fandomhigh | Applied Ethics A: First period [10.08]

Harriet was looking thoughtful as the students arrived, sitting behind her desk with a cup of tea. "Good morning. We are deviating from the syllabus once again this week, but I am quite certain none of you will object." Once everyone was settled, she walked around to lean on the front of the desk. "Which brings us nicely to what we're going to talk about: objection, protest and resistance, concepts I have a feeling many of you are familiar with. Specifically, when is it ethical to disobey the law, or, to step back slightly, a set of rules?"

Her smile was wry as she looked around the classroom. "I think I won't get much disagreement if I say: when the rules are unjust. Of course, then you have to decide whether a given rule is unjust." She was quiet for a moment, gathering her thoughts. She hadn't actually planned any of this out. "Everyone agrees to give up a certain amount of freedom to live in a society, whether it's a country or, just as a hypothetical example, a boarding school on an island. We agree to abide by the rules, even if we might want to break them, even if sometimes we do break them, because they are necessary for everyone to exist peacefully, and for the school to function effectively and not dissolve into chaos.

The person in charge, the person making the rules, is responsible for the safety and wellbeing, the health and happiness, of every single person in that society. Every single one. Personal feelings, dislikes, prejudices must not be allowed to influence her actions, because when they do, that is when rules start to become unjust. One group is favoured over another, ridiculous, sometimes vicious, rules are passed arbitrarily, out of anger or hatred or a need for revenge, out of a desire to exercise absolute power over people. The breaking of them is rewarded with even more vicious or arbitrary punishments."

Her voice was very sharp and she lifted her chin, studying each member of the class in turn. "This is not acceptable. Those are unjust rules, and I think one can safely say it is ethical to disobey them." She took a calming breath and smiled again. "And not just to disobey them, but to actively protest them. However, there are ways and means of doing this, some far more acceptable than others. Violence is rarely, if ever, acceptable." She handed out some material. "Just as a few examples.

Now, for the purposes of this exercise, I want you to use this school as your society, just so you have something familiar to work with. Get together in pairs or groups and identify any unjust rules you might be aware of, and why they are unjust, unjust punishments that have been handed down, any protests that have been made against those rules and how effective they've been. Brainstorm other ways to protest them, ways to actively disobey them. Think about what you're trying to achieve, and how your action is going to help you achieve it. Even come up with actual plans, if you'd like, just to take the hypothetical exercise to its conclusion."

"But," she held up a hand for emphasis, "do not forget the consequences. In that first rush of needing to do something, consequences get forgotten. But there are always consequences, not just for you, but for those around you: friends, families, fellow objectors, everyone else in the school. What could happen? What, if you can identify any protest activities which have occurred, has happened? You must always weigh the consequences of any action carefully when deciding if it is right to act."

[OOC: ~~please wait for OCD~~ It's up. Pretty self-explanatory this week, I think. Get together and talk about what's been going on at the school, and maybe ways to stop it. My comment notifications for this journal are almost nonexistent - if I miss pings, please feel free to poke me on email: idontlooktired (at) gmail.com or on AIM: iplayoneonfh. Apologies for those I've missed previously.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Do whatever you think is right.

Gwynn is trying to take notes, but all she ends up are drawing diagrams of things in her notebook.

During the lecture, Dawn started making a number of lists. The first was arbitrary rules, the second was people who had been injured (and how), and the third was things that needed to be done.

First thing on the third list was to talk to Rikku about weaponry.

Luke glanced over at Dawn's notes, then motioned for her to hand him the paper.

He had a name to add.

Dawn slid the paper over obligingly.

Luke wrote his name in bold letters, then rolled up his left sleeve to show Dawn the scarred-over gash streaking down his arm.

His eyes were thunderous.

Dawn stared at his arm, then she glared in solidarity with Luke. "Where and when?" Revenge was a foregone conclusion now.

He quickly covered up the wound. "If we go without Rikku, she'll never forgive us."

"Why would we go without Rikku? She's got the cool weapons that aren't your lightsaber."

"We can't just kill her," Luke hissed. "At least, I can't."

"How do you feel about torture?" Dawn looked at him hopefully, not that she really meant it.

Luke pressed his lips together and shook his head.

Dawn frowned. "What are your options, here? I think Rikku and I have more flexibility."

"If it's in defense, I'm absolutely in," Luke said, "but torture's hard to justify that way."

And there was a terrible family tradition that he wouldn't be following the path of, thanks so much, father.

"Who needs defending now, though? Do we just stand outside her office?"

Luke shrugged. "Sorry," he said, staring at his desk. "It's been kind of a long few weeks. I don't want to end up stooping to her level just to right things, you know?"

"What else happened?" Dawn asked, suddenly remembering that she'd possibly forgotten to tell Luke about being kidnapped, oops. "And yeah, I get it. But...she can't just do this to people! This is like hell god behavior!"

Luke glanced around the room. "It's not exactly a public conversation," he murmured. "Let's just say my birthday sucked beyond the telling of it and move on."

He frowned. "Hell god?"

"Total skank with bad hair and a lopsided butt," Dawn shrugged, "Basically, she wanted to kill me so she could get home. Things...happened, and it didn't work out so well for her."

Luke's eyes went wide. "I'm not a fan of the 'killing Dawn' plan in anything," he agreed quietly. "She won't be coming back?"

Because that would really just add to the August of suck.

"Uh, no, I don't think so," Dawn couldn't be sure, because hi, Jenny Calendar had died and been here once upon a time, too. "And I can't say it's my favorite plan of attack either. There's an extended version, but I'll have to tell you later."

"I'd say 'looking forward to it,'" Luke began, "but I think 'I'll bring the onion dip' might be more appropriate. Rikku's been talking pajama party. It sounds a little girly for me, but I'll suck it up."

"We bought you totally masculine pajamas," Dawn promised him. "You'll be fine, and ignore Sam if he sulks at you."

"Sam knows you bought me pajamas?" Luke squeaked.

Re: During the endless lecture [AEA]

lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com - 2007-08-11 22:42 (UTC) - Expand

tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com - 2007-08-11 22:44 (UTC) - Expand

lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com - 2007-08-11 22:52 (UTC) - Expand

tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com - 2007-08-11 22:54 (UTC) - Expand

lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com - 2007-08-11 23:11 (UTC) - Expand

tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com - 2007-08-11 23:16 (UTC) - Expand

lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com - 2007-08-12 05:44 (UTC) - Expand

tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com - 2007-08-12 06:37 (UTC) - Expand

lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com - 2007-08-12 06:38 (UTC) - Expand

tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com - 2007-08-12 06:39 (UTC) - Expand

lilpunkinbelly.livejournal.com - 2007-08-12 06:41 (UTC) - Expand

tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com - 2007-08-12 06:43 (UTC) - Expand

Charlie was trying to make a list of goals, when Harriet mentioned that.

1. Get Umbridge to leave.
By
1. Making her miserable enough to quit
2. Tricking her? Making her think there's a better opportunity elsewhere?
3. Getting her arrested for abuse (Magic hard to prove, not impossible...)
4. Convince the Board she's bad at her job