Conflict, imposition, and morality

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 140570

> 
> Del replies:
> You're making a slight mistake, though: 
> respect of the privacy and the person of 
> superiors are not components of only one 
> moral code. They are integral parts of many 
> other moral codes that *do not* include 
> reciprocity to inferiors. In fact, they are 
> even part of LV's "moral code": he, as the 
> Lord, has the right to humiliate his 
> subordinates, torture them, invade their 
> privacy, and so on, but they don't have the 
> right to reciprocate, and they must always 
> show him respect. This is exactly how Snape 
> is acting towards LV: he always calls him 
> "the Dark Lord", for example, not 
> "You-Know-Who". He also tended to do that 
> with DD, shutting up when DD told him to, for 
> example, and always calling him in respectful 
> terms. So the facts that Snape reserves the 
> right to invade his students' privacy and to 
> disrespect them while at the same time 
> demanding that they respect his own privacy 
> and person are not at all incompatible. They 
> just show that Snape doesn't go with the 
> reciprocating-to-inferiors moral code, and 
> there's nothing inherently wrong with that.
> 


Of course there's something inherently wrong with that.  Moral wrong 
is by definition "inherently" wrong -- there is no other thing it can 
be.  Nor are all moral codes created equal -- in the Potterverse or 
any other.  It is the nature of being human to impose your moral code 
on others, whether that is what you think you are doing or not.  By 
definition, Snape thinks he is right and everyone else is wrong.  By 
definition, I think I'm right and everyone else is wrong.  But that 
does not mean that there is nothing inherently wrong with Snape's 
position.  From my position (and there is ONLY a personal position, 
there is no objective position on morality, including morality of 
relativism and/or tolerance) any position that does not agree with 
what I believe to be right is inherently wrong.  And everyone else in 
the world approaches morality in exactly the same way, whether they 
are willing to admit it or not.

Therefore the question of who is morally right with regard to Harry 
and Snape comes down to who most fits with your own code.  The one 
who does is inherently right.  The one who does not is inherently 
wrong.  That's just the way the world works, there is absolutely no 
other way it can be.  If JKR crafts an ending that upholds my moral 
code she is inherently in the right, if she does not she is 
inherently in the wrong.  That is the very nature of morality, it can 
be absolutely no other way.

Now, in the Potterverse this guarantees moral turmoil and conflict.  
In the real world this guarantees moral turmoil and conflict.  This 
is the nature of life.  The only way it will ever come to an end is 
for every single person who has ever lived to come to an end, or for 
God himself to make a ruling, or both.  Until then, the only thing 
anyone can do is sharpen their moral knives and wade into combat 
determined to defend and expand the empire of the right.


Lupinlore