Whose side are we on?? (was: Arthur right or not? ( was Hate crimes (was Re: muggle baiting v

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 155964


>   ****Katie replies:****
>   Ok...trying to remain coherent...Why are we picking apart things 
like practical jokes and such when LV has killed god knows how many 
people, his DE's torment and endanger people every day...I mean, the 
bad guys' actions are so obviously much worse than anything anyone 
on *our* side has done...why is it even debatable?

Magpie:
Because it's very important, imo, that ethics don't begin and end 
with finding somebody worse and leaving it at that.  One doesn't 
have to only ever praise the good side or take a vow of silence on 
anything questionable in order to keep onesself from forgetting that 
mass murder and genocide are bad.  Besides which, the good side is 
the side we're mostly reading about so of course we're going to talk 
more about their actions.  We tend to talk about the more 
interestingly presented characters, which means usually little talk 
about Voldemort and more talk about Harry and his friends, and Snape 
and Draco.  

And also--this seems to be a big part of the story.  I honestly 
don't understand how you can talk about the last few books 
especially while sticking to the idea that everything the Trio and 
their friends do is good and Slytherins are bad so we hate them.  It 
seems like ignoring everything interesting about all these 
characters and the way JKR keeps lulling us into an easy sense of 
how people are and then throwing in a curve ball to shake us up. 
Maybe it's just a personal thing, but to me it seems to suggest more 
insecurity about the heroes if their flaws can't be examined.  If 
the Twins don't come out totally angelic upon closer inspection, 
maybe it's because they were never written that way to begin with.

-m