fandomhigh | The Art of War, Week #9 [Period 3, Monday]

When the students came in this week, there was a passage from the eighth p'ien written on the chalk board.

There are roads which must not be followed,
armies which must be not attacked, towns which must
be besieged, positions which must not be contested,
commands of the sovereign which must not be obeyed.

"Sometimes, we must allow the distasteful thing to happen to make way for a greater victory." Ghanima was leaning against the wall, watching them from behind her glowing eyes. "Sacrifices must be made. This is most easily seen in war; sacking an innocent town for supplies, or killing civilians to prevent your position from being discovered."

"However, it doesn't just apply to physical combat." She pushed off the wall to pace between the rows of desks, looking at each of them. "What do you do when your boss, or 'sovereign' tells you to lie about something that happened at work? Or if reporting a crime implicates someone dear to you? Today, we discuss those choices, and how we know which battles must be fought, and which ones we must let pass us by. Sometimes it is a matter of personal conscience, while other times it is the good of one against well-being of the many."

[OOC: You know the drill, ~~wait for~~ the OCD ~~if you please~~ is ready. Go debate!]

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With the lesser of two evils.

Take notes, pass notes, try not to get caught.

"I've broken you into two groups," Ghanima said briskly. "Adam Park, Edmund Pevensie, Reno, Ronan Nolan, Savannah Levine, Ella of Frell, Tahiri Veila, Teyla Emmagan, Eve Levine & Harvey Dent, you are group one. Alice Liddell, Ben Skywalker, Susan Pevensie, Agnes Nitt, Liir Thropp, Myn Donos, Jo Harvelle, Lee Adama, Ino Yamanaka, Jania Solo & Tony Foster compose group two. I'd like the groups to meet, and discuss the scenario I've laid out for you. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask."

Group Members: Adam Park, Edmund Pevensie, Reno, Ronan Nolan, Savannah Levine, Ella of Frell, Tahiri Veila, Teyla Emmagan, Eve Levine & Harvey Dent.

Question: A roving batch of bullies is picking on a homeless man. However, if you stop and intervene, you'll miss the train and be late to work. Normally, this would not be an issue, but today you are closing a merger worth thousands of jobs. If you're late, the deal falls through. Calling law enforcement is not an option, either you directly intervene, or you do not. What do you do? Why?

Group Members: Alice Liddell, Ben Skywalker, Susan Pevensie, Agnes Nitt, Liir Thropp, Myn Donos, Jo Harvelle, Lee Adama, Ino Yamanaka, Jania Solo & Tony Foster.

Question: A sovereign of a neighboring kingdom is weak and under attack. They call upon you for aid, but your spies report that your lands are next on the invading army's list. Do you go to their aid, half-prepared, or do you let them fall to buy time to save yourselves?

If he's around

She's here, both before and after class.

Something has to wrap up the OCD! If I left you out of a group, I apologize in advance. Poke me here, or over gchat or AIM, and I will assign you one.

Yamanaka Ino

"Let them fall," she said, leaning back in her chair. "But... have a bit of an open border policy--let refugees in, maybe evacuate as many civilians as possible."

Jaina Solo

This was a subject Jaina knew well. She tried to focus on that rather than the fact that Ben still wasn't back yet.

"I'd personally want to go to their aid first," Jaina admitted. "But if that's not possible, maybe there is a way to combine forces that way. We take who we can- refugees, civilians, soldiers, whatever- in exchange for help in our own fight."

"How much can be done also depends pretty heavily on what sort of terrain, and what sort of troops we've got," she admitted. "It's hard to decide how much help could be committed that way."

Adam Park

Adam listened to the lecture intently. Funny how some of what Ghanima said, hit home for him.

Ella of Frell

Adam knew that was a hard choice to make. But, he had to go with his first instinct. "It's a tough decision, with what's at stake, but I'd have to intervene. If I didn't, I know I'd regret it later."

Not helping the homeless man went against every thing Adam had been taught and believed in. It went against who he was.

"I wonder what kind of weapon I have," Ella speculated. "Of course I would want to stop and help, and I think one should, but you have to look at the risk to yourself physically."

"Yeah," she agreed. "If we had the numbers, I think it'd be much easier to go to the neighboring land to try to help and maybe take the enemy out before they get to us. If we don't have the troops, though, it'd probably be better to stay put."

And Jaina was a big liar who'd go to help out anyway when it came down to it.

Lee Adama

Harvey Dent

Tahiri Veila

She didn't have quite as much personal experience with it as Jaina did, but Tahiri was familiar with the subject as well; she was, however, more distractable by Ben's absence, though her expression might be easy to mistake for discomfort at the lecture.

"Ghanima-sensei," Ino said, right before class. "Liir won't be in today 'cause he turned into a kitten."

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The Art of War, Week #9 [Period 3, Monday]

Sign-In #9

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Class Activity: Group Discussion

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Talk to Ghanima

OOC

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