I suppose this is where I need to make the obvious quotation:
If we must have a tyrant a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.
It’s a nice quotation, but where’s the actual evidence? Has anyone shut up and multiplied and calculated the net value of trying to become a Light Lord? At least some of them must do good.
Generally, people are too diverse to allow you to lord it over them without some serious force being used on dissidents, at which point you’re not very Light anymore. The extreme case of this is people like Pol Pot or Robespierre, and Grindelwald is as good a fictional avatar of that sort as any.
Now, there are historical examples the other way—Cincinnatus, for example. But most of them you’ll find will either have been given their power instead of seizing it(which is obviously a lot less likely to cause violence), or they’ll turn out to be a lot less nice upon closer inspection.
Being a Light Lord doesn’t necessarily mean ruling ordinary people and making laws. Unless you’re like Harry and want to change existing laws a lot. Being a Light Lord is about leading people in the fight against evil and Dark Lords, but only a few people are fit to fight like that. For that matter, Dumbledore is a pretty good Light Lord, his goals just happen to be different from Harry’s.
If you want to be a moral leader, you can do that and stay Light pretty easily—Gandhi is perhaps the archetype here. But few would consider him a Lord. When you go from consensual means(which are nice, but only ever affect a portion of society) to forcible means(which affect everybody, but are not nearly so nice), you’re threading a needle to remain the good guy while you’re doing it. It can be done—murder laws are forcible, but I think we can all agree they’re good. But it’s rare.
“Oh,” said Harry. “Um..” He organized his thoughts. “To understand everything important there is to know about the universe, apply that knowledge to become omnipotent, and use that power to rewrite reality because I have some objections to the way it works now.”
There was a slight pause.
“Forgive me if this is a stupid question, Mr. Potter,” said Professor Quirrell, “but are you sure you did not just confess to wanting to be a Dark Lord?”
“That’s only if you use your power for evil,” explained Harry. “If you use the power for good, you’re a Light Lord.”
If Harry set about changing effective physical laws by magical means, he would be far removed from day-to-day literal lording it over the common people.
Do you think that gods are less powerful than politicians? Good intentions and unlimited power are not always a good combination. I would trust Harry with literal omnipotence more than most people, but he’s far too arrogant to be trusted with enormous-but-not-unlimited power, of the sort where he can screw things up better than he can fix them.
Have you ever read Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn books, by chance? There’s a character who I’m very much reminded of by this conversation. (Spoilers from the first 3 books follow)
Gur ybeq ehyre jnfa’g ernyyl n avpr zna, ohg ur jnf npghnyyl n tbbq thl va fbzr vzcbegnag frafrf bs gur jbeyq, naq ur yvgrenyyl hfrq gur Jryy gb fnir gur jbeyq. Ohg uvf fnivat bs gur jbeyq nyfb erdhverq gur rasbeprzrag bs n gehyl njshy srhqny fbpvrgl, jvgu mbzovr nezvrf(gur xbybff), abovyvgl jub jrer rkcrpgrq gb encr crnfnagf naq yrtnyyl erdhverq gb zheqre gurz nsgrejneqf, naq greevoyr crefrphgvba bs uvf bja crbcyr. Naq guvf jnf yvgrenyyl gur orfg ur pbhyq qb gb fnir gur jbeyq, orpnhfr bapr ur unq zbqvsvrq gur jbeyq gb cerirag vgf qrfgehpgvba, uvf cbjre gb punatr vg shegure jnf tbar. Naq va gur raq, ur ehyrq bire uvf perngvba sbe n zvyyraavhz, hagvy ur jnf zheqrerq ol na natel qvffvqrag orsber ur pbhyq znxr vg evtug. Fnmrq vf npghnyyl bzavcbgrag(be ng yrnfg, nf pybfr gb vg nf ur arrqf gb or), fb Fnmrq pna svk uvf zvfgnxrf, ohg gur Ybeq Ehyre jnf genccrq ol uvf bja fhpprff.
V jbeel terngyl gung Uneel zvtug jvaq hc n ybg zber yvxr gur Ybeq Ehyre guna yvxr Fnmrq vs ur fgnegf zrqqyvat jvgu gur ynjf bs gur havirefr.
Do you think that gods are less powerful than politicians? Good intentions and unlimited power are not always a good combination. I would trust Harry with literal omnipotence more than most people, but he’s far too arrogant to be trusted with enormous-but-not-unlimited power, of the sort where he can screw things up better than he can fix them.
I’m not sure I’d even trust him with omnipotence, since presumably even an omnipotent agent is still bound by the laws of logic and mathematics. In any case omnipotence without omniscience, at least, strikes me as recipe for disaster.
Again, changing people’s moral nature is just one thing a Light Lord might want to do. It’s not even something Harry really wants to want to do.
If a Light Lord was known for e.g. developing amazing new medicinal magic, prolonging average lifespans, giving everyone in the world a hundred Galeons, developing faster broomsticks, or changing the laws of physics to discourage murder—but all the time just ignoring human laws—then they could definitely do so without antagonizing the legal authorities.
You are abandoning all the connotations and denotations of the phrase. Light Lord is explicitly intended to be a parallel to Dark Lord—and there aren’t really Dark Lord parallels to the activities you listed (particularly while complying with your important caveat to avoid “antagonizing” legal authorities).
