fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, January 26, 2nd period]

When the students came into the classroom, they found Anakin scrawling a quote on the board:

“In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.”--John Ruskin

He turned around with an eyebrow raised. "Is Master Ruskin correct? How about Master Lao Tzu? He said: 'Pride attaches undue importance to the superiority of one's status in the eyes of others; and shame is fear of humiliation at one's inferior status in the estimation of others. When one sets his heart on being highly esteemed, and achieves such rating, then he is automatically involved in fear of losing his status.'"

He began pacing around the room. "Does pride always go before a fall? Do we have to be humiliated before we can learn? How high do the stakes have to be before we'll admit we've made a mistake, or have been fooled?"

"In order to deal ethically with other people, we need to acknowledge this very human flaw in ourselves and others. We want to believe that we are different, better than everyone around us." His gaze sharpened. "We're not. Everything is connected. You, me, the desks, the rocks outside, the deer in the preserve, the annoying person in the dorm who plays their music too loudly. Take pride in being yourself, certainly," he concluded. "But don't for a moment believe that who you are makes you more than the person sitting next to you. Because that kind of pride is where you make your first mistake."

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"Depends on the lesson," she muttered.

"How so?" Anakin replied.

She shrugged. "It just does--I didn't need to lose my pride to learn how to help my parents out around the shop, how to manage it, how to open it and deal with customers who think I've the intelligence of a flea. And that's a lesson too. You learn something."

Ino hesitated, then added, "but humiliation does, uh, seem to be a good way to get things through my head for things that affect other people too."

"Maybe it's most effective in driving home lessons we don't particularly want to learn, then," Anakin suggested. "Or to make sure we start taking into account people who aren't us."

She bit her lip. "I don't think it's that we don't want to learn--a lot of my difficulties are things I know of, and work on, but it's more that... they're almost contrary to the base 'personality'? So it takes being humiliated before the lesson becomes something that you're less resistant to learning?"

Ino had no idea. She was... just talking.

"Is there a lesson you find yourself relearning a lot?" Anakin asked.

"What my limits are," she said. "Where I currently sit in terms of skill. I tend to over-estimate my ability, and then have to relearn where I am."

"A tough lesson to learn," Anakin agreed. "No one ever aims for middle management."

"And no one likes learning that their skills aren't ever going to be equal across the board--everyone has their own areas, and trying to learn other things is good, but you've still got to... know where your talents are and use that."

Anakin nodded. "I will never become a galaxy-renowned chef, for instance."

"But you can probably cook well enough to not starve, right?" she asked. "I don't like learning things like that."

"Learning skills you will merely be adequate at?" Anakin replied.

"No, learning that I'll only be adequate at them. The skills themselves I don't mind."

Anakin smiled. "The universe provides balance. We can't be good at everything."

"Doesn't mean a girl can't try," she said stubbornly.

"Then you're going to be doomed to a lot of disappointment," Anakin warned.

"No kidding," she said dryly. "But life would be really boring if I just stuck with what I was really good at."

Ethics [Tuesday, January 26, 2nd period]

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