Freedom for House-Elves (Was: Kreacher the Plot Device Elf)

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 162106

> Carol:
> I don't mind discussing their plight on an intellectual level, and 
it
> would be nice to know how the enchantment that binds a House-Elf 
to a
> single family works and who imposed it. I also think that the 
desire
> to serve humans is ingrained, as Dobby illustrates. He's a free
> House-Elf and he still *chooses* to serve and obey a human master,
> Harry. 

a_svirn:
Except that 
a)Harry is not his master, but his friend
b)"choose to obey" is an oxymoron – if you aren't compelled by a 
thing, person, agency,  or law to obey, that's not really an act of 
obedience. "Choose to obey" in fact means "do whatever I choose".
 
Moreover, he didn't even obey his masters when he was magically 
bound. His self-punishments are in fact acts of disobedience – he 
found a loophole in the enchantments and used it to disobey – 
whenever he chose. Which shows that his longing for freedom was 
stronger even than magical bonds. Freedom, after all, is first and 
foremost the freedom of choice. 

> Carol:
 Whatever the enchantment is, it was not what made the
> House-Elves want to serve people in the first place. 

a_svirn:
In that case why do humans need the enchantment at all? If house-
elves are slaves by nature why do humans need both magic *and* 
legislation to keep them enslaved? Kind of redundant. 

I don't understand what you mean when you say that desire to 
serve "ingrained". Only God Almighty or Nature Itself can ingrain 
anything in nature. But we know that elves weren't created as 
slaves, they were enslaved and kept enslaved by wizards. Therefore 
whatever it is that "ingrained" into them has been ingrained by 
wizards. Which rather suggests that "desire to serve" is not an 
instinct, but a feedback reaction. 

> Carol:
(Winky is also
> free of her enchantment, her obligation to serve the Crouches, once
> she's given clothes. But her nature, or her indoctrination, or 
both,
> make her want to serve them. 

a_svirn:
She is indoctrinated alright. She also loves them. That doesn't 
prove that anything is wrong with her "nature". It just shows what 
does it mean to be conditioned.

> Carol:
Kreacher is the only one still under any
> sort of compulsion to obey, and he openly resents and insults his
> master, but he would happily serve "the pureblood grand-nephew of
> [his] old mistress." No magic compels him to be loyal to the
> now-extinct Black family and its offshoots with other surnames. Its
> his choice. 

a_svirn:
So that's another case of conditioning and misplaced loyalty. 
However, his open rebellion proves that he is actually quite freedom-
loving. Slaves aren't supposed to choose their own masters.