Hagrid and Snape: Was Snape, Apologies, and Redemption

[leslie41]

No: HPFGUIDX 152803

  
> > Alla:
>  
> > That is why I am totally of the opinion that "nice"  ( NOT 
> > necessarily polite, but kind , GOOD to people around you) equals 
> > goodness in the general sense.
> 
> Potioncat:
> But it's very easy...or could be easy...to 'act' "nice" while not 
> being at all "good". Barty Crouch Jr, for example. He really 
> manipulated people. Personally, I'd rather be sneered at than 
> manipulated.
> 
> Snape is incredibly unpleasant, but he's shown that he'll come 
> through when things get tough. Some nice people in the series have 
> not been so loyal.

Leslie41:

Yes, exactly.  "Nice" is defined as "pleasant or pleasing or 
agreeable in nature or appearance".  Snape's not "nice".  He's most 
definitely unpleasant and disagreeable.  But the word "nice" has 
little meaning in a moral sense.  One can be very "nice" and not be 
good at all.        
 
For example:  I'm sure that if I met George Bush he'd be 
very "nice".  Amiable, friendly, pleasant.  Etc. etc. etc.  But that 
wouldn't convince me in the slightest that he's "good".  

All politicians aim to present themselves, at least in part, 
as "nice".  And they're always "nice" when you meet them.  But who 
among them is really "good"?  That's an entirely different story.  

"Nice" is easy.  "Good" is hard.