L.V Sympathy!! .... or Sympathy for the Devil

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 179804

---  "logistis_20" <logistis_20 at ...> wrote:
>
> I see all of you in the times that talk about the dark lord 
> as the most terrible person.
> 
> I do not disagree with you in some point. But I believe that
> all that happened because he was truly trying to be someone.
> 
> He was been raised with no friends. Nobody loved him! And he
> tried to become someone!! So he made the Horcruxes! ... 
> nobody have done this before! He will be written in the books
> of history!!!
> 
> But he could not understand that with that he would not have
> feelings. Feelings come from our soul! That's happened in my 
>opinion.
> 
> Please forgive my English.
> 
> logistis_20
>

bboyminn:

To a limited extent I agree. In the following post I 
touched on 'Sympathy for Voldemort' -

"The Core of the Elder Wand and other new JKR explanations"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/179748

Which was a response to someone complaining that the author
did things that made Voldemort sympathetic.

But I think it is important not to confuse sympathy, 
explanation, and understanding with forgiveness. Just 
because I can explain what motivated a person to commit
a crime, doesn't automatically make that crime excusable.

Actions are a result of choices. I am frequently annoyed
by poor underprivileged people complaining about no one
giving them a change. But they are given many chances and
many resources to improve their lives that they simply don't
take. Education being the best example. 

And many people in the same or worse situations find a way to
work themselves out of poverty. The keyword being 'work'. 

So, while I have sympathy for Voldemort, while there are
explanations for who and what he was, those explanations
do not absolve him of his crimes. They help us understand
and pity him all the more, but he made choices and he
must stand up and face an accounting of the choices he
made. 

Voldemort, with his brilliance and magical talent, could 
have worked his way to a very prominent social, economic,
and political position in the wizard world. He could have 
had wealth, fame, and power. Yet, instead, rather than 
/earn/ wealth, fame, and power, he chose to try and take
it by force, and that choice was the source of his 
destruction.

The same is true of those who try to solve poverty by crime.
Their choices are the seeds of their destruction. 

So, while I understand and sympathize with Voldemort, and
can even find spiritual forgiveness for him in my heart,
I do not have social, legal, or moral forgiveness. He 
made choices and must face the consequences of those 
choices. In his case, an endless chain of bad choices
lead to his untimely death.

I feel sympath for Voldemort because I see how much he
could have been, if only he had made different choices.

Steve/bboyminn