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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"Who said anything about assassination?" Because while she had been talking about it, she'd said 'execution'. And sometimes Triela resorted to pedantry in debates.

"Executioners tend to work in groups, at least in my galaxy," he said, "so no one knows for sure that they killed the person. You seem sure."

"Oh, yeah, well that's because I pay attention to who I shoot." And because she was really more assassin than executioner.

Anakin was not buying what she was selling. "Uh huh."

"But my point," Triela tried to get back onto verbal footing that she had the advantage on. "Is that sometimes you're 'justified' in killing people, right?" Whatever 'justified' was supposed to mean. "But even then you don't want to be killed yourself."

"'He was asking for it' isn't justification," Anakin replied, "at least for me. And it's a little hard to argue self-defense when you go in with weapons and intent to do harm."

"But that still doesn't change the fact that even when you are justified you're doing something to someone that you wouldn't want them to do to you, right?" Yep. That's pedantry.

"I prefer remaining unmaimed, generally," Anakin replied dryly.

"But you've maimed people before." She didn't make it a question. "Doesn't that violate the stupid rule?"

"They always tried to hurt me first," Anakin said. "I was just better."

"Same here." Well... about the being better part. Though part of being better to Triela was shooting first...

"But you still broke the rule, right? Which is why it's dumb."

"I didn't break the rule," Anakin said, voice getting a little testy. "I used my skills for defense. I'm not going to get shot at just to prove my moral supremacy."

Triela snorted in disbelief. "'Do unto others as you would have done unto you'," Triela quoted. "Even when it's self-defense, killing someone isn't something you'd want done to you, I bet."

"They did unto me first," Anakin said with a shrug.

"Right. So maybe the rule works if you add that part," she suggested sarcastically.

"Watch your tone," Anakin replied sharply.

Triela just rolled her eyes and snorted in response to that.

Someone has a poor sense of self-preservation.

Anakin gave her a look that had been known to make Padawans step back.

And cry.

The Agency didn't like its weapons panicking, so Triela didn't really have a 'flight' response anymore. But even she felt a tiny twinge of worry at that expression.

Unfortunately she also had only one real response to worry, and that was to ignore it. So she just tilted her chin up insolently. "Yes?"

"Are you looking for detention?" he demanded.

"No." She probably should have left it at that, but...

"Do I look like I am?"

You could practically hear ominous music cue up.

"Yes."

"Well I'm not." She probably should have tried to sound more contrite or something. But she didn't.

There was a reason Anakin never taught about turning the other cheek.

"Detention," he snapped.

Triela blinked. Then rolled her eyes.

"Fine," she eventually answered sarcastically.

Then, like an idiot, she added. "But I'm still right."

Re: Answer discussion question #1 [2/10]

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