The secrecy motif/magic & muggles

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 179986

   
>    
>   ***Katie: In my opinion, it's sloppy writing, too many plot devices 
without thinking about the consequences, and way, way too many
 interviews without guidance. 
>    
>    
>   I truly, truly do not believe that JKR meant for these racist and 
prejudicial belief systems to worm their way into the story, but she 
also never stopped to think what she was doing by creating a whole 
race of people who were genetically superior to another.

Pippin:
Genetically superior to people who can split the atom, travel to the moon,
wipe out whole species, and may yet make the whole world uninhabitable? 

They're genetically different, but superior? They think of themselves as 
superior. Harry finds them superior but not because of their power. 
They're superior because among them he doesn't feel like a freak.

The separation is not eugenic -- they do not benefit genetically
by breeding among themselves, much to the purebloods' dismay.

They're like the Amish or the deaf culture, IMO. They're separatist 
because their needs are different from the dominant culture's and
separatism is the most practical way to accommodate them.  
Naturally they like to  think their way of life is normal and the
dominant culture is weird. And just as Arthur seems foolish and
a bit dim as he marvels over plugs and wonders vaguely why
airplanes stay up, the Prime Minister seems foolish and a bit dim
as he tries to understand about Voldemort. 

It's a small step from there to feeling that Muggles really are dim,
can't be trusted to govern themselves, and should let wizards rule
the world for the greater good. 

Is there something attractive about bigotry? JKR says, well, yes, there is.
I think some people are scared of that message. But just
as there are attractive things about drug abuse, there is something
attractive about seeing people who are different from ourselves as 
inferior, and yet possessed of some sinister power. We don't do
ourselves a favor by denying that. 

The answer is not for people to stop being prejudiced, because 
our brains don't work that way. Our brains don't work by logic, they
work by pattern-matching, and they are innately biased to discard
any information that doesn't fit the pattern they want to see. 

The answer is not to erase all the differences between peoples. Our
biased brains need people who see things differently.  

The good Slytherins dance all through DH wearing a tea cozy. They
do every thing the Gryffindors do. They defy Voldemort. Slughorn comes
back and fights Voldemort, even though his own students are
safe, Regulus gives up his life to save a House Elf, Snape is more
loyal to Hogwarts and Dumbledore than Harry himself.  Yet none
of it carries the emotional weight to offset the pattern of Slytherin
selfishness established in the earlier books. So what we see,
unless we force ourselves to consider the facts very carefully, 
is desertion of the school by the Slytherins though the fact is they
were excluded from the DA, never offered the opportunity to 
join it,  and then forced as a class to leave the school, loyal or not.

You have to force yourself to discard the earlier pattern and see 
things otherwise and of course Rowling can't make you do that. 

She's going to show you just how hard it is. But there is, canon says, 
something you can do, something canon encourages you to do.
You can try to see the good in people. Even if they don't see
it in themselves,  even if they've wronged you repeatedly, even
if they're dead and can never make amends. 

When you've learned that, then you've really learned what JKR says
about tolerance, IMO. 

Katie:
>   As far as the relationship between Gryffs and Slyths - it's another 
regrettable decision that I think was rushed and not considered properly. 
I wish that had turned out differently.  I think the books would have been 
infinitely more powerful and would have come out with 
a profoundly different message if Slytherin and Gryffindor had
reconciled and become allies. Alas. 

Pippin:

Talk about soppy! And what use would it be for the real world? 
Hey kids, all differences between cultures are just superficial and
none of the issues that people have been fighting about for thousands
of years really matter.

In that case, why not let Voldemort win?

Pippin