fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, February 10, 2nd period]

Anakin was in a very good mood this morning. Something about seeing old friends and a wife's ex-boyfriend transformed into a girl had cheered him right up.

"Today we talk about something called the Golden Rule, a concept which unites many separate religions on this planet," he began, leaning against his desk and stared around the classroom. "It sounds altruistic: 'do unto others as you would have done unto you', but there's a couple of logical flaws in it. What if you don't mind getting poked in the stomach? Does it follow that you could wander around aimlessly poking people? What if you don't see what's wrong with stealing? Or killing? Or hating entire groups of people on principle? If the practical application is supposed to be you randomly help people because they could be good, wouldn't the opposite be that you could randomly harm people because they might be evil?"

He shrugged. "I suppose the Golden Rule could be broken down to 'be nice to people, and they'll be nice to you' but out here in the real world, we all know it doesn't exactly work like that, and the concept could also be reinterpreted as 'it doesn't bother me, so why does it bother you?' Is this a case of aiming for an ideal and hoping that it will cause a ripple effect of positive things, or something overly simplistic that taken to its logical extreme renders itself useless? Has seeing it on everything from coffee mugs to tea towels made the very idea of it trite, or does it still have a place in the mind of someone trying to lead an ethical life?"

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Does putting something on a mug make it meaningful or waaaay overused?

"I think it means that someone is just trying to make money off a catchphrase," Dor said with a shrug. "Doesn't make it less true."

"Yeah, I agree," Hurley said. "I mean, if people can make money off it, that just means it, like, resonates with people."

"Not that there's anything with making money off of something," Dor added quickly. "Some might think of it as as promoting an ideal."

"Yeah," Hurley said. "I mean, nobody can fault that guy who sang 'Don't Worry, Be Happy', right?"

...

"...maybe it depends on the phrase? Sometimes repetition works!"

"...It's on coffee mugs?" Brooke asked.

Leto smirked. "Mugs?"

"People put all sorts of moronic nonsense on mugs," Triela nodded with a roll of her eyes.

Leto gave her an amused look. "Oh, they do?"

"I suspect that it's some sort of hobby for people," Triela nodded in confirmation.

"Really?" Leto raised an eyebrow.

"Can you think of any other reason for people to spend their time doing something so useless?" Because, really...

"Money?"

Now he was wondering how many mugs with Muad'Dib quotes the mongers outside the temple would be able to sell in a day.

"Well, I suppose that might motivate people." Triela frowned, "But it seems like there are too many stupid mugs for that to be the only thing behind it."

"I think it just makes it something you want to remember," Joan said. "Like the mug me and my brothers got my dad with our picture."

"Not necessarily," Helen answered, though she couldn't see why anyone would make such a thing. "It could serve as a pleasnt reminder, I suppose."

"Could depend on your feelings about mugs," Peter pointed out.

"People have feelings about mugs?"

"If it was a sacred item versus something you throw away after you're done with your coffee," Peter explained.

"I guess," she said, considering that, "but would people call a sacred item a mug?"

"Everyone's culture is different," Peter pointed out.

"I know that," she said, because duh. "But if we're talking about the standard term for mug, I don't think there's anyone here who'd say they've got a sacred mug. They'd say, like, chalice or goblet or something. Mug is an everyday ordinary word."

"Chalice and goblet used to be everyday words too," Peter pointed out.

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"Why would there need to be axioms on a mug?" Every 'cup' he'd ever seen was just a plain cup, some may have had artistic decorations, but never words. That's just weird.