Sirius and Prank again? Pranks, Bullies, Nerds, School

[eloise_herisson]

No: HPFGUIDX 130117

> bboyminn:
> To state the obvious, the more blame Snape holds, the less falls on
> Sirius, and conversely, the less blame that falls on Snape, the more
> blame falls on Sirius. But exactly how much fall where, we don't 
know.

Eloise:
I'm glad you said that because it defines exactly where we disagree. 
It's not obvious. See, I don't see blame in this sort of situation 
like a cake, where you can share it out so that the more one has, the 
less the other has. This is the kind of argument that tries to lessen 
the blame placed on a man who rapes a woman based on the fact that 
she should have known not to dress so provocatively or suggests that 
a battered wife is to blame for her own misfortunes by virtue of not 
leaving her husband. Crimes passionelles possibly aside, I personally 
don't think it has much validity.

In other words, if we were to make a visual representation of the 
blame, a pie chart would be inappropriate. Instead, a bar chart, 
showing Sirius' blame at 100% and Snape's at whatever percentage we 
thought his foolishness merited would be better.

As Alla pointed out, it is Snape's vulnerability to the suggestion 
that he should follow Lupin that leads him to fall for the trick. 
Sirius exploits that weakness, which IMHO makes what he did *worse*, 
not better.


bboyminn: 
> I would agree perhaps that Sirius was surely malicious in his 
intent,
> but he may have informed Snape in a way, as illustrated by my sample
> scenarios, in which he wasn't or at least tried not to be malicious 
in
> his actions. There is a difference. 

Eloise:
I'm afraid you've lost me there.

bboyminn:
However, that difference in no way
> excuses Sirius, and in no way makes him blameless. In all cases, for
> his intent, Sirius will alway share the blame. But again, without 
the
> details, we can't determine what degree of blame falls where. 
> 
> I can confidently say that all parties share blame, but the real
> question is how much?

Eloise;
As you say, Snape is responsible for his own actions. He may have 
been mind-bogglingly stupid for falling for the trick, but a trick, 
and a nasty one, is what it was. It was conceived (pace Pippin) 
solely by Sirius and the *blame* for it is his and his alone. The 
fact that he exploited Snape's weakness does not transfer blame from 
him. Snape couldn't have fallen for it if Sirius hadn't set it up.

bboyminn:
> I always found it very odd, when the jocks are picking on the nerds,
> there never seems to be a teacher around, but the minute a nerd
> retaliates and defends himself, the teacher seem to come flying out 
of
> the woodwork. Highschool has to be the strangest most disfunctional
> yet supported and encouraged social structure on earth. 

Eloise:
It's the nature of the beast; it doesn't just happen in high school. 
As a parent I observe that nine times out of ten it's the victim who 
draws attention to themselves by their retaliation and ends up being 
reprimanded, the original perpetrator having done whatever it was out 
of sight of any adult.

~Eloise