Why should Harry be expected to listen to anyone at Hogwarts?

xcpublishing xcpublishing at yahoo.com
Tue Jan 25 18:40:42 UTC 2005


No: HPFGUIDX 123014


Julie replies:

>I think there is a difference between having or feeling respect for 
>someone and *treating* someone with respect. Harry doesn't have
>to feel respect for Snape to treat him with the respect due his 
>station.

I disagree.  I'm sure this has a lot to do with cultural differences 
as well as how you were raised, but titles mean nothing to me at 
all.  Teacher, supervisor, senator, president, king.  How can give 
respect to a title?  You can bestow a title on anyone or anything.  
Tomorrow I shall go out and call my car an Empress.  I shall bow down 
to it and bestow gifts upon it.  Does that mean my car is worthy of 
respect?  Of course not.  Just because a person is given (or is born 
into) a title does not in any way give that person more entitlement 
to respect than any schmo begging on a street corner.  If the titled 
person looks at me like a Malfoy and the schmo waves and bids me a 
good day, I'm going to have much more respect for the schmo because 
when all the happy titles are stripped away, we're all just humans 
and it is how we treat each other that should designate how much 
respect we're worthy of.  And the only "station" I have respect for 
is a gas station, because otherwise my royal car would not run.  Must 
keep Her Majesty happy.

>If you stoop to someone else's level, what are you
>proving, after all, except that you have the capacity to be
>an equally disrespectful person? (IMO, of course)

The golden rule only applies until someone spits on it.  Harry 
treated Snape with plenty of deference and respect in the beginning.  
Did Snape ever give an ounce of it to Harry?  Why continue to beat a 
dead horse, as they say?

Pippin writes:

>The respect is due to the position, not the individual. If Harry 
>believes that Snape is not qualified to teach, then he should 
>resign from the class.

The "position" is held by a person.  I think more students fear Snape 
than respect him, although I think it quite likely they respect his 
abilities.  I would love to see all the Griffindors get up and walk 
out of Snape's class.  Think he'd still be teaching?

Nicky Joe, off to purchase gifts of Turtle Wax for Her Majesty








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