fandomhigh | The Philosophy of Values: Period #3 - Class #9

As students made their way into the class this morning they had their choice of coffee or tea and a variety of pastries. Wilson himself was seated behind the desk, a far away look on his pale face. When everyone was in and settled, he unfolded himself from his chair and walked around to the front of the desk.

“Good morning. Today we’re going to discuss two ideas: forgiveness vs revenge and in conjunction with this, cooperation vs confrontation.”

Rubbing his hand across his forehead, he lowered it and flicked on the overhead.

Lecture:

“First, I’d like us to see some working definitions and histories for these words.”

Starting with Forgiveness, Wilson went on to flick through Revenge, Cooperation and finally Confrontation.

“Now, let’s talk a little about these pieces as individuals and how they affect and skew our view of the application of our gift.”

Clicking off the overhead, Wilson picked up a cup of tea and began to pace.

“Revenge, might be a concept that many of us feel a close association with. Revenge against the person who took the last muffin you wanted in the cafeteria, revenge against the driver who cut me off on the road, revenge against a people or a person for the death of a loved one in battle or because of war. It’s a basic mortal instinct to seek out to even the balance of a wrong against us but where do you draw the line?”

Turning, Wilson leaned back against the desk and sipped his tea.

Class Participation:

“As an oncologist, I have the ability to script out pain medication. Say I’m on the road one morning driving into the hospital and another driver cuts me off, maybe even flicks me off as he does so. Later in the day, the same guy comes into the hospital in great pain due to, oh I don’t know… a migraine. What’s to keep me from refusing to give this guy anything stronger than an aspirin? There’s nothing that says I have to script him out the proper medication for a migraine. In fact I could probably write up in his chart a medical reason why I didn’t…but how do I know I’m not just getting my revenge on him for cutting me off? And if I am…would you say that my retribution is equal to the original infraction?”

After giving the class some time to discuss the question, Wilson called attention back to him as he poured another cup of tea.

“Now, the other side of the equation if you will: forgiveness. A word that gets bandied about a lot but what does it mean? When you are in a situation where another party has wronged you, who exactly are you forgiving? It would seem to be an easy answer, right? You’re forgiving the other person, but is that really the case, might not forgiveness be even closer than that. Do you forgive people or do you forgive situations and who does forgiveness help the most?”

Sipping his tea, Wilson set it down on the desk and then hopped up to sit beside it.

“Going back to my example for revenge, if I forgive the guy who cut me off and apply my medical gift for a positive outcome for this man…who does it affect more? The guy who cut me off? Or me?”

Homework:

Finally, after everyone had had a chance to talk, Wilson slid down off the desk and pulled a packet of white papers and blue books out of his brief case.

“Okay, if you’ve been reading your syllabus you know that this is your second test and it’s a take home. I’m giving you two blue books, but feel free to pick up more on your way out the door.”

[ooc: ~~Please wait for~~ The OCDs are up, class is in session and you will find the test questions in the Test OCD. :)]

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Willow mulled it over. "I don't know about acceptable so much as fair? Like the guy brought on instant karma? Plus it could be argued that it was a natural consequence of his actions. If Dr. Wilson told him that he was the guy who got cut off, then this guy might learn that it's not nice to be a jerk to people."

"If Dr. Wilson cuts him off to get revenge and then the guy cuts him off to get revenge on his revenge and then it just escalates until they're both stuck in their cars forever."

"Is it Dr. Wilson's job to be in charge of karma?" Blair asked. "Or should karma be dealt out by the universe?"

"Maybe the universe took care of it by putting Dr. Wilson there," Willow said, only playing Devil's advocate.

"If you cut the guy off, then that would be karma." Blair said. "If Dr. Wilson does it, it's not at the universes whim, it's at his."

"I still say at a certain point there's natural consequences to actions," Willow said. "Being rude to people increases the likelihood that people will be rude to you in turn."

"Which makes a good point as to why Dr. Wilson shouldn't get revenge on the guy." Blair nodded. "What goes around comes around."

"Unless Dr. Wilson's rudeness made the guy understand that his actions had hurt someone's feelings," Willow said. "At which point he might see the error of his ways and stop."

"Or he might beat Dr. Wilson with a baseball bat."

"Dr. Wilson could make sure he wasn't wearing a big coat that could hide bats in it."

"So Dr. Wilson can only get revenge on people in windbreakers? Or naked people?"

"But is it really revenge is my point," Willow said. "It's not so much 'You were mean to me so now I have to be mean to you' as it is 'You were mean to me so now I'm not going to treat you like we're BFF.'"

"But you're polite to strangers and non-BFF people, right?" Blair asked. "This would be the opposite of polite."

"Correct on both counts," Willow said.

"So Dr. Wilson is making a decision to do something to the driver based on his hurt feelings." Blair said. "Sounds a lot like revenge."

"I think it depends on if he just doesn't feel like being nice to the guy or if he's deliberately trying to make the guy unhappy."

"That's a good point." Blair said, thinking for a moment. "Although then the not-niceness is sorta petty. If he's going to be mean he might as well go all the way."

"Kick him in the shin?"

"I'm all about the non-violent options so I was going to suggest keying his car."

"Oh! Plus it ties in to the original crime," Willow said.

"Which is nice to see in revenge." Blair bounced.

"Or punishment."

The Philosophy of Values: Period #3 - Class #9 - 11/09

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