Grim Truth 92/18/06
Jun. 18th, 2009 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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alternityGreetings, British Wizarding World.
Tonight’s lesson is about being wrong. About thinking you know your friends so well that you cannot be mistaken in them and about judging the people around you without taking all possibilities into account.
It’s also about being able to forgive.
Recently, some of you may have read a conversation between two correspondents discussing the summer camping trip for the Young Protectors’ League. (This organisation itself intrigues me greatly, by the way. What is its purpose? A thinly veiled recruiting ground for Death Eaters, perhaps?) Anyway, the troop leader had announced that older students participating in the outing would be trained to cast the Cruciatus Curse in case they need it to ‘protect’ their younger charges. Now, why on earth any of them would need to cast an Unforgivable Curse in the first place is beyond me, but then, perhaps things have so changed in England that teenagers are really so unruly, torture is the only way to control them. But what’s really disturbing is that the assertion that they might have to use it against some unnamed external threat was misunderstood by at least one 'concerned' parent, who took it to mean it would be applied to the students themselves. Yet far from objecting, that parent merely countered with the suggestion that the Imperius curse would be a better choice for removing the student from impending danger!
I know. It took me a couple minutes to absorb that one, too. This ‘prominent’ citizen of the Protectorate suggested that one Unforgivable might be preferable to another – and an altogether justified method, at that!
Now, I gather from my readings that Government doesn’t want you calling them Unforgivable anymore. They want you to think that their use can be pardoned – not even in extreme cases, but in more mundane circumstances as well.
But there are things in this world that are Unforgivable. Centuries ago, our leaders decided that casting these curses ought to be punishable under the fullest extent of the law. They understood that to inflict unbearable torture, to wilfully commit murder and to exert full control over another person’s mind were all heinous acts that at no time should be acceptable. We’ve always believed this magic to be an abuse of the powers with which we have been endowed, no matter the cause or the subject of the spell.
Other acts are Unforgivable and don’t require the use of magic. Betrayal leading to the death of a trusted friend or loved one, for example. It would be pretty much impossible to excuse such a choice, no matter what the reason. No amount of fear, self-preservation instinct or ambition can possibly absolve the disgrace of selling one’s honour. It’s not like mistaking a true friend for a false one. That is much more readily erased through our capacity to extend mercy, as well as our gratitude at learning that our doubts were unfounded. And it’s understandable: Anyone can imagine ulterior motives in a climate of suspicion and fear or piece together an agenda out of circumstantial evidence. What's more, there are ways in which one's true friends can be subverted through no fault of their own.
But that brings me back to the Imperius Curse and why it is truly Unforgivable. Use of the Imperius renders someone who might be a true ally into a false one. It robs the victim of his will, until he will lie even to his spouse, his family, his children or his best mates. It makes a mockery of the concept of forgiveness: How can one forgive the act, but how can one not be merciful to someone who was not in control of his actions?
More than that, it’s essential to recognise that in a place where the Imperius can be considered a viable option for forcing a young person to obey and where the Cruciatus can be considered appropriate punishment for offering a dissenting opinion, it is even more vital that we distinguish for ourselves the Grim Truth about what is, and is not, worth our mercy. We must remember where the lines ought to be drawn, so that torture, forced control and murder no longer occupy a forgivable place in the daily lives of witches, wizards, Muggleborns and Muggles.
Tonight’s lesson is about being wrong. About thinking you know your friends so well that you cannot be mistaken in them and about judging the people around you without taking all possibilities into account.
It’s also about being able to forgive.
Recently, some of you may have read a conversation between two correspondents discussing the summer camping trip for the Young Protectors’ League. (This organisation itself intrigues me greatly, by the way. What is its purpose? A thinly veiled recruiting ground for Death Eaters, perhaps?) Anyway, the troop leader had announced that older students participating in the outing would be trained to cast the Cruciatus Curse in case they need it to ‘protect’ their younger charges. Now, why on earth any of them would need to cast an Unforgivable Curse in the first place is beyond me, but then, perhaps things have so changed in England that teenagers are really so unruly, torture is the only way to control them. But what’s really disturbing is that the assertion that they might have to use it against some unnamed external threat was misunderstood by at least one 'concerned' parent, who took it to mean it would be applied to the students themselves. Yet far from objecting, that parent merely countered with the suggestion that the Imperius curse would be a better choice for removing the student from impending danger!
I know. It took me a couple minutes to absorb that one, too. This ‘prominent’ citizen of the Protectorate suggested that one Unforgivable might be preferable to another – and an altogether justified method, at that!
Now, I gather from my readings that Government doesn’t want you calling them Unforgivable anymore. They want you to think that their use can be pardoned – not even in extreme cases, but in more mundane circumstances as well.
