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gjm comments on On Juvenile Fiction - Less Wrong
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Consider, e.g., books in which magical things go on. Narnia or Harry Potter, say. I wouldn't worry much about children becoming serious believers in magic as a result of reading such books, or actually expecting that if they crawl into a wardrobe they might find themselves in another world. On the other hand, in such stories it's usually true on some level that Good Always Wins In The End, or that Love Conquers All (for some notion of "love", usually not the same one as in escapist material for adults), and I think children are more likely to absorb that sort of idea uncritically.
Actually, while I like HP, the thing I found most disturbing in the series was the whole "hey, it's okay to mindwipe muggles to hide ourselves. No real moral issue with raping someone's mind for our own convenience..."
It's a matter of least-harm. Keeping magic away from Muggle view is the best way. When that fails, a minor deletion of memory is a lesser but acceptable option.
What other options are there? Killing the Muggle? Kidnapping them and never letting them have contact with 'normal' human society? Removing the memory only of the incident isn't a bad alternative.
Yes, the technique could certainly be abused. But the way it's being applied isn't particularly objectionable. It certainly shouldn't be the first line of defense, but it isn't being treated that way.
One could always, well, NOT keep magic a secret.
Well yes - that's the point of fiction, it's an ingredient of the miracle by which civilization is built from killer apes.
Could you be more specific about what particular feature you're saying is the point of fiction?
I believe he's implying that fiction can convince us that Good Always Wins In The End, or that Love Conquers All, and that, to some extent, these beliefs become self-fulfilling.