fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, September 6]

Anakin walked into his classroom precisely on time and gave the students assembled there an appraising glance.

It wasn't possible to tell what he thought of them.

"I'm Master Skywalker," he said in a voice that was intended to carry, "this is Ethics, and we're going to skip the introductions--I'll figure out who you are--and move straight to our first discussion."

He paced around the room, cloak flaring out behind him, as he handed out the syllabus. "Today's topic," he said. "Self sacrifice: knowing the difference between saving people and being a pretentious twit."

"Any time I ask a a group of people what they would do to save someone they love, they all blither on about how they would set the world on fire, lie, cheat, steal, kill, die, et cetera, et cetera. I've been at this school too long to believe that half of you haven't already been put into this situation and I'm in no mood to hear adolescent ramblings about how wonderful you were or might hypothetically be. We're going to ground it in reality.

"A month ago there was a woman who was in charge of this school. She had been placed in power legitimately, was allowed to punish in accordance with that power, and began pushing the boundaries of her authority almost immediately. She called students to her office, punished them for slights genuine or imagined, and began escalating the severity and frequency of her punishments, going over the line into what was no longer acceptable."

Anakin crossed his arms over his chest, the scar across his face very evident in the light coming through the window. "It eventually took a team of highly qualified adults to take her out. Today's topic: when do you draw the line? When do you admit to yourself that a problem cannot be solved, that to sacrifice yourself isn't a statement, it's merely pointless? How long does it take for you to check your ego?"

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"There's always a solution to the problem," Qui-Gon said. "But sometimes the solution is to back off and live to solve it another day. You have to put aside emotion and try and look at the situation objectively. Sacrificing yourself in a hopeless situation can feel brave and noble and satisfying, but it just leaves the problem for someone else to deal with. Also you won't be around to deal with the next problem that crops up. So it wouldn't just be your life you were sacrificing, but all those you could've saved in the future."

"First rule of Jedi combat: survive," Anakin said, nodding, "but the records are full of Jedi who didn't heed that. Do you believe our penchant for heroic self-sacrifice is noble or counterproductive?"

"I think each situation is unique and has to be looked at as such," Qui-Gon said. "There's no rote answer that's going to always be right. In some cases, Jedi sacrificing themselves was noble. In others, it's proof that even being a Jedi doesn't mean you can't be an idiot."

Anakin had a long internal list of Jedi who qualified as idiots, but he wasn't going to share them.

"Good, Padawan," he said instead, smiling.

Ethics [Thursday, September 6]

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