There’s no point discussing what the phrase Light Lord “really” denotes. Clearly I understood it differently from everyone else in this conversation, so inasfar as it has a correct meaning, you’re right about it and I was wrong.
I suppose this is where I need to make the obvious quotation:
If we must have a tyrant a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.
It’s a nice quotation, but where’s the actual evidence? Has anyone shut up and multiplied and calculated the net value of trying to become a Light Lord? At least some of them must do good.
Generally, people are too diverse to allow you to lord it over them without some serious force being used on dissidents, at which point you’re not very Light anymore. The extreme case of this is people like Pol Pot or Robespierre, and Grindelwald is as good a fictional avatar of that sort as any.
Now, there are historical examples the other way—Cincinnatus, for example. But most of them you’ll find will either have been given their power instead of seizing it(which is obviously a lot less likely to cause violence), or they’ll turn out to be a lot less nice upon closer inspection.
Being a Light Lord doesn’t necessarily mean ruling ordinary people and making laws. Unless you’re like Harry and want to change existing laws a lot. Being a Light Lord is about leading people in the fight against evil and Dark Lords, but only a few people are fit to fight like that. For that matter, Dumbledore is a pretty good Light Lord, his goals just happen to be different from Harry’s.
If you want to be a moral leader, you can do that and stay Light pretty easily—Gandhi is perhaps the archetype here. But few would consider him a Lord. When you go from consensual means(which are nice, but only ever affect a portion of society) to forcible means(which affect everybody, but are not nearly so nice), you’re threading a needle to remain the good guy while you’re doing it. It can be done—murder laws are forcible, but I think we can all agree they’re good. But it’s rare.
Going back to the source, chapter 20:
If Harry set about changing effective physical laws by magical means, he would be far removed from day-to-day literal lording it over the common people.
Do you think that gods are less powerful than politicians? Good intentions and unlimited power are not always a good combination. I would trust Harry with literal omnipotence more than most people, but he’s far too arrogant to be trusted with enormous-but-not-unlimited power, of the sort where he can screw things up better than he can fix them.
Have you ever read Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn books, by chance? There’s a character who I’m very much reminded of by this conversation. (Spoilers from the first 3 books follow)
Gur ybeq ehyre jnfa’g ernyyl n avpr zna, ohg ur jnf npghnyyl n tbbq thl va fbzr vzcbegnag frafrf bs gur jbeyq, naq ur yvgrenyyl hfrq gur Jryy gb fnir gur jbeyq. Ohg uvf fnivat bs gur jbeyq nyfb erdhverq gur rasbeprzrag bs n gehyl njshy srhqny fbpvrgl, jvgu mbzovr nezvrf(gur xbybff), abovyvgl jub jrer rkcrpgrq gb encr crnfnagf naq yrtnyyl erdhverq gb zheqre gurz nsgrejneqf, naq greevoyr crefrphgvba bs uvf bja crbcyr. Naq guvf jnf yvgrenyyl gur orfg ur pbhyq qb gb fnir gur jbeyq, orpnhfr bapr ur unq zbqvsvrq gur jbeyq gb cerirag vgf qrfgehpgvba, uvf cbjre gb punatr vg shegure jnf tbar. Naq va gur raq, ur ehyrq bire uvf perngvba sbe n zvyyraavhz, hagvy ur jnf zheqrerq ol na natel qvffvqrag orsber ur pbhyq znxr vg evtug. Fnmrq vf npghnyyl bzavcbgrag(be ng yrnfg, nf pybfr gb vg nf ur arrqf gb or), fb Fnmrq pna svk uvf zvfgnxrf, ohg gur Ybeq Ehyre jnf genccrq ol uvf bja fhpprff.
V jbeel terngyl gung Uneel zvtug jvaq hc n ybg zber yvxr gur Ybeq Ehyre guna yvxr Fnmrq vs ur fgnegf zrqqyvat jvgu gur ynjf bs gur havirefr.
I’m not sure I’d even trust him with omnipotence, since presumably even an omnipotent agent is still bound by the laws of logic and mathematics. In any case omnipotence without omniscience, at least, strikes me as recipe for disaster.
It’s kind of there in the name: Light Lord. More generally, any radical change in society’s moral nature will require changes to a lot of laws.
Again, changing people’s moral nature is just one thing a Light Lord might want to do. It’s not even something Harry really wants to want to do.
If a Light Lord was known for e.g. developing amazing new medicinal magic, prolonging average lifespans, giving everyone in the world a hundred Galeons, developing faster broomsticks, or changing the laws of physics to discourage murder—but all the time just ignoring human laws—then they could definitely do so without antagonizing the legal authorities.
You are abandoning all the connotations and denotations of the phrase. Light Lord is explicitly intended to be a parallel to Dark Lord—and there aren’t really Dark Lord parallels to the activities you listed (particularly while complying with your important caveat to avoid “antagonizing” legal authorities).
There’s no point discussing what the phrase Light Lord “really” denotes. Clearly I understood it differently from everyone else in this conversation, so inasfar as it has a correct meaning, you’re right about it and I was wrong.