Blood & predjudice... Reason or Excuse? You be the Judge.

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 150369

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "amiabledorsai"
<amiabledorsai at ...> wrote:
>
> sugaranddixie1 wrote:
> >
> > Starting with LV- ....  Acceptable to his followers because he 
> > renounced his father? Seems ironic to think of Lucius Malfoy 
> > in a organization headed by a half-muggle....  
> 
> <Snip> 
> 
> > So my point is this- How can the Malfoys profess to be so 
> > obsessed with people's bloodlines & still do the things they
> > do? The ultimate irony? The irrationality of prejudice? So 
> > few pure-bloods left that they'd be sitting home alone if 
> > they didn't bend the rules a bit? 
>   
> > Any thoughts?

> Amiable Dorsai:
> 
> Riddle's parentage was unknown when he reached Hogwarts. I doubt
> that he advertised it once he figured it out.
> 
> Besides, the pure-blood thing seems to be as much about culture
> and appearances as about reality.  A half-blood who "walks the 
> walk", like Snape, seems to be more acceptable to the bigots 
> than a pure-blood like Arthur Weasley, who does not.
> 
> ...
> 
> As to Snape, and others like him--imagine the pressures on a 
> young half-blood trying to pass as a pure-blood. The desire to
> appear "purer than pure" could explain the attraction of .. Death
> Eaters to a half-blood. Lucius Malfoy might welcome someone like
> Snape, believing that he could manipulate Snape all the more 
> easily by playing on his desire for acceptance by pure-bloods.
> 
> Amiable Dorsai
>

bboyminn:

The son of a King and a Commoner will alway be the son of a King. It
is a fact that will dominate his life. The point is that some aspects
of bloodlines hold more sway than others. In the Wizard world, even
though Merlin in known to them, they seem to put a great deal of stock
in the four founders of Hogwarts. These are their most prominent and
revered historical citizens. To be related to one of them is a fact
that, much like being decended from Kings and Queens, can't help but
dominate your life.

Further, while purity of blood is emphasized, I think /purifying/ of
blood is the key to understanding what is happening. There are few
pureblood families left now, and maintaining absolutely 'pure' blood
is extremely difficult, though not completely impossible. 

So, to some extent, I think Voldemort's philosophy is that his own
half-blood status is a afront to the good name of Slytherin. Voldemort
himself can not help or change the circumstances of his birth, but he
can do his best to make sure that the contamination that has crept
into the blood of the great wizarding families is erased in subsequent
generations. This is the /purifying/ of the blood aspect.

So, Voldemort gives great worth to the noble pureblood wizarding
families, and his propaganda is that they should reverse this trend,
purify the blood, and put the great noble wizard families back in
control of the world; put them back into the noble status they were
born to. 

With this slight shift in philosophy from purity of blood to purifying
of blood, Voldemort is able to justify his own existance, and can now
allow any 'repentant' half-blood/part-blood wizard into the fold. 

So, we have a two-fold approach. One, that the status of your birth is
not your fault. The Blood Contamination is something that was forced
on you by the corruption and betrayal of your immediate ancestors.
Yet, secondly, it is a problem that can be corrected by reconstructing
the wizard world into a pureblood Utopia where the rightfull noble
wizard families can rule, and blood can be purified. 

While Voldemort, in his own sick deranged way, does believe in the
nobility of wizard blood, it is both illusion and delusion. Much like
the extreme fanatical Muslims, Voldemort's extreme pureblood
philosophy is not the reason but the /excuse/ for his actions. 

Ever tyrant needs a scapegoat. For Hitler is was the Jews. Despite
many of the living in poverty, the Jew controlled all the money and
dominated the business world. Of course, we must overlook their hard
work and dedication. For the Fanatical Muslims, America is the cause
of every problem from the well going dry to the corns on a Muslims
feet. For Voldemort, it is the muggles, muggle-borns, and mixed blood
wizards. They are the cause of every problem in the world, because
conviniently, if they are the cause, then the poor innocent victimized
purebloods can't be blamed.

So, there is a framework in which noble half-bloods could rise to
power. Yet, that same framework could still be used to justify all the
 actions being taken regardless of how irrational those actions are.

It's pretty much standard tyrant fair.

Just a thought.

Steve/bboyminn