Snape and the "Chosen One" Was: Nice vs. Good - Compassion

[leslie41]

No: HPFGUIDX 153608

> > Pippin:
> > In any case, silence does not equal approval. 

> Lupinlore: 
> I'm afraid it does.  Silence DOES imply consent, especially when 
the 
> one being silent could easily put a stop to the abuse.  And 
therein 
> the "epitome of goodness" once again sends a message that the 
abuse 
> of Harry Potter is a good thing of which he approves at least 
> tacitly.

Leslie41:

You seem to be the only one who thinks that silence = approval 
(speak up out there if I'm wrong).

I won't try to convince you on the question of abuse--I think that 
there's certainly enough evidence in canon for people to come to the 
conclusion that Snape, for example, is abusive.  There's also 
evidence in canon to support the idea that he's not.

In which case, to each his own.  You have your idea, and others have 
theirs.

But as for your repeated point that silence = some sort of tacit 
approval, there's really nowhere you can turn to in canon, or in 
real life, to support that statement.

People remain silent when others are abused for all sorts of reasons.
Lupin remained silent, staring at his book, while Snape was abused 
and humiliated, and Lupin was a *prefect*.  He didn't participate, 
and tried to stay out of it.  I certainly don't interpret that as 
Lupin "approving."  

Snape's teaching strategies are old news.  I don't think Dumbledore 
is in the dark about them at all.  He simply doesn't consider them 
abusive.  And if he doesn't consider them abusive, how can you 
accuse him of condoning abuse?  Being wrongheaded about the nature 
of abuse, maybe, but condoning it?  How can one condone abuse when 
one doesn't even believe it exists?   

Now if you want to state that Dumbledore is wrong about what Snape 
does qualifying as "abuse," that's a different story.  But then we 
go back to the argument of whether or not it's abusive, and we all 
have pretty settled opinions about that. But Dumbledore cannot 
possibly be said to condone an "abuse" he doesn't even recognize 
exists.  

One parent, for example, may condone spanking as a form of 
discipline, while another may not.  What you're suggesting is akin 
to suggesting that a mother who allows her husband to spank her 
offspring is condoning the abuse of their own children.

She's not, because she doesn't think it's abuse.  Whether or not it 
IS abuse is a different story.

And as with Snape's treatment of his students, we all have different 
ideas, I'm sure, about that as well.