What can Harry Potter teach us about ethics?
You’ll have to forgive me if you think this is a trivial treatment of a serious topic, but I have two good reasons:
1) I’ve had a soft spot for Harry Potter since he’s gotten millions of kids, especially boys, to actually READ BOOKS! Of their own free will!
2) What we teach our young people is of vital importance to a society.
Harry Potter might live in a make-believe world, but he faces some of the same ethics challenges.
He has to deal with different factions in the Hogwarts school and in the Ministry of Magic that many of us find familiar themes from our experiences with corporations and governments. He learns the hard way that the people in authority aren’t always the best arbiters of right and wrong.
At many points, Harry has to make decisions, and sometimes he has to struggle with some really difficult questions. He sometimes makes mistakes, as we all do, no matter how smart and ethical we think we are. (!) But luckily for us (and for our kids) he really makes an effort to straighten things out and he always makes good decisions where it counts.
What do you think would have happened if Harry Potter grew up and worked for Ken Lay at Enron? Or if he ran up against Bernie Madoff? The Voldemorts of this world are not always as easy to recognize, but I’d like to think that Harry (with the help of his friends, of course) would struggle but come out better for it.
Bravo! Very nicely said.
Amen. The right choice is not always the easy choice.!
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This was a wonderful post. I agree whole-heartedly with what you said. Thanks to Harry Potter, so many kids now enjoy reading and do it at their own free will. He is fictional, but I think he is still someone we can look up to and see as an example.
There are some great ethics we can take from the series, it’s true. The world would be a better place if we all lived by the golden rule. Unfortunately that’s never going to happen so all we can do is be the best within our own sphere of influence and hope for the best.
I totally agree. I think it is great that the HP series has gotten kids to start reading. That alone is worth it right?
From http://www.caledonian-comment.com
“The Vatican has broken with its traditional stance on Harry Potter and given the latest film its seal of approval. In a review of the blockbuster the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince made clear the difference between ”good and evil’. Under the headline “Magic is no longer a game of surprise,” reviewer Gaetano Vallini praised the film’s special effects and the development of the lead characters saying they were “far more credible” than previous episodes. This contrasts with comments made in 2003 when, before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Former Hitler Youth and Nazi anti-aircraft gunner Cardinal Ratzinger criticised the “subtle seductions” contained in the Potter series which could “corrupt the Christian faith” in impressionable young children. Interesting how the Roman Catholic hierarchy links “subtle seductions” with “impressionable young people”. Presumably the Potter cast and its fan base, being older, are no longer susceptible – or attractive – to the Priests who provide spiritual direction.”
It didn’t only get boys to start reading only. I know plenty of adult males(straight) that would pick up a Harry Potter book in a weird deviation from Maxim and Men’s Health.
I feel the same way. I think Harry Potter as turned a lot of people, that normally don’t read, to sitting down and opening up a book instead of watching TV or playing Xbox or PS3.
Hi, new to your blog so here’s my first comment – the whole idea is great but, looking at the advice you give, shouldn’t this be ethics for humanity as a whole? Most of travel, even within the boundaries of our own countries, and we constantly meet people with standards and ways of life that may seem alien to us (take the divide between Scotland and England
). On the whole, we all need to respect each other and get on with making a better world for us and our children.
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