[HPforGrownups] Re: Notes on Literary uses of magic - Anarchy

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 168009

> bboyminn:
>
> Yes, but let us not lose sight of the moral aspect. Harry
> and the gang disregard the rules when the rules have an
> absolute need to be disregarded. They follow a higher
> moral purpose.
>
> When a kid disobeys his parents, it's usually not to
> pursue some higher moral purpose, it simply because they
> don't like the restrictions they have been given. In
> most cases Harry is not a bratty kid who isn't getting
> his way. He does TRY to obey the rules, thereby implying
> that he understands the general need for rules. But when
> lives are at stake and the rules have lost their moral
> focus, then it is time to act and the rules be damned.

Magpie:
Actually, while there's certainly examples of this, Harry is also perfectly 
capable of just not liking the restrictions, which is why he sneaks out to 
Hogsmeade. Most teenagers *do* think they have good reason for damning the 
rules when they break them. Harry always feels justified in breaking the 
rules, but then, what teenager doesn't when the rules are stupid or 
interfere with something he thinks is important? There's probably a rules 
about kids using Polyjuice, but Harry felt justified using it on Crabbe and 
Goyle.

We could look at that as Harry having a higher calling, but then, Crabbe and 
Goyle were innocent. If you go deeper you see the real reason for the 
rule--everybody doesn't become justified in using Polyjuice and spying just 
because there was a monster on the loose. Hermione's justification is quite 
slippery. She says: What's worse, making a complicated Potion or killing 
Muggleborns? It doesn't really describe the situation at all.

Really what we're talking about is saying every person decides what he does 
himself based on what he thinks is right...which comes down to not 
respecting rules for their own sake at all, or to following the rules as 
long as it doesn't interfere too much with what you want to do (which can 
have moral implications anywhere from "I ought to be able to go to 
Hogsmeade" to "I know Malfoy is guilty" to "We need to learn Defense Spells" 
to "I need to make Polyjuice" to "I need an edge in the TWT.") And of 
course, this doesn't mean that any of the people breaking rules feel the 
same way about other people breaking their rules.

And of course, through it all, Dumbledore makes it clear he's fine with a 
"certain disregard for rules." I've always gotten the impression that 
breaking rules for non-life-threatening reasons was smiled upon in canon, 
even if you're roaming around with a werewolf and people could be in danger. 
It's not like Tolkien, for instance, where people don't break rules lightly, 
and are praised for it *only* if there was a true higher moral reason. Being 
too bound to rules seems a consistent character flaw in Rowling's universe. 
Hermione's love of rules is shallow and not based on any deep understanding 
of the reasons for the rules...which is why she pretty consistently breaks 
them. When it comes down to it, she wants to decide what's right and wrong 
to do--and ironically, she often feels like she should be able to decide it 
for other people as well. Lealess touched on that in mentioning how dissent 
is tolerated in the DA. I would have found that organization quite 
domineering if I were in it, and objected to the very idea that it needed 
some sort of leader or personal loyalty to Harry. So while I see that these 
characters don't hold rigidly to rules in terms of following them, compared 
to the people I hang around with they're actually a lot more authoritative 
and demanding of conforming.

BetsyHp:
 "Because I said so" is kind of
Dumbledore's modus operandi, and his people can be very violent
against those that ask why.

Magpie:
Yup, it's kind of the classic fantasy set up where the best leader is a 
single person whose judgement everyone else can depend on. And by now I'm 
pretty used to Harry's group considering challenges from outsiders to be 
wrong. (Even insider challenges can be put down.)

-m