Hermione, House-elves and Centaurs

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 89140

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley" 
<dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:
> Despite her compliment to me, I want to only half-agree with 
Debbie 
> (89097).  I also want to disagree with Pippin (89121).
> 
> I agree that Hermione lacks crucial understanding of the elves 
and their desires and, indeed, lives by a different value system 
from  them (and the centaurs).
> 
> However, I believe that, in the values implicit in JKR's writing, 
> Hermione is fundamentally right about the house-elves: it's 
>merely  her strategy that's misconceived.

I think so too. Her heart is in the right place, but she's so blinded 
by her passion for justice that she doesn't use her head. She 
doesn't ask herself whether the strategy she has chosen is 
ethically or empirically sound, and she refuses to listen when 
she's told that it isn't. In that, IMO, she's a bit like Crouch Sr. 

Ron, in GoF, correctly perceives that Harry is being distant with 
him. But, beguiled by false logic, he never asks himself whether 
his deductions are consistent with his understanding of  Harry; 
he just assumes that Harry has changed.



> 
> My understanding is that in reality the same underlying value 
system is being applied across all species, but each species is 
blinded in a different way.  I think the Sorting Hat's message 
about house  unity can indeed be extrapolated to other species: 
in fact it is not  the position of elves and centaurs that is 
problematic for me in the  context of the series' ethics, but that of 
Dementors and other  apparently intrinsically dark beings.<

I would say that some of Rowling's creatures lack free will 
because they are projections  of the choices that humans (and 
other Beings) make. The grindylow is such a demon: malignant 
to  those who fear the water, but benign to the Merpeople who 
keep them as pets.

 In the Potterverse, the ability to choose is  constrained by one's 
nature. Our choices  show  what we are, but not everyone gets 
the same ones. We haven't seen a Dementor choose to be 
merciful; it may not be in their nature any more than it is in the 
Sphinx's.

 Because of Dobby, we know that freedom for House Elves is 
possible. Presumably Dobby was subject to the same 
brain-washing as the other Elves; how did he resist it? That's 
what Hermione should be trying to find out.

Pippin