House Elves

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 180792

Mike Crudele wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/180756>:

<< She has learned that she can't improve the elves lot by freeing
them, but instead by eliminating the self-punishment aspect which, I
assume, was what wizards contributed to the house elf condition.
(Speculating - that assumption) >>

I agree that it's very important to lift the enchantment on the House
Elves and that is a long-term project. In the mean time, they can be
made to stop punishing themselves by ordering them not to punish
themselves. To the extent that their compulsion to punish themselves
is psychological rather than magical, they can have therapy and
support groups.

There seems to be some belief that House Elves can't use their great
magic powers except to fulfill their master's orders. Some humans and
perhaps some House Elves seem to think that that is part of the
enchantment on them. I think not -- Dobby, while still enslaved, did
bunches of strong magic on his own initiative and as an obstacle to
his master's goal.

However, we don't actually know what will happen if the enchantment on
House Elves is lifted. Perhaps they will turn back into the most
vicious and nasty of Goblins. I like to blame the wizards for
everything, and thus assume that it was wizards who captured and
enchanted the first House Elves (who may have been housework-loving
brownies or bloodthirsty Red Caps or something else before being
captured, maybe captive wizards who were crossed with dogs and
chimpanzees). 

But maybe it was Goblins who got fed up with the unprovoked murder and
biting of peaceful Goblins by one gang of intensely obnoxious Goblins
who joined together to capture the obnoxious ones and deliver them to
local wizards with the instructions "You may keep these Goblins as
slaves if you can keep them as slaves. If they annoy any of us Goblins
in the future, we will kill them."

If it's anything like that, once the enchantment is lifted, they won't
want to live in wizarding houses even if the wizards do the housework,
and wizards won't want them anywhere near.

Someone once suggested that the Old Elves were terribly violent beings
and almost wiped themselves out in wars and feuds. And after one
terrible battle, the only Old Elves left were one male and one female
from opposing sides. And they decided to make a peace treaty and get
married and continue the species of Elves. But when their second son
killed their first son in a quarrel, they figured the only way to
prevent their children from completing the suicide of the species was
to put an enchantment on all their descendants that they would live
with no goal but to serve a wizard family. I can't imagine what the
wizards had done to deserve this boon, but House Elves have their own
kind of logic.

Pippin wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/180769>:

<< His take was that Elves who don't want to serve wizards shouldn't
have to, but Elves who do want to serve wizards are well off. Hokey
changed his mind about that. Having a kind mistress didn't help her.>>

Hokey's problem was not that she was a House Elf nor that she was a
slave nor that wizarding law is wrong. 

Just as Tom Sr's parents' problem was not that they were rich Muggle
freemen and Hepzibah Smith's problem was not that she was a rich witch
freewoman and Morfin Gaunt's problem was not that he was a poor wizard
freeman. All of them's problem was that they were the victims of Tom
Jr's criminal acts which violated wizarding law and mostly violated
wizarding community standards.

If Hokey was a paid servant with every Sunday morning and Thursday
night and a solid fortnight once a year off, and freedom to quit her
job without notice, she still would have worked for Mistress Smith,
and Mistress Smith still would have been murdered, and Hokey been
framed for it, by Tom Jr.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/180772>:

<< still wondering what this glorious "freedom" to be imposed on the
House-Elves against their will would consist of >>

1) Freedom from being compelled to punish themselves. In the long
term, by removing the 'enchantment'. Possibly in the medium term by an
anti-self-punishment potion that needs to be invented, and by
psychotherapy and support groups. In the short term, by ordering them
not to hurt themselves.

2) Freedom from being abused. Laws must be passed AND enforced against
cruelty to House Elves. SPEW should have been WSPCHE, Wizarding
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to House Elves. SPCA/LA also has
programs in public schools for teaching children that animals have
feelings, too, which WSPCHE might want to emulate.

2.5) House Elves taken away from egregiously abusive employers would
feel the same as children taken away from egregiously abusive parents
-- that they are the ones being punished, not the masters/parents.
This is a bad thing, which WSPCHE should have a rehabilitation
(brainwashing and re-employment) program to help displaced House Elves
with.

