glumph comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 11 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Oscar_Cunningham 17 March 2012 09:41AM

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Comment author: glumph 20 March 2012 06:48:17AM 0 points [-]

I'm not sure if the surrounding dialogue supports this:

Automatically, the mask of the innocent Harry said exactly what it would have said: “Are my parents in danger? Do they need to be moved here?”

“No,” said the old wizard’s voice. “I do not think so. The Death Eaters learned, toward the end of the war, not to attack the Order’s families. And if Voldemort is now acting without his former companions, he still knows that it is I who make the decisions for now, and he knows that I would give him nothing for any threat to your family. I have taught him that I do not give in to blackmail, and so he will not try.”

I think the last sentence makes it clear that what the Death Eaters learned was that attacking or threatening the Order's families was ineffective because Dumbledore would not give in to such threats, not because he would retaliate on a massive scale.

Comment author: Alsadius 20 March 2012 08:25:44AM 5 points [-]

I'll admit, a big part of my reason for that belief is narrative causality - I would not find this evidence convincing in an open world, but in the context of a fictional story, it fits a little too neatly for coincidence. It's obvious that Harry is going to move out of Dumbledore's camp at some point - their worldviews differ too strongly - but this would make an absolutely beautiful cause for the split.

And yes, "I don't give in to intimidation" is a good start for getting people to stop threatening you, but "...and if you try, I'll start intimidating your people and see how you like it" works much better. There's a reason nuclear deterrent involved having your own nukes, and not just saying "London can take it" writ large.

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