The permanent problem with Slytherin House

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 99273

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
> Neil:
> > I used to not think that the blood issue was so major in the 
> > Potterverse, but I'm more and more convinced that it *is* the 
> > driving ideology of the current conflict--and what it will take 
is, 
> > in part, Slytherins willing to repudiate the ideology of their 
> > House. 
> > 
> > Slytherin House must cease to exist. :)
> 
> What if the problem isn't racism  but paranoia, and racism is just 
> the expression of it? Old Slytherin's power-hungriness is typical 
> paranoid behavior. If you're paranoid you can't feel safe in any 
> situation where others have power over you.
> 
<snip> 
> In all dysfunctional situations there's some enabling going on. 
> I'm sure it's very convenient for the other houses to have the kids 
> with paranoid tendencies gravitate to Slytherin. Racist and 
> paranoid attitudes are formed very early in life. If Slytherin were 
> abolished, the other Houses would have to take their share of 
> the "problem children".
> 

As seen - over and over again - in history, there is a huge different 
in outcome between spontaneous, "naturally" occuring bouts of 
xenophobia, and an ideologically rationalized, justified and 
institutionalized prejudice. 

People can do various things with impulses towards defensive anger 
and aggression. They can vent it on a random selection of victims; 
they can sublimate it via symbolic expression; they can even become 
aware, through reflexion, of their tendencies and *not* act on them. 

A hate ideology doesn't leave room for any of these other options; it 
doesn't leave room for people to change their attitudes, through 
experience, to the feared/hated minority. It also turns a gut impulse 
into a political issue, with factions for and against it. Which 
further insinuates it into various political agendas, not to mention 
peoples' minds. 

So, I fully agree that in so far as Slytherin house is based on 
racial ideology, it should be dismantled.


Naama, in full writing mode today