Face it, there is a reward for being nice (was Re: Sadistic Snape)

[lealess]

No: HPFGUIDX 140295

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> 
wrote:
> That is one of the bedrock principles of social and personal 
> interaction in the real world.  Nice people are forgiven for minor 
> failings, while the failings of mean people are held against them
> to the letter of the law and the rulebook.  Once again, if you want
> argument from justice, it isn't easy being nice and there is an 
> appropriate reward in the social world for people who make the 
> effort.  If mean people want the same consideration, they simply 
> have to try harder to reform their ways.  That may not hold water
> in a court of law or in a philosophical debate, but it holds plenty
> of water in the world of interactions and attitudes within which
> people move most of the time.

Frankly, in my world, it is the aggressive, obnoxious, stubborn, or
cut-throat people who get what they want, no matter how many people 
they walk on or how many falsehoods they tell.  It is the nice people 
who get dumped on or overlooked.  I've seen this in my family, in 
school, at work, in national politics...  I don't like it, but it is 
a fact.

And in the wizarding world, look at Dolores Umbridge.  She got quite 
far without being nice (though she wasn't quite a Stalin).  Umbridge 
was taken down thanks to kids, but she is still around, in some 
Ministry capacity presumably.  Meanwhile, nice Arthur Weasley is 
working in some anonymous position and getting attacked by snakes. 
His son, Percy, feels he has to distance himself from the father in 
order to succeed.

So... can I move to your world?

lealess