Harry could destroy his own reputation in order to save Hermione, by (for example) threatening to forever abandon Wizarding Britain. He is a beloved celebrity, after all, and it would be bad press for the Wizengamot if the Boy-Who-Lived defected to France.
Not sure how likely his dark side is to go for a self-sacrificing ploy, though.
Wizarding Britain doesn’t know that there’s a Dark Lord still out there; it doesn’t know that they still need Harry Potter as anything other than a celebrity, and for him to make such a threat would appear only as the height of vanity.
Harry could destroy his own reputation in order to save Hermione, by (for example) threatening to forever abandon Wizarding Britain.
Shouldn’t they take that for granted already? I mean obviously he’s going to have absolutely no remaining loyalty to the state—or at least the power structure—that did that to him. They should all expect to die whenever Harry finds it convenient to overthrow them. Or is that just what I would do?
(Any sane politician who was planning to make that sort of move against a potential emergent power like Harry would also see to it that they were killed, crippled or framed as a matter of course. You don’t go around recklessly making enemies and leaving them free to gather power.)
″...Upon this, one has to remark that men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.”
Apart from Dumbledore and Lucius, none of them are likely to take an 11-yo child and his promises of enmity and revenge at all seriously. “Enough talk, he’ll be late for his classes.” And even if he might become a political counter of some significance in a decade, or a few decades, they wouldn’t expect him to hold a grudge that long—normal children don’t often do that.
While Dumbledore and Lucius and other major figures might be sane, I’m not sure if we’re supposed to take the majority of the Wizengamot to be anything other than, in Harry’s words, “stupid, corrupt, and evil.”
On the same kind of criteria, you might expect the majority of all wizards and indeed all humans to be stupid, corrupt, and evil-when-given-great-power. It’s a Quirrel kind of thought. Which doesn’t make it untrue.
I disagree. This is a possible, but weak solution whereto the probability calculation of good Bayesian says that it doesn’t stand a good chance of succeeding compared to the cost. Right now Harry is not in an impressive social situation. Besides being the Boy-Who-Lived he’s done nothing, and in this particular context he has not scored an awful lot of points.
Harry could destroy his own reputation in order to save Hermione, by (for example) threatening to forever abandon Wizarding Britain. He is a beloved celebrity, after all, and it would be bad press for the Wizengamot if the Boy-Who-Lived defected to France.
Not sure how likely his dark side is to go for a self-sacrificing ploy, though.
Wizarding Britain doesn’t know that there’s a Dark Lord still out there; it doesn’t know that they still need Harry Potter as anything other than a celebrity, and for him to make such a threat would appear only as the height of vanity.
Shouldn’t they take that for granted already? I mean obviously he’s going to have absolutely no remaining loyalty to the state—or at least the power structure—that did that to him. They should all expect to die whenever Harry finds it convenient to overthrow them. Or is that just what I would do?
(Any sane politician who was planning to make that sort of move against a potential emergent power like Harry would also see to it that they were killed, crippled or framed as a matter of course. You don’t go around recklessly making enemies and leaving them free to gather power.)
--Machiavelli
Exactly the philosophy I had in mind! Is this also present in rationality quotes somewhere? It certainly should be.
I don’t see it anywhere.
Apart from Dumbledore and Lucius, none of them are likely to take an 11-yo child and his promises of enmity and revenge at all seriously. “Enough talk, he’ll be late for his classes.” And even if he might become a political counter of some significance in a decade, or a few decades, they wouldn’t expect him to hold a grudge that long—normal children don’t often do that.
While Dumbledore and Lucius and other major figures might be sane, I’m not sure if we’re supposed to take the majority of the Wizengamot to be anything other than, in Harry’s words, “stupid, corrupt, and evil.”
On the same kind of criteria, you might expect the majority of all wizards and indeed all humans to be stupid, corrupt, and evil-when-given-great-power. It’s a Quirrel kind of thought. Which doesn’t make it untrue.
Dark side doesn’t care about consequences—I believe someone likened it to an UFAI.
I disagree. This is a possible, but weak solution whereto the probability calculation of good Bayesian says that it doesn’t stand a good chance of succeeding compared to the cost. Right now Harry is not in an impressive social situation. Besides being the Boy-Who-Lived he’s done nothing, and in this particular context he has not scored an awful lot of points.