Considering how much of a threat technology can pose when combined with magic, one or more factions may have deliberately placed an ignorant pureblood into the position in order to keep knowledge of muggle developments marginal.
That implies he at least suspects Harry holds a horcrux...
If it existed and was semi-public knowledge, then Lucius would have made a priority of acquiring some for Draco.
Personally I'm assuming that Quirrelmort rescued Bellatrix to influence Harry. He now has first-hand evidence that Harry was engaged in a major crime, has shown Harry a part of the Wizarding world which he could never accept which was enabled by democracy, has shown Harry that Dumbledore isn't as proactive as Harry would want him to be, almost convinced Harry that a revolution is necessary, convinced Harry to lie to protect him, and has made Harry feel sorry for Bellatrix. Generating a 'false alarm' of Voldemort's return is a nice side effect as well if he doesn't plan on acting immediately, Dumbledore may well have just expended significant political capital too early.... (read more)
Ah, very well then. Thank you for clearing that up.
Well, I can mention a theory for the sake of discussion, but it's rather hypothetical.
When it occurred I was assuming that:
Dumbledore as a 'Great Wizard' embodied the virtues Eliezer seems to be emphasizing in the story, including intelligence, hard work, critical thought, and a certain amount of rationality.
Harry's Dark Side is one of Voldemort's Horcruxes or a portion of his soul.
Dumbledore is, at least partly, faking his senility to appear less dangerous to his enemies and make it more difficult for them to predict his action. He's still ready to make difficult decisions when necessary and is a competent leader during war, but feels a great deal of guilt which... (read 1117 more words →)
A quick google couldn't find any link to the study itself, if you have a link, could you post it please?
Same as Silas.
The two don't have to be mutually exclusive, although finding the share of responsibility might be difficult.
I know that Rationalism is fairly spread out as an ideology, but, thankfully, very few rationalists seem to subscribe to the popular belief that allowing someone you can't see to suffer by your inaction is somehow different from walking on while some kid you don't know bleeds out on the pavement. So, if most of us are consequentialist altruists, precisely what should we be doing? SIAI are working on the Silver-Bullet project, for example, but what about the rest of us? Giles is attempting to form a altruist community, and I'm sure there are a number of other, scattered, projects members are working on independently. (I searched for any previous discussions, but... (read more)
I admit to only having watched scattered episodes and the pilot, but assuming that the alicorn transformation can only be granted to ponies one could argue upraising the entire population would have a negative effect on the other sapient species such as Gryphons. If she held that position she could even support transponyism inherently, but oppose immediate application until a parallel can be developed for other sapients.
Some possibilities:
- Comparing their own capabilities and lifespans to that of alicorns could demoralise the other races.
- While the danger of alicorns to ponies could be mitigated by general upraising or internal policing, the danger to other races could not without the implementation of alicorn rule.
- As a combination
... (read more)