"Morality" and "tolerance" in the HP books (Was: a sandwich)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 178857

> a_svirn:
> Then, what is the point of house elves? We sympathise with their 
> plight (impossible not to), we are repeatedly treated to the 
> discussion of the evils of their situation and for what? So that in 
> the end we would accept those evils as necessarily ones? Not only 
> it seems like a rather anticlimactic lesson from that great Gospel
> of Tolerance, I don't see where exactly the necessity really lies.
> If she invented natural slaves simply because they are very useful 
> creatures to own it's
 well, not very commendable. 


Jen: I read SPEW as not being about freeing the house elves so much 
as the Trio, particularly Hermione, learning about the cycles of 
social activism.  Hermione's attempts follow what is a fairly typical 
pattern for an activist in my own experience, moving from the truly 
idealistic attempt to free all the house elves by knitting hats, to 
smaller hopes for the freedom of a few elves such as Winky and 
Kreacher, to finally attempting to make some small change whenever 
possible for an elf experiencing injustice in front of her.  Raising 
awareness iow.  

The storyline read to me as saying it's always more moral to attempt 
to do something than nothing, especially when the deck is stacked 
against the activist and the one in need of advocacy. The house elves 
appear to have the deck stacked pretty far against them when it comes 
to people caring about them and their issues, particularly when 
Voldemort's in power.  Dumbledore attempting to make the truth known 
about Hokey was the only act depicted other than Hermione's attempts, 
so advocates were likely few and far between.  But Hermione trying 
anyway fits in with that idea in PS about "it will merely take 
someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next 
time..." (SS, chap. 17, p. 298)

I didn't read this particular storyline as having a set beginning and 
ending within the scope of the series because of the mutable nature 
of raising awareness.  The ripples can play out over time in 
unexpected ways, like Ron thinking about the house elves during the 
battle because he's been exposed to some of Hermione's ideas.  That 
type of changed thinking doesn't have an abrupt end like an action 
might imo.