Academic dishonesty

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 139620

Combined answer: Eggplant, Lady Indigo, Eggplant again.

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Eggplant wrote, in message 139528:
"even if it was wrong to switch books it was certainly not VERY wrong,
and we can tell the difference because we have seen things that are
VERY wrong, like tying a 14 year old boy to a tombstone and torturing
him so badly he wanted to die, or animating a corpse to kill for you,
or making a child carve words into his hand, or murdering Dumbledore.
Right or wrong if I were Harry I am certain I would feel I had earned
that book, I would feel I deserved it. And if that's the worse thing
he does in his life then he's a saint."

Del replies:
What's the use of separating the world into Saints and Demons? Of
course what Harry did is much less wrong than what so many other
people did, but so what? That doesn't change the fact (IMO) that it
was wrong. 

With that kind of thinking, we could never condemn the petty thief who
steal a few thousands bucks from the old lady, because of the CEO who
stole millions. We could never condemn the little thug who beat up the
kid in school who had crossed him, because of the mass murderer who
killed dozens. In fact, we couldn't even condemn the mass murderer who
killed dozens because of the tyrant who killed thousands!

Completely pointless...

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Lady Indigo wrote, in message 139535:
"The instructions aren't *lousy*. They create the potion they're
supposed to create, just a weaker form of it or with some mild side
effects."

Del replies:
I don't think that's even the problem. The instructions do create the
potion all right, they are just not as *efficient*. 

To take a cooking example again: whipped cream. The book originally
said: "take liquid cream, whip until the right consistency". The HBP
added: "refrigerate the cream and the bowl for an hour beforehand, add
a pinch of salt and use an electric mixer" (or whatever the current
tricks to make whipped cream by hand are - I'm not a cook :-). By
following the original instructions, you do indeed have a chance of
making your own whipped cream, but it will require a lot of work and a
dose of luck. Using the additional instructions will make it a lot easier.

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Eggplant wrote, in message 139540:
"No, not entirely. Putting the blackest possible take on Harry
actions, far blacker than I think is justified, I can't come up with a
word stronger than "naughty" to descried it, but other members of this
group have used words like horrified, repulsed, appalled and
disgusted; words of that caliber I think should be reserved for things
like tying a very nice 14 year old boy to a tombstone and torturing
him so horribly he wants to die. That is horrifying repulsive
appalling and disgusting."


Del replies:
I personally remember using the terms "pretty
disgusted", and I have already explained that they
quite adequately describe how I feel about Harry
cheating. But I don't remember anyone using the words
"horrified", "repulsed" or "appalled".

Del