Power vs Morality (was LV never loved anyone)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 110353

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> Now I have another question to ask the psychologist in you : 
what
> makes people choose to be/do good or evil ?
> 
> I ask you that because I'm very confused as to whether Tom 
had any real incentive to become a good person. I'm not sure he 
ever truly realised that being good could be a goal in itself. I
don't 
think he saw his choices as being between good and evil. We 
know what he based his decisions on : power, not morality.
> 

I hope you don't mind my chucking my two knuts in here. I think 
this is where the choice between Gryffindor and Slytherin comes 
in. If Tom, seeking power, had chosen  Gryffindor (and there is 
power in Gryffindor, make no mistake) then he might have 
learned morality, even if compassion remained beyond him. 
Similarly if Harry had chosen Slytherin seeking acceptance (and 
he was offered that ) he would have learned to stifle his 
compassionate feelings.

But Houses aren't everything.  Snape,  a Slytherin,  has 
apparently chosen the side of morality even though he has no 
compassion to speak of--I think that's because he likes things 
predictable and he would rather live in a world  governed by laws 
than one governed by Voldemort's whims, even if Dumbledore's 
compassion makes him bend the rules in ways Snape doesn't 
"get". 

The Gryffindor Lupin is filled with compassion, and yet we have 
seen, in canon, all ESE! theories aside, that he has chosen  
repeatedly to do many things that he feels were morally  wrong. 

So I think the answer to Del's question, at least in the 
Potterverse, is that there are a lot of influences, but nothing  
*makes* the wizard characters be good or evil--it's a choice.  

Pippin