House elves and some spoilers for Swordspoint WAS: realistic solutions

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 180849

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214"
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> a_svirn:
> <SNIP>
> > When you say that this definition of slavery is incomplete, you imply
> > that it is possible to owned and be subject to other people' will
> > without being a slave. I'd really like to know how this state is
> > called, however.
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> NO, I did not say so. I said so many many many times during this 
> thread that in *our culture* it is called slavery.
>
Carol responds:

In support of Alla, the definition of "slave," according to
Merriam-Webster, which defines English words as they are used by
Americans, some of whose ancestors formerly approved of or even
practiced slavery while others actually were enslaved (FWIW, my
distant ancestors include a freed slave and his parents, a slave with
no last name and her white owner) is "a *person* person held in
servitude as the chattel of another." "Person" is defined as "human
individual." As Ron reminds Hermione, House-Elves aren't human.

As Susan McGee pointed out, many American slaves ran away or rebelled
against slavery. Why? Because they were mistreated and/or because they
believed in the fundamental right of human beings to be free, even if
freedom meant starving to death or working for pitiful wages under
harsh conditions.

But House-Elves, Dobby excepted, don't want to run away, nor have we
ever heard of a House-Elf Rebellion to parallel all the Goblin
Rebellions that Professor Binns keeps attempting to drill into the
minds of his students. The only time we see the House-Elves up in
arms, it's the charge led by Kreacher against the DEs and Voldemort,
the bad masters that they don't want in charge of the school.
Obviously, like real slaves (human beings constrained to work for a
master against their will), House-Elves don't like being mistreated,
and the enchantment that keeps them from running away, like the one
that forces them to punish themselves if they disobey their masters,
ought to be lifted. But few House-Elves consider running away. If
Winky is at all typical, and I think she is since she spouts the same
sentiments as the Hogwarts House-Elves before she's "freed"
(afterwards, she just wants to return to her master), House-Elves
generally love their masters and are loyal to them even when they're
abused. (Kreacher rejects Sirius because Sirius rejects his mother;
his loyalty is to Regulus, the dutiful son, even before Regulus
sacrifices his life for him.)

IOW, House-elves love serving Wizards. They love housework. They often
love their masters, even if, by our standards, the masters are
unworthy. Their psychology is not that of human slaves, nor is their
nature that of human slaves, because they're not human. Nor are most
of them being held against their will, as SSS pointed out. And if a
slave is one human being kept in chattel by another, they are not slaves.

By all means, the WW should take measures to prevent the abuse of
House-Elves. But it would be futile and inhumane to attempt to change
their nature.

Carol, wishing that Bonky the House-Elf would organize my papers and
pay my bills and that he (or she) weren't wholly imaginary