"I'm not saying the Sorting Hat's work is flawed. That would be meaningless," Murphy said. "Because everyone actually possesses many traits, and when you have to view him through one particular trait, prejudice is born. And the more prejudices gather together, the more they keep reinforcing one another."
Each house was, in truth, an informational cocoon of personality. Most people in it shared the same temperament, so naturally it was easier for them to maintain a unified perception of others. Without opposing views to balance things out, prejudice would only grow stronger. Students would repeatedly use the people around them to confirm their own narrow views, and then become "individual but paranoid" people.
In short, as Murphy saw it, the four houses of Hogwarts classified students by personality, which was an artificial creation of differences and conflicts.
This was not Hogwarts's problem alone. In fact, the entire Western practice of "classifying" people was, in itself, a form of separatism that created distinctions, built walls between people, refused communication, refused understanding, and refused cooperation for mutual benefit.
"It is hard for people to grow beyond their own environment. In an environment filled with prejudice, how can we become sound-minded people?"
"More than twenty years ago, Hogwarts even saw the tragic situation where the entire Slytherin house became a training ground for Death Eaters," Murphy said.
The expression on Severus Snape's face at the teachers' table turned as ugly as if someone had stabbed him.
"Were Slytherin students born bad?"
"No!" Murphy said decisively. "It was only because they had been swept up by evil ideas. They had sunk into the mire of prejudice, mistaken lies for truth, and there was no one around them who could point out their mistakes!"
Now that he had gone this far, McGonagall and the other