Morality and Harry Potter

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 191839



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "willsonteam" <willsonkmom at ...> wrote:
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> 
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> , "Steve" <bboyminn@> wrote:
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> > Many have argued that Harry was a nasty little boy who did nothing but flout the rules and get into trouble. ...
> 
> Potioncat:
> Many? Really?
> I can recall a number of threads that discussed rule breaking in general, sometimes Harry's specifically. Usually within a certain context but I'm not sure any list member really proposed Harry was a "nasty little boy who flouted rules."
> 
> ...
> 
> jmo, you know.
> Potioncat
>


Steve:

This has always bothered me, though I will say I don't deny people their opinions, but there is a group of people who very strongly believe in rules and conformity. They have riled against Harry as a nasty little rule breaker, and against the Twins as mean spirited viscous bullies. 

Now, I suspect, these are simply people who deeply believe in the rules as means of maintaining order in the world, and that if we were all rule breakers, it would be total anarchy. Which it probably would. 

However, they do not seem to realize that "the law is but the tyrants will". That there is a time and place for civil disobedience, and for breaking both the law and the rules. There really is a time, when the Death Eaters have infiltrated the government, that it is mandatory for the citizens to engage in civil unrest in order to restore, as an example, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, or the equivalent in the country in which you live. 

Bureaucracies and governments become corrupt. Their desire for order begins to override the rights of the individual and override a sense of what is truly right and just. 

But on the other hand, I can understand how democracy turns to tyranny when you are a few people charged with maintaining order in a school with 600 young wizards. I'm actually surprised that all the teachers haven't jumped out of windows in frustration by now. I do understand the very real need for the administrators of the school to keep a tight rein on things in order to hold chaos at bay. 

But I also think the habitual attitude of demanding ridged order blinds them to students who really do see a problem and/or have something to say. 

I think that is what Harry was fighting against in the school, adults who habitually favor order over truth and right. Though I don't think that is willful, I think it is habitual. It come from trying to keep 600 young wizards from descending into chaos and anarchy. It comes from a desperate and frustrating attempt to keep the inmates from taking over the asylum. 

I understand the staff on this issue.

But, more so, I understand Harry, which brings me back to the quote in the original post. Harry does what is morally right, even if it means flouting doing what he is told. 

McGonagall finds Harry and Ron at the entrance of the room that Fluffy was guarding and says (paraphrased) 'do you think two first years offer more protection than a pack of enchantments and the entire staff of Hogwarts?' 

And of course Harry's answer to himself is Yes, the game is corrupted, the enemy is within the gates, and he very much thinks the only hope is three first years, because only three first years believe that Snape is the enemy who has corrupted and compromised the protections. 

Of course we find that the compromising enemy is actually Quirrel, but they are right, inside knowledge has corrupted and compromised the protections. Something the other teachers absolutely do NOT want to hear. 

They have been in a desperate fight for order for so long, that order has become a higher priority that truth, or clear sighted objectiveness. 

They in a sense have become those who vehemently argue in this forum that Harry is a nasty rule breaker and the twins are bullying thugs. 

I don't deny them their opinion, and can see how they arrive at it, but I just a vehemently disagree. The Law is but the Tyrants will, and at some point citizen must stand up against tyranny if they have any hope of preserving Liberty. 

Harry was that person. He did what was wrong in order to accomplish what was right. Not just right in his opinion, but truly and morally right. 

Steve/bboyminnn