The Unforgivable Curses

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 95075

> Marianne wrote:
<snip> I believe what we were told  about the Aurors being given
permission to use the Unforgivables was as a way to defeat or capture
the DEs to bring them to justice, not to inflict punishment.  In a
time of war, this could have had great appeal to the public at large
in the sense that the "good guys" could now use the same powerful
weapons that the "bad guys" used with impunity. 
 
But, I agree there is a whole moral component to this that has not 
been fully discussed. Giving the Aurors permission to use these 
spells doesn't seem to have sit well with Mad-Eye. <snip>
> 
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan responded:
> I wonder if what troubled Mad-Eye (and perhaps others who didn't 
> want the Aurors to use the Unforgivables) is the notion of 
> *desensitization*.  Kind of like in the RW, the concern over masses 
> of young people being sent off to war to kill others.  Do enough 
> killing, you might become desensitized to it.  I'm not arguing 
> that's true; I'm arguing that might be a concern of some.  I'd think 
> this might especially be the concern in the WW, where it appears 
> that there must be some level of intent or desire to harm or hurt in 
> order to properly utilize an Unforgivable.  Maybe some are concerned 
> that if the Good Guys use the Unforgivables enough, they'll either 
> come to the place where they begin to feel it's no big deal to use 
> them...or even that they might begin to get off on the power of 
> using them.

Carol:
Or, possibly, in order to master the spells and use them effectively,
you have to be desensitized already. It doesn't hurt to be a sadist
like Bellatrix, but perhaps cold indifference to life and pain is just
as effective. Note that the DEs seem to have specialties, as indicated
by Karkaroff's testimony: those to whom killing comes most easily
specialize in murder, those who enjoy inflicting pain specialize in
the Crucio, those who prefer to manipulate minds specialize in the
Imperius Curse. But all of them, IMO, had to practice these curses in
order to master them. 

Even the nineteen-year-old Barty Jr., who seems so pathetic in the
Pensieve scene, would have had to develop this mentality to
successfully Crucio the Longbottoms (and perform the other
Unforgiveables twelve years later despite having been in Azkaban or
under his father's Imperius Curse for most of that time). The only
suffering to which young Barty Crouch was not indifferent was his own.

IMO, the DEs who did LV's dirty work--and any Aurors who performed the
Unforgiveable Curses to bring the DEs to justice--would have had to
cultivate that same "no big deal" mentality to make the spells
effective. I wondr whether Sirius, with his years in Azkaban and his
single-minded desire for vengeance against Peter Pettigrew, could have
cast an effective AK, despite being motivated primarily by longterm
"righteous anger." If so, (IMO) it's well for him, in terms of his
moral or spiritual welfare, that Harry stopped him.

Carol, who seems to have become addicted to this thread