Snape's punishment a "moral" issue? Was "Two Scenes..."

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 144114


> Alla:
> 
> This is a WONDERFUL example, Pippin as to how Snape's redemption 
> could be done.
> 
> Don't you see? Slughorn says one KEY word (IMO anyway) - I am 
> ASHAMED of what  this memory shows.
> 
> JKR does NOT have to write long pages of Snape apologizing to Harry. 
> ONE sentence - "I am sorry, I am ashamed of what I did" and that 
> would really be enough, anything else we could imagine easily.
> 
> Right now, for all the talk of Snape's remorse, I don't see any in 
> the text, you know?
> 
> Yeah, Dumbledore says it was Snape's remorse, but I want to hear it 
> from him.

Pippin:
The thing for me is that Harry tells Slughorn that his shame will be
cancelled out if he gives Harry the memory, or that's the way I read it.
You can certainly argue that Harry had no right at all to say such a
thing, but nevertheless he did. And I think that if Dumbledore held
out such a pardon to Snape, it is Harry's duty, as Dumbledore's man
to honor it.

> Alla:
> 
> 
> Besides, even though I don't need JKR's interviews to form this 
> opinion, she calls him a teacher who abuses his power. I think that 
> my opinion has at least some support.

Pippin:
I feel there's a big difference between 'abusing power' and 'child abuse.'
Abusing power is just unethical -- it could be anything from Lupin toasting
a Gryffindor victory right on up to the worst of Voldemort's atrocities.
I am not for a moment saying that they are moral equivalents, and neither,
I am sure, would JKR.

JKR's context was that children could recognize the abuse of power when
it was tied to cruelty. She illustrates this very well in the text, when Ron
and Hermione differ violently about the situation of the House Elves.
Ron can't see that there's anything wrong with House Elf slavery, because
most  elves aren't unhappy with the status quo. But Ron and Hermione unite
at once in recognizing that Crouch abused his power by throwing Sirius
into Azkaban without a trial, because they can see that it was cruel.

JKR does it again in the scene with the Dursleys and DD. Dudley 
doesn't see that his parents have abused their power over him, because to 
him, they've never been cruel.

However, 'child abuse' is a crime  -- in fact in my state Lupinlore's
second scenario would be illegal and Minerva, as headmistress,  would be 
in big trouble if she sacked a suspected child abuser and didn't report him. 


To me, there's a trade-off when you make something a social responsibility.
When you enlist the help of your fellow beings to enforce a standard of 
right and wrong, you are supposed to  surrender the privelege, literally 
the 'private law' , of being sole arbiter. That Snape doesn't do that, 
that he takes House Points for doing things that offend only him, is one of 
chief ways he abuses his power. 


Pippin