Dumbledore's judgment (WAS Hermione and 'Evil is a strong word')

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 166043

Betsy Hp:

> Something I've sort of set up in my head is that 
> Dumbledore has a bit of a block when it comes to 
> Slytherins. I'm not sure that I can point to any 
> explicit examples (though the infamous cup grab 
> in PS/SS is probably a good one), but it does seem 
> that Dumbledore sort of lets the Slytherins fall 
> through the cracks until he actually needs them. 
> (Young!Snape and Draco spring to mind.)

> And because Sirius comes from such a Slytherin 
> heavy family, perhaps it was easy for Dumbledore 
> to believe that blood told in the end. So he didn't 
> question as maybe he would have done for say, Lupin.

> One way this makes a sort of thematic sense to me, 
> is the House unity thing. I'm pretty sure we're 
> going to need the Houses unified for Voldemort to 
> be defeated. It seems like the Sorting Hat has been 
> giving this advice for ages. And it also seems like 
> Dumbledore failed to bring the Houses together. 
> Maybe because his own bias was too strong?

houyhnhnm:

I think it was "And now, Harry, let us step into the 
night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure." 
that really brought it home to me that Dumbledore was 
himself a Gryffindor.  I have been thinking about how 
that fact might have contributed to his failure to 
bring the houses together.

I think Dumbledore is a little like my parents and 
others of their generation who fought for desegregation, 
but could still say things that make you cringe today. 
("I don't see color.")  They deserve to be given credit 
for being in the moral vanguard of the times they lived 
in.  But they could only get so far along the road to 
enlightenment and it was up to the next generation to 
carry the torch further.

Dumbledore deserves credit for being the most 
progressive Wizard of his age and for having a vision 
of unity in diversity for the wizarding World.  But 
he has only gotten so far along the road.  Dumbledore 
cherishes unity among the houses as an intellectual 
ideal, but I don't think he is able to fully empathize 
with the worldviews that the other Houses symbolize.
Or at least accept the fact that they are as valid
as his own whether he can empathize with them or not.
  
Without being conscious of it, he stills sees the 
Gryffindorian into-the-teeth-of-the-storm, 
live-for-the-moment* style of being as the best 
way to be a Wizard. His way of dealing with students
and their problems may be fine for Gryffindors, but
not so good for students from other Houses.  (Like 
the way he dealt with the conflict between Snape 
and the Marauders)

I don't think he fully appreciates the Hufflepuff 
or Ravenclaw nature, either, but it is Slytherin that 
most respresents the Other.  I have puzzled and puzzled 
over Dumbledore's list of Slytherin virtues at the end 
of CoS.  "A certain disregard for the rules"?  Does 
that sound like any of the Slytherins we've seen?  
Does it not sound like almost all of the Gryffindors?  
It must be projection, pure and simple.

Maybe Sirius was a mixture of the two influences 
(because he was sorted into Gryffindor, but came 
from a Slytherin family) and that made him difficult 
for Dumbledore to "get".  

(*I like to think of Gryffindors as living in the moment, 
Slytherins in the past, Hufflepuffs in the future, and 
Ravenclaws in a world of their own.)