Notification of prejudices

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 191545

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, sigurd at ... wrote:
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> ...
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> I can grant that, but find it hard to see that there was not one (Slytherin) who decided to break with the myth. That's still a problem. But on the other hand I can see your point, though I hope you see mine.
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> Otto
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Steve:

I think we too are caught up in some aspect of the Slytherin myth. Our view of Slytherin comes from Harry, and his view of Slytherin come primarily through Draco. 

Yes, Draco and his friends bully Harry, but how many other Slytherins do not. If we assume for purposes of illustration that there are about 100 Slytherins currently in school, then maybe 5 or a bit more are actually engage in harassing Harry. The rest are on-lookers. No they don't try to stop Draco and friends, but that is pretty common in school. Most kids are far far far more likely to stand-by rather than stand-up. 

Next, outside of school, how many Slytherins do we see. We see Slughorn, who seems to have a bit of an ego, but is otherwise benign. We see the Death Eaters but we would reasonably expect them to be bad. Yet of the total number of Slytherin in the wizard world, how many are full fledged Death Eaters. 

As to the great numbers that seem to come over to the DE side, how many are there because of coercion? How many are there because of intimidation? 

And more importantly, how many have simply fell for the 'party line'. Hitler, or even various political parties, have rhetoric. They rally the people to believe one thing with rationalized but logical sounding argument. Then of course, you need an enemy to rally against. Hitler rallied people against the Jew, and people enthusiastically believe his rhetoric. He presented ridiculous lies in a way that they could be believed. He won seemingly rational people over to a completely irrational and illogical side. I would suspect after the war, many Germans were baffled by how they were able to believe the most irrational and unbelievable things. 

The DE/Voldie do the same. They employ the standard propaganda tactics. First, you make people believe they are some how downtrodden and oppressed. Then you make them believe they are superior to everyone else, but outside forces are holding them down. Then you find an enemy, you demonized the outside forces, and rally the people against them. 

So, on this last point, once you convince people they are somehow oppressed, it is not that hard to convince them to blame that oppression on a perceived enemy. For Hitler it was the Jews. For the DE, it is the pureblood mania. Mixed mudbloods are ruining the world for the noble pure bloods. 

Conclusion; yes I'm sure there were some people who supported Voldemort because the fell for the propaganda. But, the 'party line' rarely plays out in real life. Far more than the reason for any given action, it becomes the excuse. The current USA Congress has all but abandon the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and justify it by claiming they are at war against terrorism. Now, I don't want to start a political side-discussion, simply illustrating that the current world governments are continuing to use the same tactics to rally the people to their side, the same tactics that Hitler and Voldemort used, and equally to an ultimately bad end. 

But, just as nearly every one fell for the party line, I'm sure there were a few who didn't. Many of us were very disappointed that JRK didn't make more of a point of mentioning Slytherins who returned for the final battle with Slughorn. We very much wanted some degree of redemption of Slytherin. She did say in a later interview that, yes, there were Slytherins among those who returned to fight against Voldemort. I just wish she had made that clearer in the books. 

As others have pointed out, Slytherins weren't really given the option to stay. But, apparently some did return to fight against Voldemort. Again, I wish that had been more clear in the books, but we work with what we have. 

Steve/bboyminn