Scapegoating Slytherin (was:Punishing Draco )

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 143978

> "nrenka" <nrenka at y...> wrote:
> To answer one objection up front: I'd love to see something which 
> very clearly demarcates "Slytherin philosophy" from "Death Eater 
> philosophy".  The practical side of Slytherin House is more 
tolerant 
> in some ways, accepting purebloods.  But Salazar Slytherin, 
> canonically, did only want to allow students into Hogwarts based on 
> their bloodlines.  

>And "nrenka" <nrenka at y...>  in an earlier post wrote:
>Actually, I think there *is* a greater propensity for evil in
>Slytherin House, plain and simple.

>I am not as sanguine as many readers in eliding out the blood factor,
>which seems to have faded from this whole consideration. But it's
>expurgation to do that. Whether for safety or general bias, the
>Sorting Hat and Binns both tell us about Slytherin's principles. The
>SH makes it pretty explicit, the valorization of bloodline. *None*
>of the other Founders discriminated on similar categories.

It seems to me we ought to make not two but three distinctions. Death 
Eater ideology (bad); Slytherin's ideology (I don't think we know 
enough about him, but will stipulate it was bad too); and the 
selection criteria and traditions of Slytherin House at Hogwarts.

This third, I think, is not necessarily bad at all. Where in canon 
does it say that Muggleborns cannot be Sorted into Slytherin House? 
The Sorting Hat sings three songs we hear. The criteria it gives in 
PS/SS are "Or perhaps in Slytherin/you'll find your real 
friends/those cunning folk use any means/to achieve their ends".
In GoF, we hear that "And power-hungry Slytherin/loved those of great 
ambition". Finally in OotP we have a song which tells us "For 
instance, Slytherin/Took only pureblood wizards/Of great cunning,just 
like him,".

Here we see three different criteria. Pureblood is only one of them. 
Given how many purebloods land in other houses, and how few 
purebloods there are supposed to be, I doubt this criterion plays too 
big a role. So most people selected in are there because of their 
ambition and/or their cunning, I would say. How this makes its 
members more disposed to evil is unclear to me.