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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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."

She made a face at that. "Ugh. I mean, I don't have a load compared to a lot of people?" Most of it was plants or clothing, really. "But I can't imagine having nothing."

Ino chewed on her lip for a moment. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Anakin replied immediately.

"Is there, like... a way for someone to put a barrier up in someone else's head to keep people from getting in? If that someone isn't strong enough to keep out the one they don't want in there, yet?"

She fidgeted.

Anakin nodded, focusing on her eyes. "There is."

More fidgeting.

"I, um, don't suppose you could do it to me?"

"I could," Anakin said quietly, "but I'd like to know why."

"Because Cable-san goes through my walls like water whether I want him to or not," she blurted, flushing. "And he doesn't seem to care if I don't want him to know something, and it's not, I mean, him finding out personal stuff is one thing, but him getting mission details could get me in a lot of trouble back home and I can't keep him out all on my own."

Anakin's eyebrows went way, way up. "He's just poking around in there?"

That was not an especially happy Jedi, no.

"He answers questions that I don't ever ask out-loud, when I'm not planning to ask them," she admitted. "And he's commented on things I'm thinking just, like, casually, when he's leaving the room with a coffee or something."

Anakin had certainly done that himself. "And you think he's going to look for operational information?"

"Cable-san's always been interested in how my world works," she said, "he doesn't like the way it does, and he's always looking for more information."

Anakin nodded thoughtfully. "So how about we just block that part off?" he said. "I can augment your natural shielding, at least until you get strong enough to do it yourself."

"Can you?" she asked hopefully. "I mean, I know you're really strong, but I know he's really strong and I've no idea how that sort of thing is judged at all..."

Just that she was utterly and completely out-classed.

~~It will be a Marty-Stu off!~~ "It'll be at least strong enough to let him know he's not welcome," Anakin replied.

Re: Talk to Anakin [2/10] - NFB PLZ

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