Banality of Evil (Was Umbridge's Motives at TBAY (Longish))

[Todd Callaway]

No: HPFGUIDX 89490

Sophierom wrote:
<snip> 
> If Dolores is firmly in the LV camp, then JKR has 
> reinforced the idea that the bad guys are really 
> bad and that the good guys are really good ... and 
> this just seems to easy, too black and white for
> some of the bigger issues she's dealing with in this
> series.  
<snip>
> But I think HP is more sophisticated than that.

<snip>
> But Umbridge is just so bad, so mean, so nasty, that 
> it would be really interesting, I think, if she were 
> working as an independent agent of sorts.  It seems too 
> easy, thematically, for her to be a Voldemort sidekick. 
> If Umbridge is working for her own sense of ambition at 
> the ministry, then it becomes the ruthless search for
> power for its own sake that is intrinsically bad; evil 
> is not limited to one particular person or group.


{cowjock begins here}
Emerging from lurking again....at least briefly.

I agree with Sophierom that Augstiana had a great post
with lots of great evidence.

However....

It would indeed seem to be a cop out to have DJU as a
DE, and too much of a caricature.

What DJU reminded me of was very simple...and again a
reference to Muggle War II...the banality of evil.

Most Germans during WWII were not particularly evil,
just functionaries or bureaucrats or
patriotic/nationalistic, but their adherance to rules,
and fighting against the chaos that would have
resulted from the fighting their own government
(support of MoM?),led them down the road to true evil.

DJU simply filling a role, being a "team player" as
she sees it, supporting the rightful government
against the "lies" of someone
who she sees as wanting this *wonderful* post of being
the leader of
the MoM (DD) and the actions of some snot-nose punk
"rock-star" teen.

She would have been filled with righteous indignation
at the *sheer nerve* of these people and taken action
to support the *right* people.  Thus the visit from
our friends of the doom and gloom patrol to Privet
Drive.

In this theory, what she did was evil, but her
motivations for it were not...simply tied to her job
and loyalties to what she sees as the good guys.  And
again, the mere banality of this action
actually assists the rise of the evil one (Lord
Thingy) that all in WW would be striving against.

Decent person making a bad choice....much as has been
argued recently as HP trying to break Belliatrix's
kneecaps.

Does it make DJU evil? No (at least not necessarily) 
Does it make HP evil? No.

And again, this does fit into the free will motif of
JKR, as well as providing a whole lot of gray to the
world, so it's not just white (Gryff and OotP) vs.
black (Slyth and Thingy's Crewe).

Most certainly a less satisfying conclusion than
either of the more popular theories, but somehow, it's
more real world, and it is also the simplest
explanation, Occham's Razor and such (I am a scientist
by profession after all, grin).

Thanks for listening to my input, we return to your
regularly scheduled programming....

Cowjock