Perjury, Dumbledore, and Right v Easy once Again (Re: Percy.)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 166176

--- "eggplant107" <eggplant107 at ...> wrote:
>
> "justcarol67" <justcarol67@> wrote:
> 
> > Fudge announces the "disciplinary hearing"
> >(not trial, BTW) 

> Eggplant:
> 
> Fudge calls it a disciplinary hearing, Dumbledore 
> calls it a full criminal trial. Who are you going to 
> believe, fudge or Dumbledore? 

Fudge calls it a 'disciplinary hearing' because that is
what it is. Dumbledore calls is a 'criminal trial' to 
point out to Fudge the absurdity of wasting the entire
courts time on such a trivial matter. There was an
element of sacasm to Dumbledore's statement.

Fudge is clearly using the entire court as a means of
intimidating Harry, and within limits, it works. Harry
is scared, so scared that Fudge is able to cut off 
every statement Harry tries to make in his own defense.
Until Dumbledore arrives and takes control of the 
situation, Harry is clearly going to be intimidated
and railroaded into a conviction with little or no
chance to defend himself. Further as we see from
Fudge's actions, Fudge has every intent to ridicule 
and discount any defense Harry might manage to
squeeze in.

> Eggplant:
>
> So let's review, Harry (twice!) thinks about being 
> sentenced to Azkaban, AFTER that we learn it is a full
> criminal trial and he is being judged by the full 
> Wizengamot, something that is very rare; and yet you 
> think JKR expects her readers to believe Harry's fears 
> were overblown and the thought of Harry going to Azkaban
> never entered Percy's head. I don't buy it.   
> 

bboyminn:

No certainly you can't buy it in the framework you are
presenting it, but I don't think that is an accurate 
framework. Again, Fudge is trying to intimidate Harry
with the overwhelming /face/ of authority. Certainly,
Harry THINKS he MIGHT be sent to Azkaban, and in the
worst situation, any reasonable person would think the
worst. 

Further, I suspect if Fudge thought he could pull if off,
he might have even tried to send Harry to Azkaban. These
really aren't the fairest of trails by any standard. But
I think the rest of the court and the rest of the wizard
world would have been outraged by so harsh a sentence for
such a minor crime. Keep in mind that the muggle in 
question was Dudley who already knew about magic, the 
wizard world, Harry, and Harry's parents. There was no 
real breach of security here. 

So, Azkaban is a reasonable fear on Harry's part, but
it is not a reasonable or likely outcome of the actual
events.


> > Carol:
> > Percy, of course, simply takes notes. Fudge 

> Eggplant:
> 
> Yes, he was just following orders, but I would maintain
> it's imposable to read that chapter and not know exactly
> what side Percy is on. The man is evil.
> 
> Eggplant
>

bboyminn:

Without a doubt Percy is an annoying simpering sycophant
suck-up who deserves a swift kick in the *cough*cough*.
But Percy is doing what he thinks is right. He is not 
evil because he is not acting for the betterment of
preceived evil. 

Percy is siding with the existing authority. He is siding
with his government in the face of what is preceived to 
be a minor insurrection. Not wanting to get too political 
here, but that is exactly what our country did when Bush
started making a case for war. In bars and pubs up and 
down the country side, you could not speak a word against
the President for fear of reprisal, and understandably 
so, the people were rallying support for the elected 
authority, for the people who are in a position to know
things that ordinary citizens couldn't know. 

It doesn't matter if at this later date, those people, 
including the President, were right or wrong, the point 
is, in times of crisis, you support your government.
That is what I see Percy doing. He is supporting his 
government when it appears that outside influences are
trying to destablize that government. He supports his 
government and trusts them to have a accurate assessment
and to act wisely for the greater good. 

My purpose here is not to criticize Bush but to show the
universality of Percy's actions. Plus, how many other 
citizens are following Percy's lead and leaving it up
to the legitimate authority and elected government to
solve a problem that is too big for individual citizens
to solve on their own? 

Of course, anyone who is not so young and naive knows
better than to give absolute trust to a bunch of back-
stabbing self-serving bureaucrats. But on the other
hand, our government and the armies they control are
our only source of security. In times of crisis, not
matter how corrupt or incompetent they may be, they
are the only people we have to represent us, so we
stick by them, just as Percy is doing.

So, I flat out reject any claim that Percy is or will
become evil. Percy is misguided, and I have to hope he
will see that good citizens do not absolutely trust 
their government. They maintain a middle ground 
between absolute trust and complete anarchistic 
distrust. I have to hope that he will see that 
government represents the will and needs of the 
people, and it it up to the people to ensure that said
government represents the people fairly, and to further
understand that when government does not, it is up to
the people to force the government back in line with
the founding and guiding precepts of the community. 

Again, Percy is naive and misguided, but he is honestly
trying to do what he believes is right, but I trust that
at some point, he will gradually come to see that the
government is not automatically and universally the
sole purveyor of truth and wisdom in the wizard world,
and that it is the duty of each citizen to influence
the governement toward that objective. 

Just passing it along.

Steve/bboyminn