The Overarching message - Caning

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 191662


 
> .> Pippin:
> > Snape's attempt to use legilimency on Draco is brushed off with contempt, not the shock and revulsion I would expect if it was considered the equivalent of a sex crime. 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> As I said above I do not hold the legal, ethical,  political norms of WW in high regard. 


Pippin:
Okay, so we agree that no WW social norm was violated. 

We don't *have* any norms about mind-reading in the real world, obviously. 

I don't recall that any character felt they had been  harmed by Snape or Dumbledore's use of legilimency in itself. Naturally Harry would have liked to keep Snape from finding out about the Prince's book and other questionable items. But he would have felt the same way if Snape had simply tricked the information out of him.


 So where exactly is the evil?

 If I understand where you're coming from, you think Dumbledore and Snape are using evil  mind powers not because they are harming anyone but because it offends your non-magical assumption that thoughts should be inviolate. Calling it evil just for that seems worthy of Petunia, and I know what you think of her! <veg>

Many people, secret service agents for example, are more skilled than average at telling through body language whether people are lying, and as far as I know, this is considered a useful skill, not an unethical invasion of privacy.  I don't see how interpreting mind-language is any different. 

Pippin
who started the New Year with the lovely thought that  the Prince's book and Snape's healing spell for Sectum Sempra  needn't be forever lost -- Harry can revisit them in the Pensieve