On the trivial and the profound (was: On lying and cheating)

[jennifer]

No: HPFGUIDX 165452

Magpie wrote:
> > Let's try a different analogy. I'm running to get help for
> > someone choking to death. I jay walk across the street to get to
> > the doctor more quickly. I don't think anybody would say I was
> > doing a bad thing there. But of course I'm taking the easy way
> > instead of the 'right' way according to a law that says I'm not
> > supposed to jaywalk. <snip>
> > The next day, if I were going back to the doctor to get medicine
> > for the person, I'd cross at the corner even though I was still
> > going to the doctor to help someone else.
> >
> > Not that that analogy completely fits Harry, since his taking
> > the easy way in Potions is not like my crossing the street in the
> > middle.

Valky:
> Why isn't it? What is different about Harry's situation in your
> view?
> This looks to me like an excellent analogy of Harry's situation.
>
<snip>
>
> My point is this - Harry's life is not an exercise in crossing
> streets anymore, it's an exercise in saving lives per the prophecy.
> The easy way in your analogy is not to save that persons life at
> all, because it's impossible to lawfully cross the street
> efficiently from where you stand. That's what I would call choosing
> easy but not necessarily right. In the greater context of the other
> persons life, that's pettiness.


Valky, I want to take your analogy one step further and add a
personal experience to it. I was taking a class in swift water rescue
and the instructor threw Resusci Annie over the side of a bridge
and told the class to save her.  Instead of me going back a mile
and half up the road which would have been safer, I jumped off the
side of the bridge and saved my victim but I could have seriously
been hurt.  That is why I think Harry should have told someone about
the book.  In using the other instructions in the book he got a leg
up on everyone else in the class.  In OotP Harry is guilty of giving
several others a leg up.  Is that dishonest or was it for the
greater good?

Jennifer