Child Saviors and realism (was:Re: Harry's assumption VS Everyone's assumption)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 151782

> >>Alla:
> > <snip> 
> > Children who are going to save the world, do NOT to the best of 
> > my knowledge exist in RL :)...
> > <snip>
 
> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > Training up a child to take a position where she or he may 
> > have to "save the world" was once a real life endeavor.
> > <snip>

> >>Alla:
> Yes, I thought about famous people who did heroic things when I    
> sent my post too :)
> <snip>
> I am specifically talking about the child, on whose shoulders lies 
> the fate of the world.

Betsy Hp:
Me too. <g>  Harry is responsible for the British WW.  Alexander was 
responsible for the Greek world.  Elizabeth I was responsible for 
England.  All three were raised with an expectation (a hidden one on 
Harry's part, a hopeful one, I believe, on Elizabeth's part) that 
they would shoulder the burdens of their worlds as soon as they were 
able.

> >>Alla:
> Alexander the Great conquered the world  or a lot of the world 
> anyways, IMO he did not save it.

Betsy Hp:
Ah, it's the view point that becomes the crux, yes?  The Egyptians 
certainly saw Alexander as their saviour.  As did those Greeks whose 
cities had been conquered by Persia.

Bellatrix would probably define Harry as a destroyer of worlds if 
she wrote the histories.

> >>a_svirn:
> Elisabeth I of England wasn't even supposed to be a queen let     
> along to save the world.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Yet, she was trained up to be a queen, taught things that ladies of 
her class and station weren't taught in that day and age.  I think 
someone had their fingers crossed. <g>  And it could be argued that 
she did save England, or at least set it on the path to becoming the 
country it is today.  It's a matter of perspective, I think.

Yes, there hasn't been a child given the burden of saving the entire 
planet.  But King David was trained up from boyhood to take King 
Saul's place.  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle taught children with the 
idea that they'd in turn wisely rule the Greek world.

> >>Alla:
> <snip>
> So, while I absolutely agree that there are many real life        
> children who either started training for hard life ahead early or 
> did heroic things, I don't think that such children had task of   
> such magnitude, something so huge and obligatory. 
> Makes sense?
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
It does, and I'm probably just being argumentative (shocking, I know 
<g>) but in the age of stagecraft and hereditary rule, children 
*were* trained with the idea that they'd at least be responsible for 
their world.  And in the cases of a bad ruler, I think children were 
looked to as the next hope of various philosophers and teachers.  
Like Harry, the responsibility wasn't placed on the child's 
shoulders until they become adults.  But also like Harry, most of 
those children knew what they were being trained for.  So the shadow 
of the responsibility was there.  (Actually, the knowledge probably 
came sooner for them than it did for Harry.  Dumbledore expressed 
some modern sensibilities there. <g>)

Betsy Hp