Slytherins are bad (was:Re: Severus as friend)

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 183508

> Carol:
> BTW, the concept of blood superiority was thoroughly rooted in
> medieval culture both before and after the eleventh century and 
would
> have been as prevalent among Muggles as it probably was among 
Wizards.
> I would think that Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor were far 
more
> enlightened with regard to "bloodism" than the rank-and-file wizards
> of their time. Slytherin's attitude (setting aside the extremism of
> placing a Basilisk in a hidden chamber to kill "unworthy" students)
> was more typical of the time than theirs.

a_svirn:
Basically I agree with you (seriously, I do) except that it leads to 
another question, namely, why is the WW so medieval? Logically, the 
society whose very identity is based on a single talent is more 
likely to be meritocratic. 

> Carol: 
> Ask any medieval "prince of the blood" whether he would even think 
of
> marrying a commoner. (Well, not counting Edward IV, who married the
> widow of an enemy knight some 470 years later because she wouldn't
> yield her "virtue" to him otherwise.)

a_svirn:
Either that, or he was "bewitched". That was, incidentally, the 
version given in Richard III's Titulus Regius. Just another appalling 
example of muggle abuse. 

> Carol: 
> At any rate, the whole concept of equality despite birth and class 
and
> property and "blood" was foreign to the times in which the Founders
> lived, 

a_svirn:
So was the concept of gender equality, yet half of the founders were 
women. Obviously they were somewhat ahead of their times (though I 
have some doubts of Gryffindor, whose "values" are so wholly 
masculine).   

> Carol: 
so why should we expect tolerance among Wizards for those of
> "inferior" blood (Muggle-borns), especially when their Muggle 
kindred
> (or some of them) were busy trying to wipe out "sorcery" and 
equating
> it with the Black Arts and devil worship?

a_svirn:
Then again, there were times when Catholics, Non-conformists, Jews, 
etc. were banned from Oxford and Cambridge. Or women for that matter. 
Those times are long gone, however. And I find it baffling, that even 
after expelling Slytherin for his pronounced bigotry the rest of the 
founders and every headmaster(-mistress) ever since have ensured 
(through the Hat) that Slytherin House remained loyal to its founder 
ideas. 
a_svirn.