Re: The "Rehabilitation" of Tom RiddleoneandthetruthNovember 9 2014, 23:47:54 UTC
We know Albus is a Dark Arts expert, and he is EXACTLY the sort of person who'd be quite sure he could handle the Dark Arts without being damaged by them. Lesser people, yes, might have their perceptions and empathy scrambled, but not he.
No, no, you still don't get it! You're still assuming there was some impulse to good or decency in him. There was not! There was nothing to corrupt because he was already corrupt!
If you want to understand Asshole Scummywhore, you really need to read Dr. Hare's book, Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths among Us. That book is absolutely priceless in understanding how these vermin think and operate.
One of the things he emphasizes, and which I brought up in "Chaos a Hundred Times," is that psychopaths have an extremely limited emotional range. There are degrees of psychopathy, but the really dangerous, hard-core ones--like Albus--feel only frustration, anger, and rage. That's it. They don't experience love, compassion, understanding, empathy, or forgiveness. When they talk about those emotions, they're lying to manipulate others. Because they lack empathy, they think everybody else is just like them. So when they hear other people talking about those emotions, they assume others are lying to manipulate them. In other words, Albus wouldn't have worried about being corrupted by the Dark Arts because he was already corrupt, and he assumed everybody else was, too!
We always knew there was an element of projection in his treatment of Severus--maybe that's the reason he claimed to be afraid to let Severus near the Dark Arts. Twinkle, twinkle.
It's far more likely he was afraid of the competition. Albus went out of his way to beat down Severus. You don't work that hard to crush somebody unless you regard them as a serious threat to your power.
Albus and the competitionterri_testingNovember 14 2014, 05:52:57 UTC
Beating down the competition.
Um.
NONE of the children Albus educated ever had a chance to outdo him, have you happened to have noticed? For one reason or another.
Albus once said Tom was smarter than he. Yet it's Albus whose creativity Griselda Marchbanks still gushes over (as Slughorn gushes over Snape's).
Albus's best students never got introduced via correspondance to international experts, like Phineas had arranged with Albus. (Sluggie could only twitch connections in the Ministry--a very poor second best for a real high-flyer. Albus was known internationally by the time he graduated--Tom was offered an entry-level position in the Ministry.)
But mostly, Albus's most-able students got swept up in extremist groups, of one stripe or another. And died very, very young.
No, no, you still don't get it! You're still assuming there was some impulse to good or decency in him. There was not! There was nothing to corrupt because he was already corrupt!
If you want to understand Asshole Scummywhore, you really need to read Dr. Hare's book, Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths among Us. That book is absolutely priceless in understanding how these vermin think and operate.
One of the things he emphasizes, and which I brought up in "Chaos a Hundred Times," is that psychopaths have an extremely limited emotional range. There are degrees of psychopathy, but the really dangerous, hard-core ones--like Albus--feel only frustration, anger, and rage. That's it. They don't experience love, compassion, understanding, empathy, or forgiveness. When they talk about those emotions, they're lying to manipulate others. Because they lack empathy, they think everybody else is just like them. So when they hear other people talking about those emotions, they assume others are lying to manipulate them. In other words, Albus wouldn't have worried about being corrupted by the Dark Arts because he was already corrupt, and he assumed everybody else was, too!
We always knew there was an element of projection in his treatment of Severus--maybe that's the reason he claimed to be afraid to let Severus near the Dark Arts. Twinkle, twinkle.
It's far more likely he was afraid of the competition. Albus went out of his way to beat down Severus. You don't work that hard to crush somebody unless you regard them as a serious threat to your power.
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Um.
NONE of the children Albus educated ever had a chance to outdo him, have you happened to have noticed? For one reason or another.
Albus once said Tom was smarter than he. Yet it's Albus whose creativity Griselda Marchbanks still gushes over (as Slughorn gushes over Snape's).
Albus's best students never got introduced via correspondance to international experts, like Phineas had arranged with Albus. (Sluggie could only twitch connections in the Ministry--a very poor second best for a real high-flyer. Albus was known internationally by the time he graduated--Tom was offered an entry-level position in the Ministry.)
But mostly, Albus's most-able students got swept up in extremist groups, of one stripe or another. And died very, very young.
There. Is that cynical enough for you?
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