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

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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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He's smiling and everything. Creepy.

"Master Skywalker," Ino chirped, her wee mental walls drawn as tight as they'd go. "I want to apologize for missing class last week."

Anakin noted the walls but didn't mention them aloud. "Where were you?" he asked.

"Back home," she said, arms behind her back loosely clasped. "Got the notification at the last minute and didn't have time to call."

And, well, she hadn't known how long it'd be.

"What were you doing back home?" he asked.

If it was vacation-y, he was going to be displeased.

"Mission," she said, with a bob of her head. "I got pulled back onto active duty."

"Did it end successfully?" he asked.

Another bob of her head, this one a bit bouncier. "It was accomplished well," she said.

"What were you doing?" he replied, leaning back against the desk.

"Not really supposed to say," she admitted, shuffling her feet. "Confidentiality and stuff, but it wasn't anything bad."

There was the reason her walls were as up as she could make them.

"I understand mission security," he assured her. "What did you learn from it, then?"

"Learn from it..." she contemplated that for a moment, "that people are way too materialistic and that they don't really need all that much to get by."

Deep thinker, she was not.

Anakin was fine with the answer anyway. Jedi debriefs after missions weren't just about tactics, after all. There was always a lesson, too.

"Jedi were forbidden from having possessions at all," he said. "Everything we had belonged to the Temple."

Re: Talk to Anakin [2/10]

intraspective - 2009-02-10 17:31 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Talk to Anakin [2/10]

sith_happened - 2009-02-10 17:33 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Talk to Anakin [2/10]

intraspective - 2009-02-10 17:35 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Talk to Anakin [2/10]

sith_happened - 2009-02-10 17:39 (UTC) - Expand