But there are things in this world that are Unforgivable. Centuries ago, our leaders decided that casting these curses ought to be punishable under the fullest extent of the law. They understood that to inflict unbearable torture, to wilfully commit murder and to exert full control over another person’s mind were all heinous acts that at no time should be acceptable. We’ve always believed this magic to be an abuse of the powers with which we have been endowed, no matter the cause or the subject of the spell.
Other acts are Unforgivable and don’t require the use of magic. Betrayal leading to the death of a trusted friend or loved one, for example. It would be pretty much impossible to excuse such a choice, no matter what the reason. No amount of fear, self-preservation instinct or ambition can possibly absolve the disgrace of selling one’s honour. It’s not like mistaking a true friend for a false one. That is much more readily erased through our capacity to extend mercy, as well as our gratitude at learning that our doubts were unfounded. And it’s understandable: Anyone can imagine ulterior motives in a climate of suspicion and fear or piece together an agenda out of circumstantial evidence. What's more, there are ways in which one's true friends can be subverted through no fault of their own.
But that brings me back to the Imperius Curse and why it is truly Unforgivable. Use of the Imperius renders someone who might be a true ally into a false one. It robs the victim of his will, until he will lie even to his spouse, his family, his children or his best mates. It makes a mockery of the concept of forgiveness: How can one forgive the act, but how can one not be merciful to someone who was not in control of his actions?
More than that, it’s essential to recognise that in a place where the Imperius can be considered a viable option for forcing a young person to obey and where the Cruciatus can be considered appropriate punishment for offering a dissenting opinion, it is even more vital that we distinguish for ourselves the Grim Truth about what is, and is not, worth our mercy. We must remember where the lines ought to be drawn, so that torture, forced control and murder no longer occupy a forgivable place in the daily lives of witches, wizards, Muggleborns and Muggles.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 02:02 am (UTC)That hardly helps your case, young Weasley.
Have you ever seen the Curses close up? Cast them? Felt them?
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 02:06 am (UTC)No, I have not felt them, which only speaks to the point that they are used exceedingly sparingly, and for good reason.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 02:33 am (UTC)Or that you're clever enough to avoid attracting unwanted attention of that sort.
Either way, you have seen them, haven't you? I know you've heard of them being used on your fellow students, as recently as last month. Even if that were a rumour, surely you recall your Transfiguration professor casting the Cruciatus on a first-year? And the account of the young lady so unfortunate as to spend the holidays with my own mother?
Ever been to the camps? I'm told by reliable sources that the Cruciatus and Imperius curses are used there as well, to 'control' obstinate slaves?
Beyond that, Mr Weasley, casting the Curses is more than saying the words, or enduring the effects you create. There's no turning back after you've done it. Casting an Unforgivable Curse doesn't only hurt the victim; it changes you, the wizard, as well. Much for the worse. And no amount of prevaricating about 'proper licensing' or how rarely they are used can possibly put a pretty face on that ugly truth.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 02:38 am (UTC)Order Only
Date: 2009-06-19 02:39 am (UTC)Re: Order Only
Date: 2009-06-19 02:44 am (UTC)Hope this gives him plenty to chew on.
Re: Order Only
Date: 2009-06-19 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 02:45 am (UTC)All I want is for the wizards of England to realise their folly and start treating humans like humans again.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 02:54 am (UTC)Yes. Tell them. Tell them.
I wish I could tell you that some people are listening...
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 01:29 pm (UTC)I think he knows, Terry!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 01:50 pm (UTC)I didn't think Fred and George's parents would defend using the curses. But maybe they're saying what they're saying only because they know other people are watching? I hope so.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 03:03 pm (UTC)And shortly he shall have all the attention he should ever desire.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 02:49 am (UTC)How about then?
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 03:54 pm (UTC)As for your accusation that the licencing process is either corrupt or biased, the comment shows only your own ignorance. You are possibly thinking of the Ministry you left behind, rather than the administration's current policies.
One has only to look at the number of applications for immigration to the Protectorate to see that our new, changed England offers a haven for the true future of our race - and perhaps more importantly, a foretaste of the future in which all wizards may live openly and without fear of harm at the hands of lesser creatures.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 08:01 pm (UTC)The only reason people have to fear you, Malfoy, are those practises to which you seem to believe you are entitled. Do you honestly think anyone 'learns a lesson' from the Cruciatus? Or is better off for being controlled under Imperius? Or deserves an instantaneous death sentence? How many times have the Curses been used for truly laudable reasons, and how often do they merely become shortcuts to getting your miserable way?
If France has any sense, they'll chuck you right back into the insane asylum you've helped to create.