That is called taking the easy way out, and it is dangerous. A better solution would be to be very careful as to whom you put up to be Warden.
That would presume they can reach a consensus. The entire point is they don't agree on who a good candidate is. I imagine some think that
no one is a good candidate. The entire point of the White Council is to limit power. The position of Warden gives too much power to an individual. This goes against their entire ethos. Not only that, it's the dark magic that flows from the place and the demons and dark beings that reside there that make it even more likely the Warden will be corrupted even if they start out as an uncorrupted individual (which considering Harry was well on the way long before he ever became Warden doesn't bode well). Even if the beings in question were not necessarily evil (which is probably almost none of them) the knowledge they possess (not to mention the powers they could grant) further allow a Warden, even a well-intentioned one, to gain too much power. Which again, goes against the mission of the White Council. So it isn't so much a question of a suitable candidate so much as how long any candidate is allowed to operate. Ideally, not long enough to gain too much power. Which I imagine for some of the senior Wizards would be no time at all.
This doesn't mean they are right of course. But it's very easy to see how they have made the decision to get there.
Jim likened it to the White Council badly needing firepower as they are so outgunned right now. Perhaps think of it like picking which country to give a stash of nukes to (to use your nuke analogy). Who would you trust to be steward? Would they become corrupted by the power? How long would it take? What other influences are on them, are they vulnerable? It's one of the many reasons given for nuclear disarmament (in the sense of not letting any more countries build nukes - which of course is to the benefit of whoever has nukes already, particularly the more you have). Most NATO countries would react similarly to the Senior Council if all of a sudden someone starts building/inherits/receives a stockpile of WMDs i.e. they would all gang up on that country and force it to depower before the country got too strong to stop. In Harry's case, it's like if a somewhat tense ally of the US like Japan suddenly got nukes but was also sizing up against one of the USA's main rivals (i.e. China or Russia). The USA would likely be uncomfortable but would also appreciate the position of having a new powerful ally so ready to fight their potential foe (particularly as in Japan's case they would be inside the missile warning systems). That being said, such a thing would likely ratchet up the tension in an already very tense environment...just like Harry being Warden has.
But the subject in question is Eb's journal, not the overview of Harry's journals. We don't even know if Harry wrote his files contemporaneously as they happened or as an end of career over view of what happened in his life.
True enough. But my rebuttal was to your argument that private journals don't have general statements, and as the entire series is full of general statements I think we can make a reasonable assumption that private journals do have general statements in them. Not to mention that the specific bit Harry reads was intended by Ebenezar for Harry to read. So while it might not be for public access, the section we are discussing was meant for more than just Eb to read (in point of fact it was intended for someone else specifically who is discussed in the passage).
It really makes no difference whether Eb meant for Harry to read it or not, it is still Eb's own personal view of the situation. Eb says,
Notice he says "I" not "we" nor "the Council thinks." In my opinion it makes it his personal view, not a general view taken up by the Council.
The specific bit you quote here ("I sometimes can't help but think there is such a thing as fate") is Eb's opinion specifically on how he feels the Council is getting in it's own way. He quite literally says right after the "I" statement "We, in our ignorance, do to thwart it". So it's Ebenezar's ("I") opinion about how the White Council ("we") are subverting themselves.
Admittedly Harry didn't think it through, he surmised and was right that the island if he was successful would let him know where his attackers were coming from. But that is all he got, since he had no clue of all the implications of what he had done, he was continued to fight the battle with a pea shooter when in effect he had a nuclear arsenal at his disposal.. It is a lot different now, that he understands. One more point about the importance of the island having a Warden building on what Morriswalters says in the next post about the island having a two year old in charge [i.e. Alfred]
Exactly right, it is different. Hence why Jim says that the Senior Council's only thought is that Harry must have been really stupid because they don't think he knew what he was doing when he signed up. Which is exactly why they didn't execute him straight away (that, and the fact they really need a weapons stash right now). Except all bets are off since Battle Ground because he clearly knows how to defend his Island far better now AND has shown he can take on major heavy weight hitters. All he needs to show now is that he can compel those beings into giving him power and/or knowledge, and even perhaps potentially commanding them as his personal weapons and he will completely terrify the White Council. It's the equivalent of showing he can build, defend, and deploy nukes.
I think you've misunderstood Morris's point. The two-year old Morris is referring to is Harry, not Alfred. Hence why he points out Rashid choking. So did Eb when he found out (although there are clearly other reasons he thought Harry was crazy i.e. who would want to bring that much stress on themselves?) Morris is incorrect in saying that Alfred was made Warden by the original Merlin. Alfred isn't the Warden. He is the interface, the guards, the monitoring systems, the punishment provider etc. He literally says so himself, and we've seen some of his limits. He doesn't have free will as he isn't mortal. He cannot choose to imprison or release a being. He can only act in accordance with the will of the Warden. That said, he clearly has some scope in how to operate within his limits...and so it probably a very good case study of certain types of immortals. I might have said angels but they seem to be a special case, same with gods.
Here is what Morgan said about an intellectus, which Alfred/Demonreach/Island is; page 279 Turn Coat
The above is the crux as to why the island needs a Warden, though well equipped to defend itself, including the prison, it has a hard time recognizing when it is threatened.
