House elves and some spoilers for Swordspoint WAS: realistic solutions

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 180870

> 
> Magpie:
> The only fundamental change is the way you say you see yourself. 
> Nothing has changed in Snorty's situation until her freedom is 
> actually granted for real.

Pippin:
No. Something has fundamentally changed if Snorty has the right to
her freedom if she wishes it. That's the kind of reform Hermione and 
Dumbledore would like to see. It's true they don't free Kreacher or
allow him to choose another master, but  though house elf slavery
was exploited to keep him  captive, it was not the purpose. 

No leader would allow valuable secrets to be passed to the enemy 
in wartime if he could help it,  whether the spy was free or unfree, 
adult or child, human or otherwise.   If I gave aid and comfort to
the enemy in wartime, or even looked like I might, I'd  probably  lose 
my freedom too. 

Marietta was branded and then obliviated.  Kreacher's lucky to have  
got off with house arrest.

I agree that "kind master" is subjective, but the reforms that
Dumbledore and Hermione were seeking would not be. If wizards 
face sanctions for freeing elves against their will or refusing to 
release them if they wish it, for needlessly endangering their lives 
or for allowing  them to punish themselves, if elves who reach 
old age or become too sick to work are provided for, it's going to be 
a very different WW. Even if elves won't take a tin sickle more in 
compensation than the room and board they  already get. 

Those rights will not free house elves from their enchantments,
but it will be clear that they are slaves to their enchantments and
their own natures, not to wizardkind.  Only then can the narrative
of dominance and servility  be replaced by one of mutual protection.


Kreacher will probably never  invoke his rights. But they'd still 
be meaningful. The right to divorce is not meaningless to me just
because I'm happily married and don't foresee using it myself. 
I don't live in a vacuum any more than Kreacher does. 

I've never heard of any slave-owning society in real life that allowed 
those kind of rights or freedoms to its slaves, and I can't imagine any 
RL slave-owner considering the HP books some kind of pro-slavery 
apology or tract.

There's a word for people who think slaves should be given freedom
on demand. It's "abolitionist."

Pippin