The Overarching message - Caning + Mind Reading, of sorts

[sigurd at eclipse.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 191665

Dear List

Let's make one thing clear,

Not to be boorish about it, but there is no such thing as the Wizzarding World.

Neither any of you, nor I, nor J.K. Rowling, nor anone on the surface of this world has magical powers, no matter how much we may like to dream so, nor are we likely to attain them in any forseable possibility.

We are all "Muggles" in Rowling's definition and will remain so.

Therefore all of our preconceptions, thoughts, ideas, and world view, our culuture, our institutions and our beliefs are "muggle" beliefs, including those of J.K. Rowling.

I am going to compress all the above, that is whatever thoughts we have, psychological predispositions, norms, tropes metaphors and the like as "culture" and specifically Western Liberal Euro-American Judeo Christian culture at that.

We muggles "read" J.K. Rowling's works  as Muggles and read them through the lens of our culture. We interpret the things we see happening in Harry Potter through our mind's eye, make judgements of them through our mind's eye, interpret the events through our minds eye, which is informed by our culture, make conclusions from these through our culture, make generalizations which then we can apply (or not) in our own lives, or use to reflect on our culture, and use them to guide and direct our personal actions within the culture which we exist, which is -- as muggles.

One of the essentials of that "culture" (remember Judeo-Western,liberal etc, from above) is the sanctity of ones own mind. That is, we are free and sovereign within your own minds to think what we wish and dream what we wish, and we prize the idea of private thought, and individual sovereignty of the mind. It is the essential of the stoic ideal as framed by both Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus and thus held identially by Emperor and Slave. It is Judeo Christian in that it holds there is an inner soul of the mind that is open only to ourselves and to God, and even not always to him till we invite him in. Also from that religious grounding springs the other philosophies of the Greeks and Romans, the Church Fathers and the whole of the thinkers of the worth of the individual. This means that the very idea of "freedom" and "liberty" (and they are NOT the same things) comes from the sanctity and inviolability of the mind. That is, that there alone at last resort we are our own, or as Locke said "Each man hath a property in his own person."

Therefore ANY device, magical or muggle which invades that domain is viewed as the ultimate invasion and-- the ultimate violation. Therefore if to one of us it is mind rape-- then reading ones mind is mind rape, and the world that that exists in would be  atruly hellish existence.

 The main issue is the privacy of the soul and the mind, where we are free to imagine what we wish.

On he other hand, that brings up the other part of it. In "The WesT" we are free to think what we will, but we are NOT free to enact what we think in all cases, and-- in point of fact-- what we think is completely irrelevant in most cases to the culture we live in.  One may in ones mind put a lot of time into a fanciful dream of simply taking your neighbor's new car, or killing Jews, but try it and you will be crushed by the culture which will proceed against you with all its vigor and power.

Think what you will in your own mind, but remember that the state is ONLY interested in deeds-- in the fruits of your spirit-- and if they contravene the precepts of our Muggle world-- you will be destroyed.
The law in The West is not concerned with your predispositions or motives and it could care less that "you were acting with good intentions." That latter is for humans to decide in a court of the law. That is what is meant by "the rule of law." In the east or that is, the rest of the world, the law is up for grabs and if you are motivated by Allah then it's just fine to bomb school children, lie, cheat steal and murder, so long s you love Allah and want to kill Jews or Chrustians, after all they, being infidels have no status.

Nor, by the way, is the law concerned with expediency or efficiency, or what "must be done" in extreme events. For this we have other cases of law such as "the Laws of War" and the "law of nature" etc., and the corollary "The Law IN War" and the "law IN nature" which allows for certain expediences, but recall that the punishments for infringements of either are far more terrible and extreme than in the plain old "law."

Therefore, against the "rape of the mind" the invasion of the private thoughts of the individual-- that is-- the very emptying and invasion of the soul, the taking from a person all that he is, and the obliteration of the private; caning and such is a trivial and innocuous penalty. This does not justify it or reccomend it, only sets up a comparative scale of punishment.

I believe it is Julie who said that any unwanted sexual contact is in her definition "rape."  So be it. We do not have to get into the specific deeds and zones of the body or the  acts. If it is unwanted, it is unwanted, and we are standing in the doorway of the golden rule "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

And THAT is always going to get you into trouble if you wish to treat your fellow man simply as a thing, that is, someone whose mind you can rape-- and remember-- raping minds is what Voldemort-- Slytherin's heir--  is all about.

Otto