[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione's a liberal

[Kathryn]

No: HPFGUIDX 125569


 
"Kathryn"  wrote:
 
> I would have said Stalinist Russia
> and National Socialist Germany were
> political systems rather than cultures
 
Eggplant

Your distinction eludes me. When every book, newspaper, magazine,
movie, song and even private conversations must conform to rigid
standards I would say that's rather more than politics.
 
Kathryn

You cannot simply impose rules on people and claim it is a culture. Culture
is created from the shared history, beliefs and influences of a people.
National Socialist Germany was a dictatorship based on the political ideals
of a certain group. They used their shared culture to try and convince
people to join them certainly. They used the shared cultureof the Germanic
peoples of Europe to try and increase their popularity but it was simply a
nationalistic political system created from the ashes of the German state
which remained after the First World War.  You appear to be American from
some of your comments so you could say that you and I have a shared culture
(I am British) we don't however live under the same political system and I
think I can say weith absolute certainty that we don't share the same
political beliefs.

Kathryn
> You say that many people have no
> respect for your culture, and
> that is their right
 
Eggplant

Right? It's not a question of right, it's not your right to feel the
force of gravity, it's just the way the way the world is.  You either
respect me or you don't, my wishes in the matter are irrelevant.

Kathryn

It's still a right - I have a right to live but unless I choose to throw
myself off a cliff I don't have much choice in that matter either.
 
Kathryn
 
> If Hermione somehow manages to force
> the House Elves to conform to her
> will (which is just as much slavery
> as the system they live under since
> she is refusing to allow them to
> exercise their own free will)
 
Eggplant

I agree, as I said before it was wrong of Hermione to try to trick the
Elves to become free.
 
Kathryn

But you didn't seem to be able to distinguish between respecting someone's
culture on a purely emotional/intellectual level and respecting it through
actions. It is Hermione's right to believe that the culture of the House
Elves is not worthy od respect but it is their right to expect her to
respect it by her actions. No one has the right to impose their culture or
system of beliefs on someone else, by doing so, and make no mistake that is
what Hermione is doing, unconsciously as it may be and absolutely with the
best of intentions, she is implying that they are somehow 'less' than she is
 Hermione is a perfect example of the type of person who in the nineteenth
century would travel to Africa or the Pacific Islands and try and 'civilize'
the natives by insisting they conform to the person in question's ideas of
morality and, usually, Christianity. Let's just hope that Hermione doesn't
meet the same sticky end that some of those missionaries came to!

> it's been a long time since I read
> the books what exactly was
> Kreacher's fate?
 
Eggplant
 
We don't yet know but if Harry has any say in the matter Kreacher's
fate will not be pretty.
 

 Kathryn

I couldn't remember if he was still at Grimmauld Place now that his master
(Sirius) was dead or if he had automatically gone to the next member of the
family still alive which would, I assume, be Narcissa.

K

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