81639

Salit:

 >snip>
Oh please. He has met Tom Riddle. He was that kid who set the
basilisk on muggle-borns, who framed Hagrid, who possessed Ginny, who
so enjoyed seeing Harry bitten by the basilisk that he was going to
sit and watch him die slowly and painfully, who killed his family
just for the heck of it.

Tom Riddle *is* Voldemort. They are one and the same. It is not a
Star Wars like story where the evil guy has a good past. Tom Riddle
is inherently evil and therefore will have to be destroyed.
 >

Splendid!
Can't have this namby-pamby forgiveness ruining a good story; it'd be 
like Beowulf forgiving Grendel. Not feasible, not *satisfying*. IMO to 
finish a story like this you need retribution. The baddies must come to 
a well deserved and gory end. Lovely! evil punished, the  good  
triumphant; just as it should be. Sending Voldy off
for counseling to learn how to deal with  his aggression is not the 
optimum solution. It would be a version of the modern fashion of not 
requiring that a person be responsible for their actions, even to 
providing them with socially acceptable excuses.

To expand the subject further, I'm very suspicious about this 'love 
conquers all' theory too. Oh, I recognise it is a possibility, I just 
hope it doesn't go that way. It's the creed of  teenage romantics, the 
'happy ever after' brigade. OK, I'm a miserable old cynic, but love is 
not an all-purpose Band-aid, it's more like unstable nitroglycerine. 
Blows up in your  face when you least expect it. Just try wandering 
around telling everyone you love them, see what reaction you get. Last 
person to  try it came to an unfortunate end a couple of millennia 
back. Didn't seem to solve many of the worlds problems either; just 
added a few more.

I expect lots of chiding messages will wing my way saying I don't 
understand, that it solves all problems. Sorry, it doesn't. Loving your 
enemy does not change how he feels about you. He is still  your enemy, 
whether you want him to be or not. He has to *decide* to change, and he 
needs a good reason. Peace and love may  sound good, but a vanquished 
enemy may be even better, so  far as he is concerned. Sometimes  
forgiveness is the most unforgivable insult of all. It can be so 
patronising and demeaning.


Kneasy




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]