Snapedom

I was thinking more about bohemianspirit's excellent analysis of self-preservation, and realised that for an intelligent and deeper thinking person true self-preservation must lead to *enlightened* self-interested behavior. And it doesn't take that much thinking to realise that a large part of conventional morality can be derived directly from enlightened self-interest. Because healthy humans are naturally social beings. We need a working society around us to really thrive, to live rather than merely survive. For a society to be stable and be resilient to attack from without or within its members need to be generally decent to one another. (BTW game theory supports the idea that in the long run forgiving past wrongs and even some present ones can be elements of winning strategies, and Slytherins are all about winning.)

So while unhealthy Slytherins (like Voldemort), immature Slytherins (perhaps like many of those who joined the DEs immediately out of school), or less intelligent Slytherins will tend to look more for short term gains, I'd think mature, intelligent, healthy Slytherins will end up thinking more of meaningful long term goals and will likely end up as at least decent human beings, and the wiser among themare likely to end up as commonly acknowledged highly virtuous people.

- Oryx