OOP: The unknown power

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 119242


Geoff wrote:
<Snip>
Which brings me back to a point I have been banging on about in the
past at various times. In English, we have not managed to cope with
the linguistic problems of the four Greek words which C.S Lewis
called the "Four Loves" - eros, philos, storge and agape. The
lifeboatmen I know personally go out because they feel a call - for
want of a better word - to go and help, save, rescue those who are in
a particular need. They do not "love" them in the sense of wanting to
have a physical relationship with them, they do not have the same
feelings towards them that they might have to family members but they
are fellow human beings who have a need which can be met by the
actions of these men who know that with the risks that they take on
some shouts, they might not come back.

This is the sort of love/compassion/sympathy/empathy which leads
people to jump into rivers to save drowning strangers; it is the
motivation behind folk who exchanged places with strangers in Nazi
death camps and went to the gas chambers in their place. It is also
the motivation which drove Lily to stand between Harry and Voldemort
and it is that same motivation which drives Harry to prepare to stand
up to Voldemort in PS when he thinks that Snape is getting the Stone
for him.
<snip>

Dungrollin replies:
You see, I'd disagree about lumping all those examples together.  
You mentioned it above – "they do not have the same feelings
towards them that they might have to family members". I think 
there's a very different motivation for Lily dying to save Harry 
than there is for someone to leap into a river to save a drowning 
stranger.  Plenty of people wouldn't save a drowning stranger, if
it were obvious that they may be paying with their life.  But how 
many mothers would say `Oh sure, kill the kid but not me'?  I
don't have any children, so I can't imagine what it would be
like; but I can imagine being far more willing to leap into a river 
to save a niece or nephew than a stranger.  You seem to me to be 
distinguishing between different kinds of love, yet insisting that 
they should all be treated the same.

This is exactly what I mean about the differences in our use of the 
word `love'.  If you mean compassion/empathy/sympathy, then I
think you should say `compassion/empathy/sympathy'.  To
include all of them under the catch-all of love is very Christian, 
but to my mind a misuse of the word.  Of course, if we were to 
eliminate acts of kindness caused by compassion, sympathy and 
empathy we would end up in a nightmare.  

And because we're never going to agree on the use of the 
word `love', what we mean by `sacrificial love' is
never going to be the same either.  

I think we might agree that Harry has a strong sense of 
responsibility to others, when others are in real danger 
(his `saving people thing').  You might call it love, but I
don't.  And it's not general, either, I couldn't see
Harry risking his neck to save Lucius Malfoy, for example. JKR may 
have alluded to sacrificial love in Lily's death (the paragraph,
now snipped, that you quoted previously), but she's never given
any reason to suppose that this kind of love fills Harry.  

Here are his reasons for going through the trapdoor, PS `Through
the Trapdoor'.

"SO WHAT?" Harry shouted.  "Don't you understand?  If
Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! 
Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take
over?  There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! 
He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts!  
Losing points doesn't matter any more, can't you see? 
D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if
Gryffindor win the House Cup?  If I get caught before I can get to 
the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait
for Vodemort to find me there. It's only dying a bit later than I
would have done, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side!
I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say
is going to stop me!  Voldemort killed my parents, rememeber?"

Sounds more to me like fear with a tinge of vengeance, than all-
consuming love.  And there's an explicit example of him being brave 
in the face of death.

If the power behind the door is what sent Harry off down the 
trapdoor in PS, why not call it courage?