Slytherin House again. Was: Re: Problem with OotP? (was: Pampering)

[ginnysthe1]

No: HPFGUIDX 119179


Pippin wrote:
<snip> Assuming Hogwarts worked then as it does now, the
founders were willing to teach Slytherin students, and to have
their students taught by Slytherin himself. I am saying that the
other three founders did not find Slytherin's professed ethics or
his criteria for selecting students abhorrent, nor by and large
does the wizarding world today.

Kim here:
Pippin, are you sure that the other founders didn't find Slytherin's 
ethics abhorrent, despite the fact that the current Hogwarts admin. 
still maintains a Slytherin House?  Apparently there was enough of a 
rift between Slytherin and the other 3 founders that Slytherin saw 
fit to leave the school, and not only that, to leave behind the 
deadly Chamber of Secrets and its muggleborn-killing monster.

Pippin continued:
Historically, the theories which became the foundation of today's
racist ideologies were not invented to justify racial
discrimination. They were invented by people with no concept of
social or genetic change as part of the legitimate attempt to
explain how people in different parts of the world could be so
physically and culturally different.

Kim here:
Were you referring to "the foundation of today's racist ideologies" 
as in the real world? If so, I guess I disagree with what you're 
saying, but maybe that's an off-topic discussion?

Pippin wrote:
The wizards, at least those who are isolated from the Muggle
world, are in the same situation. To them, theories of racial
inferiority or degeneration may well seem something about
which people of good will can disagree, just as people in my
country nowadays can disagree about the death penalty. Both
sides think their position is the moral one, but there are many
who wouldn't characterize the other side as "bad", just mistaken.

Kim here:
The problem I see with that is that racism and the death penalty (or 
their counterparts in the fictional WW) aren't just theories to be 
discussed and perhaps disagreed upon, but are life and death 
matters.  Granted though, they may not be life and death matters for 
the ones who have the wherewithal to engage in theoretical 
discussions about them.

Pippin wrote:
We haven't heard any adult except Hagrid denounce Slytherin
House as bad. IMO, if Dumbledore tried to do it, he would either
lose his position or the Slytherin parents would pull their children
out of school. All Dumbledore can legitimately do in a free
society is encourage independent thought and hope the
Slytherins will see for themselves that ultimately a mixed and
equal society is not only functional but stronger. Since they
respect independence and strength, the outlook is not
unhopeful, IMO.

Kim now:
I'd definitely agree with you there, except maybe for the last 
sentence.  I think it would be a bit too hopeful on DD's part if he 
thought that Slytherins as a whole would ever embrace the idea of a 
mixed and equal society.  There is of course hope for individual 
Slytherins.  It seems that the wizarding world (not to mention the 
real world) will always produce those who in each generation see 
themselves as "better" than others.  Unfortunately this may be a sad 
fact of life that has stood the test of many centuries.  I'm not sure 
wizard nature or human nature will ever progress to the point of 
total acceptance of the "other" until the living world has returned 
to its original state of primordial goo... and maybe not even then ;-)

Kim (who is obviously in a rather unhopeful mood)