Scapegoating Slytherin (was:Punishing Draco ) LONGish

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 144009

> Jen: 
> > What I'm trying to understand is why at the founding of 
Hogwarts, 
> > the other three founders did not outright reject Slytherin's 
wish 
> to 
> > "teach those whose ancestry is purest." (chap. 11. OOTP)
> 
> Alla:
> 
> I have no problem thinking of it as three friends trying to 
placate 
> another dear friend, especially of course since they all had the 
> criteria to choose their students. They were probably thinking - 
you 
> want to teach purebloods in your house, by all means does it as 
long 
> as muggleborns can get into other houses.
> 
> But when such friend went crazy and started insisting that 
> muggleborns should not be accepted to Hogwarts at all, then I 
> speculate other three had enough and discord started.
>

a_svirn:
Besides which, even if the other three founders were OK with 
Slytherin's beliefs and values, it doesn't mean that subsequent 
generations of wizards should. The founders all lived a thousand 
years ago, after all.  Views on what is right, what is wrong and 
what is permissible do change even within considerably lesser 
periods of time. Yet, the underlying principle of selection to 
Hogwarts houses – if the Hat to be believed – hasn't changed one 
jota. And – again, if the Hat to be believed – a patent-card 
Slytherin must be cunning, very ambitious and 
 bigoted, there is no 
way around this particular requirement. 
> 
> Jen:
> <SNIP>
> > Thinking about the state of the WW at the time of the founding 
of 
> > Hogwarts, when active persecution was taking place and witches 
and 
> > wizards were an oppressed minority, I do think it's possible 
that 
> > Slytherin's initial ideas about pure ancestry had more to do 
with 
> > saving an importance race and culture from extinction rather 
than 
> > the pure-blood ideology present in the current WW. And the other 
> > founders may have shared that fear, although not to the same 
> extent. 
> > But then Slytherin's fears may have turned into an obsession 
with 
> > blood superiority, causing the rift with the others.

a_svirn:
Binns words don't really tally with everything else we know of the 
muggle and wizarding history. But even supposing he's right and your 
version of the events is true, I don't see how it matters for the 
present situation. It may *explain* it but it by no means *excuses* 
it. There was a time when no student of other religious persuasion 
than Anglicanism was allowed to Oxford and no women were admitted 
until 1920. There were perfectly understandable reasons for this 
sate of affairs too. So what? If anyone rejects an application on 
these grounds *now* it would be devil to pay for them. In Hogwarts, 
however, students are sorted according to the same principles as 
they were a thousand years ago.