Is that the case with Demonreach though? It knew the Outsiders were attacking it from the water in Cold Days. It also knew that it was being attacked through time as well. It's only "confusion" was in the case of the faeries which Dresden hypothesized as it being connected through nature to them...but Mab seems to indicate that Alfred had the option of defeating them and held back as a curtesy to Mab. Harry didn't tell Demonreach it was being attacked at all in Cold Days, if anything it was the reverse. Alfred is similar to current AI programs in that it's really just a bunch of predetermined responses to certain stimuli, and while capable of "learning" that doesn't mean it makes choices in the way most people seem them. There is a simplicity to it. Another way to look at it might be like asking the AI to capture specific computer viruses in a "vault". It can do as you ask, but it's up to the user (and initially the programmer) to decide what the AI recognizes as a virus in the first place.
Oh I agree that the Higher Powers are playing four dimensional chess, and Harry indeed is one of the pieces. If Harry were a mere pawn, I would agree that that would abrogate choice, but Harry has never been anyone's pawn. Actually in his flexibly, he appears to play more like a Rook, very useful dangerous piece with plenty of choices of movement.
I mean...that's certainly a debated idea even in the series about whether Harry is a weapon wielded by others or not. Two of the Walkers suggested exactly that Harry was in fact a tool of others.
Harry certainly rebels at the idea of being anyone's pawn of course. But in some ways this makes him predictable in certain ways and therefore manipulatable. We've seen Harry realise over and over again that he plays into the plans of others, sometimes without realising it for years. I strongly suspect in some cases there are things he is so unaware of that he is still playing into others' plans for him. I agree he isn't a minor warrior anymore though. Vadderung as much as tells us this in Cold Days.
But that is why the mantel of Warden is so dangerous, that leaves open the question, why hasn't a Warden done it before now? Kemmler may have known the risks, but why would that stop such a dark wizard? I don't think the fail safes built in have anything to do with morality, more of practicality. Why establish a maximum security prison, if the Warden could let any one out for his own use and become just another monster?
As I said earlier, we don't know what the previous Warden's have or haven't done. We can safely assume they didn't blow up the Island or anything absurd but we have no idea what deals they might have struck with inmates, what knowledge they might have gained, what uses they might have put inmates to, what they might have released etc. Kemmler might have been mad but he doesn't seem like he was devoid of any survival instinct i.e. he didn't want to bite off more than he could chew. He wouldn't risk trying to control something that he could work out was beyond him...and he clearly was clever enough to have an accurate assessment of his abilities. By all accounts he was a genius at magic. The other thing was he might have only just figured out what he was going to do, maybe he even had plans that got interrupted. We just don't know.
To answer your question about why build a prison that the could allow any Warden to exploit it's inmates...is a bigger question than we should get into. But in terms of the Dresden Files, we already know the answer from Cold Days:
“But can they get loose?”
“NOT WITHOUT OUTSIDE INTERVENTION,” Demonreach said, “OR YOUR AUTHORIZATION.”
“Meep,” I breathed. “Uh. You mean I could turn these things loose?”
“YOU ARE THE WARDEN.”
I swallowed. “Is it possible for me to communicate with them?”
“YOU ARE THE WARDEN.”
...
I’d just been handed what amounted to a great big ugly weapon of mass destruction and potential havoc. To the various powers of the supernatural world, it wouldn’t matter that I would never use it. All that would matter was that I had it to use. Really, Officer, I know that’s a rocket launcher in my trunk, but I’m only holding it so that someone bad won’t use it. Really. Honest.
The guys in the White Council who didn’t like me were going to turn purple and start frothing at the mouth when they found out. And every foe the White Council ever had would start looking at me like a gift from Heaven—someone with knowledge of the inner workings of the Council, with enormously concentrated personal power, who was almost certain to frighten the Council enough to make them suspect, isolate, and eventually move against him. That guy would be an awesome asset in any struggle against the wizards of the world.
And boy, wouldn’t the White Council know it?
Like I didn’t have enough recruiters aiming for me already.
And hey, the very best part? I didn’t actually have a real, usable superweapon. I just had the key to a great big box full of pain and trouble for a whole lot of people.
No wonder my grandfather had looked stunned when he’d seen what I had done with Demonreach. Or maybe less “stunned” than “horrified.”
Merlin built the prison alongside the White Council. It's implied (and occasionally discussed) that he basically was trying to get rid of the chaos in the world caused by wizards with unlimited power, faux-demigods really. He established a code of principles to guide wizards, an organization to train and unite and police wizards, and rather successfully managed to order the chaos of the old world. Does that mean everything is good? Of course not. But undoubtedly it was worse beforehand. Merlin clearly had his faults and he likely hoped that what he did would be enough. Doesn't mean it always was.
One more thing, it may be a matter of Fae semantics verses mere mortals, but when Mab said that Harry could use Ethinu to do his bidding, she wasn't exactly right but nor was she totally wrong. The Ley lines that run under the island come from the prison itself, the energy of them is what the monster/inmates are giving off. In Turn Coat while Rashid warns Harry against tapping into their energy, he also says;
page 299
I take that to mean that while Harry isn't ready for it now, in the future he will have the knowledge and the strength to tap into the well without changing himself. Is that what the Council is afraid of? That Harry will tap into the Ley Lines before he is ready and turn into a monster?
Mab wasn't totally wrong, but what she said is the equivalent of saying Harry could turn into a god. He
could. Doesn't mean he
shoudl or that it would turn out well.
As for the Ley Lines...I think that's only one small part of what they are afraid of. Rashid warned Harry because he doesn't want black magic to taint Harry. But it wasn't like Rashid was going to tell him to not release monsters etc. because that would reveal secrets that Harry wasn't ready for yet. Realistically, many on the Council have thought of Harry as a monster since day dot - some with good reason (which may or may not be to do with star born things, not to mention Du Morne). Mostly they are worried about Harry becoming a
powerful monster, one that could take them on like Kemmler did. And they should be worried.