3) Freedom to leave an unwanted employer and seek another. Of course,
it's only fair that the employer would have the right to sack an
unwanted House Elf and seek another. Some House Elves might have to
swallow their pride and work in a modern tract house or a condo. Some
wizards might have to swallow their pride and actually PAY the House
Elf. To make sure that both House Elves and wizards know their rights
and duties, a law that both must sign an employment contract. Yes, the
law intrudes between House Elves and wizards who have lived together
happily for decades, forcing them to sign some stupid contract.

I don't intend that 1, 2, and 3 mean chronological order. All must be
pursued immediately. Perhaps some wizards can be persuaded to order
their House Elves not to punish themselves, and even persuaded to
present their House Elves with an employment contract and some kind of
clothes in a bag with an explanation that I don't give you these
clothes now, I put them over here and I give them to you any time you
want them in the future. Most won't do anything of the kind until it
is required by a law that is enforced. It will be easier to explain
the employment contract to the House Elf if it can be blamed on a new law.

3.5) Can we rely on the free market to spontaneously generate a House
Elf employment agency? An 'Elves Seeking Houses' section of classified
ads in Witch Weekly? A particular bulletin board in Hogsmead where
wizards post House Elf Wanted notices?

4) At first, most House Elves would stay where they are. As the idea
of leaving an unwanted employer became more common, some House Elves
might decide to leave and go into business for themselves, such as
running a hotel or restaurant or laundry. Or an employment agency for
other House Elves.  This might require laws to come into sync with
reality about House Elves having property rights and so on. Maybe the
House Elves would rather start their own Credit Union than do their
banking with Goblins. 

5) Eventually, WSPCHE should gracefully retire, replaced by the House
Elf Self Help Association.

6) Maybe some House Elves eventually will want to pursue entirely
different careers, as curse-breakers and potioneers and Healers and
joke manufacturers and book publishers. Maybe someday they'll drift so
far from domestic work that more of them hire wizards as domestic
servants than are hired by wizards as domestic servants. 

Pippin wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/180783>:

<< never tire of Kreacher's ways nor fail to support him if he becomes
too old or sick to work? >>

Do we know anything about whether House Elves ever become too old or
sick to work? There was Sirius's remark about his relative who started
the Black family custom of beheading House Elves when they got too
weak to carry a tea tray, but it has been pointed out to me that maybe
as soon as House Elves get too feeble to work, they lie down and die
from grief, and all the Blacks did was to cut off and taxiderm the
heads of already dead Elves.

My lack of knowledge about House Elf old age is why I didn't mention
House Elf old age pensions in my reply to Carol. There could be
requirements for employers to pay into a pension fund while the Elf
works for them, or the Elf could save for retirement from his pay. If
House Elves do have a feeble old age, I imagine that traditionally,
they remain in the house (perhaps in a hidden place) and are cared for
by the next House Elf, usually a descendant. (Does Kreachy have any
descendants?) That's another business some independent House Elf might
start some day: board and care homes for elderly House Elves. 

<< And yet if Sirius had not owned a House Elf, he would probably be
alive, and Harry would still have a godfather. Until House Elves are
allowed to choose their own masters and can decide on their own to
leave if they're unhappy, until they're allowed to be unhappy without
punishing themselves, until, in other words, they are free, they will
be a danger to the whole society. >>

I don't see how Kreachy being free to quit would have prevented this
problem. Unless you think, if he had been free, he would have left the
portrait of Mrs Black and gone to serve Miss Narcissa while Sirius was
still in Azkaban. Which raises an interesting question, if Dobby only
yearned for freedom because the Malfoys abused him so much, could
Lucius (with some assistance from Draco, and I can't see why Narcissa
would be sentimental enough to stop her men from abusing her old
family's House Elf) have abused Kreachy so much that he came to yearn
for freedom?

Because if Kreachy stayed with the portrait of his beloved Mrs Black
until Sirius came to live at 12 Grimmauld Place, then left because he
hated Sirius, he would have gone to Miss Narcissa and told her that
the blood traitor son who had broken Mistress's heart was back
violating Mistress's home as if he owned the place, just because he
did. Do you think Narcissa wouldn't send him back to spy on Sirius? Do
you think Sirius could keep him him from coming into the house and
eavesdropping even if he wasn't working there?