Power of names and Tigana SPOILERS WAS : Re: DH reread CH 20

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 186758

> Pippin:
>  Look at it this way, suppose I am an official with a government, a government that has anti-Semitic tendencies which I have spent most of my life working against. I suspect  some fellow  named Madison of running a Ponzi scheme, and  I can't get anyone to believe me. Now in this very hypothetical case, I think  that a lot of his investors wouldn't care to do business with a Jew -- so what you are saying is, I should tell everyone that Madison's name used to be Madoff, right?
> 
> Wouldn't my political enemies use that as  ammunition? Wouldn't they claim that my actions show  that, hey, even I must agree  that being Jewish is a legitimate reason not to trust people?  

a_svirn:
Then again, once the bubble were burst and all those anti-Semitic investors, their children and grandchildren, their employees and families of those employees were broke, they would have even greater political ammunition against Jewish people. Wouldn't they? In fact it wouldn't be a stretch if they grabbed pitchforks and went after all Jews they could find, crooks or not. 

> Pippin:
> If anyone did avoid investing with Madison, not because he was a crook but because he was a Jew,  I'd have  helped  anti-Semites to profit from their anti-Semitism,   and at the same time I'd destroy  my own standing as a fighter against anti-Semitism. Maybe Madison's scheme would collapse a bit sooner than it would have anyway, but is that worth the harm I'd do by lending support to those who distrust Jews? 
> 
> And as Madison is a very plausible and conscienceless liar, he would surely convince many of his clients that I was making it up anyway, in which case I would have discredited myself for nothing. 
> 

a_svirn:
So what's your preferable solution to the problem would be? Let the crook run his Ponzi scheme, let anti-Semitic investors go bankrupt (and all the other investors as well)? Let the ineffectual government of which you are an official collapse in the face of public anger? I am not sure it would help Jewish people any. 

However, it wouldn't surprise me if Dumbledore did indeed think along those lines. He wasn't after all interested in the strong effective government. The weaker the Ministry was, the stronger was his position as a leader of his merry band of vigilantes. He certainly did nothing to help Scrimgeour, even though he too wanted to stop Voldemort.