Reply #10: Post Modernism vs Absolute Morality [View All]

The Tolkien Universe is cast in absolutes. A thing is either clearly Good or Evil. Evil can corrupt and take over that which is Good but Evil does not come from our own descisions.

In Harry Potter there is evil but it is evil born of individuals descisions. And it is not always apparent. It is evil born of understanding the consequences. It is evil that we humans can determine for ourselves. Just as good is what we determine for ourselves.

This models the very issues that the religious right is up in arms about. Post Modernism and the Age of Reason seperated our definitions of morality from the concrete absolutes of the Church. It set us on a path of determining right and wrong for ourselves. It even altered some of the things we took to be evil and turn them to acceptable behaviour.

When you hear the right rail against secularism this is exactly the issue they are refering to. When we wonder why they cannot understand that some people have different values it is because they cannot accept that which they believe to be real Evil.

In a nut shell. Tolkien had Evil personified. Potter is learning to determine what is right and wrong for himself.