Dumbledore's Trusting Nature

[mandorino222]

No: HPFGUIDX 146668

    

Carodave <carodave92 at y...> wrote:
>
> In re-reading HBP (US edition), I noticed a comment regarding 
> Dumbledore's trusting nature.  <snip> I can no longer find the 
> quote, but as I remember it, someone remarked that Dumbledore's 
> weakness is that he HAS to see the best in people.  Not that he 
> looks for the best, or would like to believe the best, but that
> he HAS to, which implies lack of choice in the matter.  Of 
> course, I could be reading into this based upon his continued 
> trust of Snape and Malfoy in the face of all evidence, but it
> struck me as an odd choice of wording.


"mandorino222":
I think that the point of that statement (said by Snape in chapter 
2) is to illustrate the difference between the empire building 
techniques employed by Dumbledore and Voldemort.  Voldemort, as 
Harry is told repeatedly, trusts/befriends no one, which gives no 
one the opportunity to betray him. Dumbledore, on the other hand, 
trust/befriends everyone, and hopes that the harm caused by 
occasionally trusting someone untrustworthy is not greater than 
the benefit gained by trusting all people.  Dumbledore HAS to 
believe the best of people because that's his ticket.  Once he 
starts to draw lines and cut people off, he undermines his own 
philosophy and becomes weaker as a result.  You can't fight evil 
with evil (see Barty Crouch).