Dumbledore's Unspeakable Word (going OT)

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> 
> Pippin:
> Ah, but Kneasy, how did you know you wouldn't have been able to live
> with it? If that was  programmed into the genes, poor Kitty
> Genovese would have lived to a ripe old age...you can call it 'love'
> or 'social conditioning' or 'elevated levels of oxytocin' but it seems
> if we're not  reminded that we have the power to help one another, we 
> won't do it. 
> 

Once I'd stopped I couldn't stand idly by, that  would be an incomprehensible 
reaction, totally foreign to my nature. Of course I probably could have driven
past but for ever after I'd've wondered.... what if.... And no - no bravery, just
instinct. It was .... distressing is the closest word I can come up with.

Now those of a religious bent will tend to assume things like love of
fellow man and all that tripe. Not so. I've hated more people than anyone 
else I know. I have no religion. I have elitist tendencies. I  have a *very*
sick sense of humour (holdover from working in hospitals probably),
I'm about as un-PC as you can get. Frankly, I'm not a comfortable
person to be around. Yes, I've known love (x4) and bloody horrible it 
was too.  You can't call your life your own, worse, you can't trust what 
your own mind tells you. I was glad when it stopped.

Oh, it's in the genes all right. Watch reactions when an accident happens.
Males instinctively take a step forward (they're disposable); females shelter
or comfort children or the distressed. It's only after 'reason' kicks in that
'civilised' responses take over. It's in all the great apes (except the gorilla,
for some reason), but it's most marked in baboons. If a leopard moves into
a baboon troops' range and starts picking them off, eventually a group
of males will seek out or lie in wait for the leopard and attack it. They will 
kill it usually, though most of the attackers die. However, it ensures the 
survival of the troop. Altruism in extremis, co-operation ensuring family 
survival.
Though what the hell this has to do with HP I haven't the faintest idea.
Oh, yes, I remember. It's a mistake to confuse action with artificial labels
like 'love'.

Kneasy