fandomhigh | Applied Ethics A: First period [10.08]

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.]

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She smiled at Luke. "Why do people do things like this? I don't understand."

He shrugged. "Power becomes all-consuming," he said. "It happened at home for me, too. The rules were slightly less stupid, but the malice behind it was the same."

She tilted her head. "I think this lady is worse than Nottingham... and has less fashion sense. I know what we would do back home... but what would you do?"

"I asked her to stop yesterday when she called me into her office," Luke said, moving his hand up to touch his arm. "She wasn't exactly open to suggestions."

Gwynn stared at him and then drew herself up. "She harmed you?" She frowned. People were not allowed to harm the students. "I suppose that I would get in trouble for using my bow on her?"

"It came as a bit of a surprise to me too," Luke said dryly. "And yes, you would. I think she's gone a bit crazy on us."

Gwynn looked at him in concern. "You will be alright, yes?" She sighed. "I can deal with crazy. Prince John is crazy. But after hearing what she did to Tori and others, and now you, it makes me want to do something to show her she can't treat us like this."

"I'll be fine," Luke said, waving it off. "And I'm all in favor of big demonstrations, but they have to be effective. She already views us as more than a little dim-witted."

Gwynn opened her notebook. "Well, there are a lot of students who like showing off for each other and standing up for each other. What if they could be organized into doing this more effectively?"

Luke was quiet for a while. "That would work," he decided. "But I think there's a line between taking a stand and trying to impress people. And there needs to be allowances made for students who might not want to get involved. Jude's hug-out yesterday was good. I think a 'everyone demonstrate your skills with guns' day might be a terrible, terrible idea."

Gwynn looked at him. "If it was something that we said everyone had to be involved in, then we would be no better than she is. We don't want to be like her." She bit her lip. "I will be honest. If it wasn't for the fact that she is hurting people, I would have never thought about getting involved in anything like this. I would have ignored what she said and continued to do my own thing. But, she's hurting people, and one of those people she hurt is my friend."

"But there's differences in hurt," Luke argued quietly. "Tori and I have been together for months now and having your ears do something you're not controlling isn't fun, but it's not going to leave scars."

Luke was making sense and speaking to her sense of justice and Gwynn worried her bottom lip. "I know, but what about the others that she has physically hurt... or will hurt? Everytime I hear someone get called to her office, I can only wonder what she's going to do to them. How do you fight that without sinking to her level?" This was entirely a new villain for Gwynn. "Back home, Phillip put John in prison for his crimes against the people... but there isn't anyone here that has her level of authority. She thinks that all of us are beneath her and that she can do anything she wants."

"You stand up and say stop," Luke said quietly. "And then you do it again. My sister's planet was blown up because she said 'this is wrong and I won't stand for it'. You don't compromise. You go into the situation fully expecting to get smacked around a bit and you don't whine about it when it happens." He looked down at his hand. "And then you do it again. And again. And again."

He shrugged. "Eventually it works."

The idea that someone's entire planet was blown up because she stood up for the right thing threw her. She hadn't thought something like that was possible.

She thought about this and then looked at him. "And you leave your weapons behind when you do so?"

"If I have to," Luke said. "I can come up with a weapon if I need it."

"Then... we need to come up with a way to make her stop when the people who live here say stop. What she is doing is wrong."

Luke had given her something to think about... and an idea of what to do.

Luke nodded. "She doesn't seem to care," he said, "and somehow I don't see her embracing the idea of democracy any time soon."

He tilted his head at her. "You're thinking of something."

She blinked at him. "How did you... well, yes, yes I am. Oh, it doesn't include weapons," she said hurriedly. "But... well, what if someone were to try being overly nice and friendly to her? I mean, no matter what she says or does, just continue to be so nice and sweet she is off-center?"

The fact that Gwynn had yet to meet the woman is probably why she thinks it might be possible not to lose her temper with her.

Luke gave her a rueful smile. "It's worth a shot, I guess. I mean, if she calls your name on the announcements. I wouldn't be showing up with a fruit basket or anything."

"What if I do not wait to be called in? What if I just show up to make pleasant conversation with her?"

"Then I think she's not going to be that pleasant," Luke said flatly.

"So making the first overture is a bad plan?"

Diplomacy wasn't really her best skill. Shooting the bad guys in the arse with arrows, she knew how to do that. Diplomacy... well, she tried.

"Then.. then I guess I must do something to draw her attention if I am going to destroy the evil with kindness."

She looked thoughtful.

Luke's eyebrows drew together. "I'm not sure trying to get caught is the smartest plan, either..."

Gwynn let out a breath. "Have I mentioned that I am really very bad at things like this?"

Applied Ethics A: First period [10.08]

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