The Cabinet Plan...again (was:Re: The UV (was ESE, DDM, OFH, or Grey?)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 162867

> >>a_svirn:
> You are the one who insists on regarding murder it as a matter of 
> heart.    
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Actually, that's Dumbledore, and through him, JKR I'm betting. <g>

> >>a_svirn:
> I only say that Draco intended, planed and executed murder. He was 
> unsuccessful, not that's hardly an excuse.

Betsy Hp:
It is enough of one for Dumbledore though.  And again, I think for 
JKR.

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > then so is Dumbledore, since he knowingly and willingly allowed   
> > an assassin into his school.  And while this does make for an    
> > interesting legal and philosophical discussion, I just don't     
> > think this is where JKR wants her readers to go.

> >>a_svirn:
> I can't help but go there. Because Dumbledore did allow an assassin 
> into his school. That's how he ended up dead.

Betsy Hp:
Oh, I totally understand.  It's an interesting discussion, I agree.  
But it's not one I think JKR planned on her readership having.  Or at 
least, not as a way to understand her characters.  Because it was 
*Dumbledore* making the decision to give Draco his head, I think 
we're supposed to see it as a good thing.

I do agree that a headmaster knowingly allowing a suspected assassin 
loose in his school, *especially* after a student is harmed, is 
folly.  So I think we're supposed to take this with the same grain of 
salt that we took with Harry going after the Stone with Dumbledore's 
implicit permission.

> >>Betsy Hp:
> <snip>
> > The mercy Dumbledore offers is a chance for Draco to realize his 
> > own true nature.  And Dumbledore *can* offer that. He's the only 
> > person in a position to atually offer Draco the opportunity.

> >>a_svirn:
> But if Draco is already not a killer, why he is need of this kind   
> of mercy? Nothing wrong with his nature, as far as Dumbledore 
> concerned, all that is needed is to provide for his safety. And    
> that of his family. Which is exactly what Dumbledore offered, by   
> the way.

Betsy Hp:
Because Draco doesn't actually *become* himself until he himself 
chooses to do so.  Choice is important.  And by taking the safety of 
Draco's family out of the equation, Dumbledore opens the door to 
Draco *making* the choice.  Whereas before Draco felt that he had 
none.  Draco had trapped himself in a cycle of "bad faith", as 
defined here:

http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/b.htm
"In the philosophy of Sartre, an effort to avoid anxiety by denying 
the full extent of one's own freedom. Bad faith, on this view, is an 
especially harmful variety of self-deception, since it forestalls 
authentic appropriation of responsibility for ourselves."

Dumbledore's mercy is expressed by showing Draco a way out of that 
self-deception.

Betsy Hp