The Future of SPEW

[allura9703]

No: HPFGUIDX 126299


Lupinlore <bob.oliver at c...> wrote:
> It seems that most people feel that SPEW represents Hermione going
> overboard, and will provide her at least some comeuppance with 
> regard to always thinking her opinions are right and not realizing
> that other people/creatures see the world differently.
> <snip>
> 
> I suspect that if Hermione gets a comeuppance with SPEW (and I'm 
> not totally sure she will), it will be a purely tactical humiliation 
> having to do with her methods like leaving clothes lying around 
> randomly.  I doubt she is going to face any kind of re-evaluation 
> of her values or her overall strategy of working to free the elves.  
> In other words, I very, very much expect that her opinions will be 
> vindicated.  I really can't imagine that Hermione is ever going to 
> face some kind of lesson in cultural relativism in which she is 
> expected to accept the house-elf value system or come to think 
> that applying standards from the Muggle World is a bad policy.  


I don't think that SPEW is dead, but I do think that Hermione will 
have to re-adjust her thinking about SPEW.  

The problem is that Hermione was brought up in the Muggle world 
where people do not want to be enslaved.  She's forgetting, or 
ignoring that House Elves are not humans.  I don't think that they 
view themselves as slaves but that it is their duty to serve their 
master to the best of their abilities.  

Look at Dobby. While he likes being free does not want too much 
freedom.  In GoF, Dumbledore was prepared to pay him more with more 
time off but Dobby "beat him down" to a far lower wage and fewer 
days off and flat out tells Hermione that he does not want to too 
much.  Also even though Dobby is free, he still feels the need to 
punish himself for disobeying a direct order from Umbridge, when he 
warns Harry that she knows about the DA and is coming to get them in 
OOTP. Had Dobby been treated better by the Malfoys, I'm not 
convinces that he would have even wanted freedom.

Hermione has not even bothered to ask any of the House Elves if they 
want freedom, she just assumes that they do.  I don't like the fact 
that she is trying to trick them into becoming free by hiding the 
hats she knits. It's a very underhanded way to achieve your goal and 
Ron was right to unhide the clothes because it gives them a choice. 
It's very telling that none of the Hogwarts House Elves will clean 
Gryffindor Tower anymore because of what she is doing.  

Hermione is blinded by what she thinks is right.  And she will 
eventually learn that the way she is handling SPEW is wrong (and I 
do think its wrong to try to trick someone into something that they 
might not want).  SPEW is not dead; Hermione will learn that there 
are better ways to help someone attain freedom.

Allura